Today we begin a 100-day countdown to the Cleveland Browns open up the 2014 season on the road. Over the next 100 days, we're highlighting the top 10 Browns season opener games beginning with September 12, 2004:
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Browns 20, Baltimore Ravens 3
Cleveland Browns Stadium (73,068)
Galen Fiss, Johnny Brewer and Frank Ryan during the halftime tribute to the 1964 Championship team
Jeff Garcia beats the Ravens with his arm and legs in his quarterback debut with the Browns
Jeff Garcia scores on a 3 yard Touchdown run
Kenard Lang getting his first of three sacks on the day
Quincy Morgan on his way to a 46 yard touchdown
Robert Griffith and the Browns defense shutting down Jamal Lewis
Team captains Jeff Garcia, Ryan Tucker, Orpheus Roye, Phil Dawson and Andra Davis
With members of the 1964 world-title team on hand for a fortieth-anniversary commemoration ceremony before the game, the Browns dominated the physical Ravens in the second half to atone for two embarrassing defeats the year before and won a season opener for the first time since their return. With the game tied 3-3 late in the third quarter, QB Jeff Garcia, making his Cleveland debut, lofted a 46-yard touchdown pass to WR Quincy Morgan to give the Browns a lead they would not relinquish. The defense took it from there, holding Baltimore RB Jamal Lewis, who had torched the Browns for better than 600 yards rushing in two games the previous season, to just 57 yards on 20 carries. The Browns also picked off two passes in the final period to extinguish any Baltimore comeback hopes, while DE Kenard Lang collected a trio of sacks. Garcia put the game away with an athletic three-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes to play, capping a near-perfect performance on a sunshiny September afternoon.
1 2 3 4
Ravens 0 0 3 0 = 3
Browns 0 3 7 10 = 20
CLE-Dawson 37-yd. FG
BAL-Stover 42-yd. FG
CLE-Morgan 46-yd. pass from Garcia (Dawson kick)
CLE-Dawson 25-yd. FG
CLE-Garcia 3-yd. run (Dawson kick)
Passing
BAL: Boller 22-38-191 0 TD 2 INT
CLE: Garcia 15-24-180 1 TD 0 INT
Rushing
BAL: Lewis 20-57, Boller 2-16, C.Taylor 3-14, Ricard 1-1
CLE: Green 22-65, Garcia 3-13, J.Jackson 4-7
Receiving
BAL: Heap 9-86, Johnson 5-43, Hymes 5-39, Wilcox 2-18, T.Taylor 1-5
CLE: Davis 1-51, Morgan 1-46, Winslow 4-39, Green 4-27, Northcutt 3-12, J.Jackson 2-5
Text reproduced from The Browns Bible:The Complete Game-By-Game History of the Cleveland Browns by Jonathan Knight, The Kent State University Press
