Trailing 21-3 entering the third quarter, quarterback Bernie Kosar and his star halfback Earnest Byner helped lead the Browns back.

Kosar led another touchdown drive in the fourth quarter that culminated with Webster Slaughter catching a four-yard pass to tie the game at 31.

On second down at the Denver eight-yard line, with the Browns needing five yards for a first down, Kosar handed the ball off to Byner on a trap play.

After the ensuing free kick, the Browns were thwarted on their last drive, when a Kosar Hail Mary pass came up short; the Broncos won, 38–33, and moved on to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Washington Redskins, 42–10.

Castille said: "I was thinking, 'I got burned the last time I tried to bump-and-run [Slaughter]', so instead I stepped back six-to-eight yards before the snap, so I could better see the play unfold.

Dick Enberg, the play-by-play announcer of the broadcast on NBC, noted: "And wasn't it ironic that Denver got the ball back on the two-yard line?

In a January 2010 article, ESPN.com Page 2 writer Bill Simmons used "The Fumble" as an argument for why the Browns should be considered one of the most cursed franchises in sports.

After spending another year with the Browns, he was traded to the Washington Redskins prior to the start of the 1989 season for running back Mike Oliphant.

In that season's Super Bowl XXVI, he caught a touchdown pass in the second quarter, and the Redskins won, giving him the NFL Championship ring he could not win with the Browns.