Cleveland had lost the
previous season's NFL title game 34–0 at home, and this time fared little better. The Vikings dominated the game, racking up 381 yards with no turnovers, while Cleveland gained just 268 yards and turned the ball over three times. The Vikings took a lead just four minutes into the first quarter, driving 70 yards for a touchdown in 8 plays. The key play of the drive was a pass from
Joe Kapp to receiver
Gene Washington that was nearly 5 yards short of the mark. Despite the short throw, Washington was able to come back and haul it in for a 33-yard gain to the Browns' 24-yard line. Two plays later,
Dave Osborn's 12-yard run moved the ball to the 7. Then two plays after that,
Bill Brown accidentally slipped and bumped into Kapp while moving up to take a handoff, but Kapp simply kept the ball himself and ran it 7 yards for a touchdown. The situation never improved for Cleveland. The next time Minnesota took possession of the ball, defensive back
Erich Barnes slipped while in one-on-one coverage with Washington, enabling him to catch a pass from Kapp and run to the end zone for a 75-yard touchdown completion. Barnes had been knocked down by linebacker
Jim Houston, his teammate; the score was 14–0 after just over 7 minutes of play. Near the end of the first quarter, Browns running back
Leroy Kelly lost a fumble that was recovered by linebacker
Wally Hilgenberg on the Cleveland 43. Kapp then completed a 12-yard pass to Washington before
Fred Cox finished the drive with a 30-yard field goal, putting the Vikings up 17–0. Later in the second period, Hilgenberg snuffed out a Cleveland scoring threat by intercepting a pass from
Bill Nelsen on the Vikings' 33-yard line. Minnesota subsequently drove 67 yards in 8 plays. Kapp started the drive with a pair of completions to
John Henderson for 17 total yards, while Osborn broke off a 16-yard run and ended up finishing the drive with a 20-yard touchdown burst, giving the Vikings a 24–0 lead with 4:46 left in the first half. Cleveland responded with a drive to the Vikings' 17, but turned the ball over on downs when Nelsen overthrew receiver
Gary Collins in the end zone on 4th and 3. The third quarter was mostly uneventful, with the exception of Fred Cox's 32-yard field goal that gave Minnesota a 27–0 lead after an 11-play, 80-yard drive. The most noteworthy play was a 13-yard scramble by Kapp in which he plowed into 240-pound Browns linebacker
Jim Houston so hard that Houston was knocked out of the game. In the 4th quarter, Cleveland finally got on the board when a diving 18-yard reception by
Paul Warfield (playing his final game in his first stint with the Cleveland Browns; Warfield would be traded to Miami in 1970 and wouldn't return to Cleveland until 1976) set up Nelsen's 3-yard touchdown pass to Collins. There were still 13 minutes on the clock at this point, but there would be no more scoring. The Vikings had a drive to the Cleveland 2-yard line, but decided to let the clock run out instead of go for another score. Kapp completed 7 of 13 passes for 169 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 57 yards and another score. Osborn rushed 18 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. Washington had 120 yards and a touchdown on just 3 receptions. Kelly was the Browns' top rusher with 80 yards, while also catching two passes for 17. Nelsen completed 17 of 33 passes for 181 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. The Browns had trouble on the frozen turf of
Metropolitan Stadium even though many players wore
broomball shoes. ==Scoring summary==