The 1988 season was marred by injuries to the Browns' quarterbacks. Kosar was injured in the opener against Kansas City Chiefs and two backups were subsequently injured, leaving Don Strock, who the Browns signed as an emergency fill-in, to start before Kosar's return. Kosar came back but was hurt again at the end of the regular season. Despite the rotating cast of quarterbacks, Cleveland managed to finish with a 10–6 record and made the playoffs as a wild-card team. Cleveland met the Houston Oilers in the wild-card playoff round at home, but lost the game 24–23. Four days after the Oilers loss, Schottenheimer and Modell announced that the coach would leave the team by mutual consent. Modell felt hiring an offensive coordinator was necessary to keep pace with the Oilers and the Bengals, a pair of divisional opponents then on the rise, but Schottenheimer said it "became evident that some of the differences we had, we weren't going to be able to resolve." Modell named Bud Carson as his replacement.