Thoughts on Week 3 (2025): Green Bay Packers at Cleveland Browns

At least there is no pressure on the Green Bay Packers to remain unbeaten in the 2025 season. On a serious note, the 13-10 loss on Sunday that the Packers suffered at the hands of the (previously) winless Cleveland Browns was inexcusable. Entering this game, the Packers had 10 days rest after winning on Thursday September 11th against the Commanders. They had the lead for the majority of the game against the Browns (who were wearing their all-brown uniforms) until they blew it at the end. Let’s get this over with.

The Packers started this game on the defensive side of the ball. They did give up a couple of first downs on the drive, but they were able to keep Cleveland from scoring any points on their first drive. The punter, who was former Packer Corey Bojorquez, punted the ball into the end zone for a touchback, giving Green Bay the ball at their own 20 yard line. Unfortunately, the Packers went three and out on their first offensive drive, which included a sack of Jordan Love on second and 2 from the Green Bay 28. It did not help matters that Zach Tom, who tried to play even with the oblique injury, aggravated that injury on the first play. Because of that, Jordan Morgan took his spot at right tackle. The punt by Daniel Whelan was fair caught at the Cleveland 21 yard line. The Browns suffered a holding penalty on their first play of the drive, setting up a first and 20 at the 11 yard line. 2 plays later, Joe Flacco completed a pass to Isaiah Bond that set up a third and 4 at the 27 yard line. On the next play, Flacco had to throw incomplete to avoid a sack. The Packers then took possession at their own 36 yard line after the punt by Bojorquez. They were able to move the ball down the field during a drive that lasted nearly 7 and a half minutes. A lot of the yards covered in the drive were tough thanks to the Browns defense, who entered this game number one against the run. They were able to get all the way to the Cleveland 16 yard line before the drive stalled. On what was supposed to be a third and 4, Jordan Morgan was called for a false start penalty that backed the Packers up 5 yards. Then, Love threw incomplete to Dontayvion Wicks on third and 9 (deflected by Denzel Ward), forcing the Packers to settle for a 39 yard field goal, The kick by Brandon McManus was good, giving Green Bay a 3-0 lead a few seconds into the second quarter. After the ensuing kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback, the Browns started their next drive at their own 35 yard line. They were able to get to the Green Bay 45 yard line, but the Packers defense was able to force a punt. On third and 7, following an offsetting penalties situation, Rashan Gary sacked Joe Flacco for a loss of 7 yards, setting up a fourth and 12 at the Cleveland 48. Matthew Golden caught the punt and ran it 5 yards to the Green Bay 12 yard line. Early on in the ensuing drive, it looked like the Packers had to go three and out after Love was sacked for an 11 yard loss. However, Matt LaFleur threw the challenge flag after the play. The reason was because he thought that the Browns had 12 men on the field. After reviewing, the Packers were given a free first down thanks to the 12 men penalty on the Browns. After that, the drive continued as the Packers were taking a lot of time off the game clock. Once they got to the Cleveland 38 yard line, things fell apart. A combination of penalties and sacks forced the Packers to punt the ball away after a drive that lasted nearly 9 minutes. Thankfully, the defense was able to get a turnover when Xavier McKinney intercepted a deep pass attempt by Joe Flacco that looked like a beautiful arm punt. That interception sealed the 3-0 halftime lead for Green Bay.

The Packers got the ball to start the second half. Instead of them scoring on the drive, they suffered a three and out thanks to a false start penalty on Jordan Morgan and a sack of Jordan Love. After the punt by Daniel Whelan, the Browns took over at their own 29 yard line. What ended up happening was a three and out of their own thanks to a sack of Joe Flacco by Rashan Gary on third and 8 from the 31 yard line. The punt by Corey Bojorquez went out of bounds at the Green Bay 29. From there, the Packers started their next drive. It looked ugly at first due to an illegible man downfield penalty that forced the Packers to have a second and 18 from the 21 yard line. On that long second down, Love found Josh Jacobs for a short pass that Jacobs took 31 yards to the Cleveland 48. After that chunk play, the Packers were able to get the ball into scoring range. During this drive, Rasheed Walker had to get his helmet fixed on the sideline. Thankfully, it got fixed and he got back on the field. The drive ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass that was set up by a catch and run by Dontayvion Wicks that set up first and goal at the 3. That TD catch was the first of John FitzPatrick’s career, which was a nice moment. The extra point was good, increasing the Packers’ lead to 10-0 with a couple of minutes left in the third quarter. After the kickoff return, Cleveland’s offense started their next drive at their own 26 yard line. After a catch by David Njoku gave the Browns a first down, the Browns did not get another first down in the drive and punted back to Green Bay. The punt went into the end zone for a touchback. Normally, on punts that go into the end zone for a touchback, the offense would get the ball at the 20. However, the Packers got the ball at the 35 yard line thanks to an unnecessary roughness penalty. Even with that advantage, the Packers did nothing with the opportunity. Rather than allow the clock to run down to the end of the third quarter, Love took the snap on third and 3 and ran to his right looking for someone deep. Rather than throw the ball away, he took an 11 yard sack that forced the Packers to punt the ball away to start the fourth quarter. Once again, the Packers defense did not allow the Browns to score as more boos rained down on them. Rather than take the ball, the Packers punt return team allowed the ensuing punt to be downed at the Green Bay 2 yard line. The Packers were able to get out of that situation with a 34-yard pass completion from Love to Matthew Golden that should have been a touchdown. Instead, Golden’s momentum took him out of bounds at the Green Bay 38 yard line. After that big play, the Packers did nothing and punted the ball back to Cleveland with less than 9 and a half minutes left in the game. Starting from their own 20, the Browns were able to go down the field on a long drive and score some points. Rookie running back Quinshon Judkins took just two runs to get to the Green Bay 28 yard line. Later in the drive, after the Browns got into a goal line situation, CB Javon Bullard had a scary moment where he laid unconscious for a bit. Thankfully, he was able to walk back to the sideline under his own power. Even after the Packers were victims of two baloney penalties (I’m saying baloney in substitute of other words), they were still able to force Cleveland to settle for a field goal. What messed up the Browns’ chances of scoring a touchdown were a chop block penalty and a couple of passes that basically went nowhere. The field goal by Andre Szmyt was good from 35 yards out, cutting the lead to 10-3 with a little over 3 and a half minutes left in the game. For the Packers offense, who started their next drive at their own 18 due to a holding penalty on the kick return, all they needed to do to seal the win was get a couple of first downs. Instead, what happened was a disastrous interception by Jordan Love that was nearly brought back for a touchdown. The pick by Grant Delpit gave the Browns offense a first and goal at the 4 yard line. The Browns took advantage of this by tying the game at 10-10 with a 1-yard touchdown run by Judkins and the extra point kick by Szmyt. The ensuing kickoff return by Savion Williams put the Packers in great field position at their own 40 yard line. The Packers got a free first down at the Cleveland 40 thanks to a pass interference penalty on Cleveland.  After that penalty, Tucker Kraft caught a pass that gave the Packers another first down at the 22 yard line. After that, the Packers just played for the field goal. During that situation, there was a long replay review about a potential fumble recovery. After what seemed to take forever, the officials ruled that the ball was Green Bay’s. With that replay review done and over with, the Packers continued on with trying to bleed the clock as much as possible. What dud not help was yet another false start penalty, which was called on Rasheed Walker. With 27 seconds left, the Packers got their field goal unit set up for a 43 yard field goal attempt to potentially take a 13-10 lead. The field goal was blocked by Shelby Harris, giving the Browns an opportunity to steal the win. A couple of plays later, the Browns got into field goal range and were able to spike the ball with 2 seconds left. The kick by Szmyt was good from 55 yards out, giving Cleveland a 13-10 win at home in front of the Dawg Pound. With the stunning loss, the Packers are now 2-1 on the season.

(Here are the “lowlights” of the game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. If you’re curious, click on “Watch on YouTube”)

To change things up a bit, I’ll focus on the defense first. I gotta give kudos to Jeff Hafley’s unit for playing well against the Browns offense pretty much all game until the end. Even in times where the offense was stumbling over itself, the defense was still able to shut them out for nearly all 4 quarters (and make the Browns fans boo their own team in the process). The Packers pass rush only got to Joe Flacco for 2 sacks (both by Rashan Gary), but they were able to pressure him to hurry up some throws. Micah Parsons was able to get a pressure on Flacco to throw an incompletion. The defense held the run game in check other than during the latter part of the fourth quarter. During that latter part of the fourth quarter, the defense was not given any favors due to the offense and special teams blunders, which I will get to shortly. At the end of the day, the Packers played good enough on defense to win this game on Sunday in Cleveland (minus a few offsides penalties). Hopefully Devonte Wyatt and Javon Bullard recover soon from their injuries.

Offensively, the Packers were not very good on Sunday in Cleveland. They could not get the run game going at all. Josh Jacobs only managed to average 1.9 yards per carry. The bummer was that the streak of games wish a rushing TD came to an end as Jacobs did not score at all. Jordan Love was flustered all day by the Browns pass rush (getting sacked 5 times in the process), and he made a few bad decisions with the ball. Right at the end of the third quarter, he should have thrown the ball away rather than take the 11-yard sack. In the fourth quarter, he rushed a throw that had no way of getting to Dontayvion Wicks and was picked off. Love should stop trying to tackle the defender after throwing a pick. That way, he can potentially avoid any catastrophic injuries. The offensive line was not very good as they gave up 5 sacks and had some false start penalties (3 alone called on Jordan Morgan). Rasheed Walker should not have talked about the potential of going unbeaten next time. Speaking of him, he had a false start penalty and had to leave the game briefly to get his helmet fixed. In addition to Zach Tom aggravating his oblique injury on the first play from scrimmage for the Packers offense (he should not have played to begin with), Aaron Banks left with a groin injury later in the game. Those injuries hurt the offense’s ability to play well against a great defensive front. I have to give credit where it’s due to the Browns defense holding down the fort in the Dawg Pound. Despite that, there were still chances to clinch this game. A huge missed opportunity was when Matthew Golden caught a deep pass and then went out of bounds instead of going all the way for a touchdown to potentially seal the game. In the final drive, the Packers played it very safe after getting into field goal range. I kinda understood why they did that, but field goals aren’t a guarantee, even with the best kickers.

Which brings me to the special teams section of this post. There was no excuse at the end of the game (or at any time) to allow a field goal attempt to be blocked. The left side of the line, which had a banged up Tucker Kraft and Jordan Morgan (who had 3 false starts), was penetrated. Due to that collapse in the protection, Shelby Harris of the Browns was able to get the 6th field goal block of his career. After that block, there was an offside penalty on Green Bay during the 55-yard field goal by Andre Szmyt. Even if he had missed that, the penalty would have given him another shot from 50 yards. I give major kudos to Szmyt for making that kick as time expired. At this point, I have seen plenty of special teams blunders over the years. Even after the Packers hired Rich Bisaccia in 2022 to potentially fix them, they haven’t been fixed other than having a great kicker in Brandon McManus, a great punter in Daniel Whelan, and a consistently good long snapper in Matt Orzech. Special Teams better fix a lot of things, and fast, if the Packers want to go far in the playoffs.

Overall, this loss was inexcusable for the Packers. There were a lot of self-inflicted errors, including 14 accepted penalties (could have been 17 if they did not avoid delay of game penalties), a costly interception by Jordan Love, 5 sacks given up by the O-Line, missed scoring opportunities, and a blocked field goal near the end of the game. I’m hoping for the best with the players who got banged up on Sunday. For everyone involved, from coaches to players, they need to get past this game quickly and get ready for a primetime showdown against a 1-2 Dallas Cowboys team that is desperate for a win to save their season. I know that Micah Parsons will be ready for that game, but everyone else needs to be on their A-game from now on. I’ll be back for my recap of the game regardless of the outcome. In the meantime, I wish you all a great week ahead. Go Pack Go.