Going into the fourth quarter of this matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Inexperienced Bay Packers, the tone of this text was trending in a much more detrimental route. However behind one other masterful efficiency by Jim Schwartz’s protection, and a redemption story for Andre Szmyt, the Browns come away with their first win of the 2025 season.
Cleveland presently has one of the best rush protection within the NFL. Josh Jacobs was bottled as much as solely 30 yards on 16 carries as we speak. The defensive position has taken huge steps ahead from final season, and so they might carry this workforce.
The secondary has some fairly obtrusive weaknesses, however their job is made a lot simpler with a defensive position that’s capable of generate 5 sacks in a sport. The Browns nailed their picks with Mason Graham and Carson Schwesinger, and this protection has its swagger again.
The offense, however, nicely, they didn’t lose the sport for Cleveland. Let’s begin with the optimistic. Quinshon Judkins is doing his greatest job to fill a Nick Chubb-sized gap on this speeding sport. He’s working behind one of many worst offensive strains in all of soccer, however he runs so extremely onerous.
He has a particular first step, and runs like his life is dependent upon it, and was the one cause this offense was capable of muster any factors in any respect on this one.
Joe Flacco’s passing sport is beginning to make Dillon Gabriel murmurs develop louder. I already harped on how foul the offensive line is, however the receivers are simply as large a difficulty. It’s not a pleasant state of affairs for any quarterback to return into, however we all know what we’ve received with Flacco. He’s seeing the sector fairly slowly, a whole statue within the backfield, and his decision-making is simply too hit and miss.
Beating the Packers, who many thought have been one of the best workforce in soccer earlier than this sport, doesn’t change the truth that the Browns have quite a lot of work to turn into a playoff workforce. I don’t need to see any extra of a 40-year-old quarterback; let’s see what Gabriel can do.
In fact, the star of the sport was Szmyt. After every week one sport in opposition to the Bengals the place he virtually single-handedly misplaced the sport, he single-handedly received this one for the offense as we speak. Szmyt burying a 55-yard game-winner is exactly what makes the NFL so nice. It’s a season of ebbs and flows, so Stefanski trusting Szmyt, and never letting the second be too large for him, may need saved the Browns’ season.
It doesn’t get any simpler for Cleveland with a visit lined up for Detroit subsequent week, and people Lions may be trying to get revenge for a Tigers workforce presently feeling the warmth from Cleveland’s baseball workforce.
