The Green Bay Packers led 10-0 and were just under 10 minutes away from a 3-0 start when the Cleveland Browns took over at their own 20-yard line in the fourth quarter on Sunday. The next five possessions told the story of a stunning collapse from the NFL’s hottest team entering Week 3 and one of the worst losses of the Matt LaFleur era in Green Bay.
Allowing explosive plays. Never-ending penalties. A crucial turnover. A special teams meltdown. And giving up free yards and a critical completion to set up the game-winner.
Here’s how five drives across 10 minutes turned a 3-0 start into a humbling loss for LaFleur’s Packers on Sunday in Cleveland:
Drive 1: Browns get on the scoreboard
It was closing time for the defense with a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and the Browns 80 yards from the end zone. Instead, the Packers allowed Quinshon Judkins to rip off a 14-yard run and 38-yard run on back-to-back plays to open the drive, and a pair of defensive penalties — two of the 14 committed by the Packers on Sunday — put the Browns on the doorstep. The Packers were fortunate to have a 15-yard penalty push the Browns off the goal line and force Kevin Stefanski to settle for three points. But the drive was meaningful; the Browns got the game to within seven points and gained some much-needed confidence. Game on. And the start of big trouble for the Packers.
Drive 2: Love picked on third down
Even at 10-3, the Packers were in good shape considering how difficult it had been for the Browns to consistently move the football, especially as the clock neared the 3:00 mark. But then Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love made a critical, game-changing error. LaFleur called triple slants to beat man coverage on third down, and Grant Delpit made a huge play, falling off the inside coverage and stepping in front of Love’s throw to Dontayvion Wicks for an interception. He returned the pick inside the 5-yard line. The one thing the Packers had to do was avoid giving the Browns a short field. Love’s turnover instantly revived the Browns’ chances.
Drive 3: Penalty, touchdown
Another penalty — this time pass interference in the end zone when Evan Williams got tangled up with Cedric Tillman — turned 1st-and-goal from the 4-yard line to 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line, and Quinshon Judkins easily powered in on the next play to score the game-tying touchdown. The drive took all of seven seconds. A short field, a penalty, a touchdown. Disaster for the Packers.
Drive 4: Special teams disaster
The Packers responded after the game squared up at 10-10. Savion Williams powered his kickoff return to the 40-yard line, Romeo Doubs drew a 20-yard pass interference penalty and Tucker Kraft rumbled 18 yards down to the Browns 22-yard line. From there, nothing went right. Josh Jacobs nearly lost a fumble. Rasheed Walker had a false start. And when Jacobs was stopped on third down, the Packers brought out Brandon McManus for a 43-yard field goal with 27 seconds left. While in Green Bay, McManus has been nearly automatic from inside 45 yards. A successful field goal taking up 3-4 seconds off the clock (and with the Browns lacking timeouts) would have all but won the game. Instead, McManus’ kick was blocked, and the Browns recovered at the 47-yard line.
Drive 5: Game over
The game didn’t have to be over. The Browns weren’t in reasonable field goal range at the 47-yard line and didn’t have any timeouts. But Micah Parsons went into the neutral zone on first down, giving the Browns five free yards, and Joe Flacco hit David Njoku (beating Evan Williams) for eight yards to the 37-yard line on third down. Flacco then spiked the ball with two seconds left, and Andre Szymt hit the 55-yard game-winner as time expired, completing the Packers’ collapse. Amazingly, the Packers were offside on the field goal, so Szmyt would have had a second chance had he missed.
Overall, the Packers committed eight penalties and were out-gained 83-42 over the final five possesions of the contest. Matt LaFleur’s team had the ball in the fourth quarter with a 10-0 lead and still lost. By win probabilty, the Packers were in the 80-90 percent range for much of the second half. A stunning collapse late cost the Packers a chance to be 3-0 entering next Sunday’s primetime showdown with the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: How the Packers collapsed during a stunning final 10 minutes in loss to Browns
Reporting by Zach Kruse, Packers Wire / Packers Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
