Heartbreak in Regulation for Packers in Cleveland

 By Eric Goska

Packers kicker Brandon McManus
(photos by Eric Goska)

For 60 minutes of game time, the Packers never trailed.

For 60 minutes of game time, the Browns never led.

Yet three hours and three minutes after initiating play, Cleveland – not Green Bay – claimed victory when its kicker, Andre Szmyt, nailed a 55-yard field goal as time expired to secure a 13-10 win.

This was going to be a story focused on Green Bay's pass defense. How it is allowing the fewest yards per completion in the league. How its efforts have been the best by the team in well over 50 years.

And we’ll still do that. But first we have to address yet another creative way in which the Green and Gold snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Early on, this game between Green Bay and Cleveland had the earmarks of being a defensive struggle. Neither the Packers (230 yards) nor the Browns (221) mustered much yardage.

Scoring did not come easily or quickly, at least not at first. Green Bay counted on a 39-yard Brandon McManus field goal (13 plays-43 yards; 7:23) and a 3-yard TD pass from Jordan Love to tight end John FitzPatrick (14-71; 7:41). Cleveland got its initial score – a 35-yard field goal by Szmyt – on a 12-play, 63-yard advance that took 5:48 off the clock.

Throughout, Green Bay never trailed.

Jordan Love

No matter. Cleveland rose to the occasion in the final minutes turning a Love interception into a touchdown and a blocked McManus field goal into Szmyt’s game winner.

Only once previously have the Packers gone 60 minutes without trailing only to lose in regulation. On Sept. 11, 1988, Tampa Bay’s Donald Igwebuike booted them into the loss column with a 28-yard field goal on the game’s final play.

Green Bay’s breakdowns on offense and special teams with the game on the line cannot take away from another fine performance by its defense. Jeff Hafley’s unit again kept completion yards to a minimum.

In opening 2-0, the Packers had allowed a league-low 7.73 yards per completion, nearly a yard better than the second-place 49ers (8.71). The Browns (8.61), meantime, were one of four clubs to average fewer than nine yards per completion.

As one might suspect, the Green and Gold clamped down on the Browns. Cleveland quarterback Joe Flacco completed 21 of 36 passes for 142 yards, an average of just 6.76 yards per success. He completed but two passes of more than 14 yards – a 17-yarder to Isaiah Bond and a 17-yarder to Jerry Jeudy.

To date, the Packers have given up 567 yards on 76 completions. That’s an average of 7.46 per, the lowest allowed by the team through the first three games of a season since 1967 (6.83).

But that club – which went on to win Super Bowl II – wasn’t tested to the extent of this current group. Coach Vince Lombardi’s last team in Green Bay allowed 164 yards on 24 completions through its first three games.

That season – 1967 – was also the last time the Pack limited each of its first three opponents to fewer than 250 yards. In going 2-1 this year, Green Bay held the Lions (246), Commanders (230) and Browns (221) below that mark.

Heartbreak in Regulation

Regular-season games in which the Packers trailed for less than 45 seconds but lost in regulation.
 
Seconds
Trailing   Opponent        Final          Date
0                  Browns                10-13            Sept. 21, 2025
0                  Buccaneers         10-13            Sept. 11, 1988
5                  Eagles                  17-20            Sept. 12, 1993
8                  Vikings                 7-10              Oct. 15, 1967
*                  Bears                    7-10              Oct. 22, 1933
**                Bears                    7-14              Sept. 24, 1933
35                Bears                    14-17            Sept. 25, 1960
 
*second-to-last play of the game
**third-to-last play of the game