Penalties plague Packers in unlikely loss to Browns

GREEN BAY – Though the Cleveland Browns came in with a 0-2 record, while the Green Bay Packers were 2-0, Head Coach Matt LaFleur said that he was ready for a “dogfight” going into the Sept. 21 game in Cleveland.

“[The Browns] were gassed up. I knew it was going to be a challenge. I mean, if you look at what they did the first two weeks of the season versus a really good Cincinnati offense, versus a really good Baltimore offense. I mean, really, when you look at it, I think that score was totally misleading when you watch just the natural progression of that game. They had a fumble return for a touchdown; they were picked down to the five-yard line. I knew going into this, it was going to be a dogfight, and it was going to be a challenge, and what's disappointing is, I felt like you could argue that we lost the game offensively by making a critical error in a critical situation. That's a tough pill to swallow,” LaFleur told the media after the game.

The Packers sat on top with 10-0 in the third quarter, but the Browns were able to come back and tie the game in the fourth.

Browns Rookie Kicker Andre Szmyt then kicked a 55-yard field goal as time expired to give Cleveland an unlikely 13-10 victory.

“One thing that we have to get corrected is, when we have 14 penalties in the game, it’s going to be tough to overcome that. So we’ve got to do a much better job of coaching the fundamentals, the details, and then we have to lock in, at a higher level in regards to some of the controllable penalties, whether there's false starts or offsides or whatever you have,” LaFleur added.

“I think when we talk about pre-snap penalties, that is concentration, focus, just being dialed in in the moment. When you talk post-snap penalties, whether it’s holding, that comes down to fundamentals and technique. We have to coach it better. We have to be harder on our guys if we see it in practice, because that's where it all starts. Ultimately, we just have to do a better job across the board.

“One time, one of our receivers walked off the field and then came back on the field, so they stopped it on that instance. Another time, we had a tight end come on the field when we were trying to switch personnel, and that's happened too many times this year. So we've got to get that fixed, but we’ve got to get our guys in.”

“I think the tough part for us is I feel like we are hurting ourselves more than anything with the penalties and the little things. I feel like we were putting some good drives together, but at the end of the day, we were just hurting ourselves a little too much,” Packers Quarterback Jordan Love said.

“It’s tough. It’s a tough loss for sure. I think any loss is a tough loss. Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff to clean up, improve on going forward. But it’s one of those things, adversity hits. It’s going to hit at some point, and it hit early on right now. We are just going to have to do a great job of moving on. Finding ways to clean up the areas we need to clean up and move on to next week. It’s a long season, it’s the NFL, we know what it is. But, it’s definitely a tough loss, something that we are just going to have to grow from and move on, and bounce back. Adversity is going to strike at some point in the season, and it struck today.”

The last time Cleveland beat Green Bay, the Packers retired No. 92 at halftime in honor of Reggie White, who had died the previous December.

The Browns went into Lambeau Field on Sept. 18, 2005, and beat the Packers, 26-24.

Trent Dilfer threw a 62-yard touchdown to Steve Heiden with 1:50 remaining.

Brett Favre found Tony Fisher on a 4-yard touchdown toss with four seconds left in regulation, after which the Browns recovered an onside kick to close out the win.

The victory remains Cleveland’s lone win in Green Bay.

The loss was the second of the season for the Packers, who finished 4-12, for the only losing season during the Brett Favre era.