December 10, 2017
FirstEnergy Stadium – Cleveland, Ohio
Solo Game #3
Pregame Thoughts
Prediction: Packers win by 11
Results
Final Score: Packers 27, Browns 21 (OT)
My Record: 16-10
I will take the win but I honestly can’t believe the Browns blew this one (well yes I can). This win ensures me at least a .500 season! Yay! The Browns wish they could get one win let alone be .500, but cheers to you Browns, you are on your way to another #1 draft pick.
The Game
Not many people expected this game to be close, I mean come on, it is the Browns. I hinted at a chance for the Browns to win in my prediction but didn’t think they would; and well they didn’t. A “good” overtime game, and I use the parentheses because it was very sloppy.
I was surprised on the first drive the Packers refused to punt. They went for it twice on 4th down and made both of them, the first was on their own 37 yard line on a fake punt. Then when they scored I thought the game would be over quickly. Browns answered right away though with a score of their own.
There weren’t too many stand out plays or stats in this game, but some to note were DeShone Kizer had three passing touchdowns but threw two interceptions including the one in overtime that blew the game.
Isaiah Crowell had a great game with 121 rushing yards on 19 carriers. Davante Adams had 10 receptions for 84 yards and two TDs. Other than that the defenses really dominated from both sides.
The way the Browns blew the game was incredible. Up 21-7 early in the 4th quarter the Packers drove to make the game 21-14 without much resistance. They tied the game with 17 seconds left after a 2 minute drive. The Browns started overtime with the ball and Kizer threw one of the worst interceptions I have seen. It was 3rd down and he was about to get sacked and just threw the ball as high as he could like he was a kid playing jackpot. He should have taken a sack then punted so at least Green Bay would have had to go the length of the field. Instead, what happened was the Packers intercepted the ball easily and started the drive on the Browns 35 yard line. It only took Green Bay 6 plays, 3 minutes before Brett Hundley threw a touchdown pass to Adams to win the game.
One cool thing that happened was they honored Jim Brown at halftime. The Hall of Fame is doing a “Ring of Honor” for the greatest hall of famers. It was good to see the Syracuse alumni still moving around. Some say he was the greatest athlete that ever lived, look up his stats in NFL and college (along with his lacrosse numbers), you will be impressed.
The Stadium
Overall Rating: C
Stadiums like this make it harder to not be bias. It’s hard to tell if the Browns being a horrible team again played into my review but at the end of the day I don’t think that was the case. The thing with FirstEnergy stadium is that it’s just okay. One good thing is that the walk isn’t too far from downtown Cleveland and it is easy to enter and exit.
A few negatives were that the upper deck only had one bar and very few concessions. You also couldn’t walk around the entire upper level, so check your tickets! The bathrooms also only had very few actual toilets in them (that applies to lower levels too). Even though the upper deck was at 25% capacity, it seemed like it was near full. Also, I am sure the stadium is in a nice location on a summer day, but most games aren’t that warm and the wind coming off the lake can be brutal at times. There are also pretty much zero covered seats, which somewhere like Cleveland could benefit. Luckily the wind wasn’t too bad and it was sunny so those two factors didn’t affect me much, but still know your climate when building a stadium!
Love, Hate, Shout Out
Love: Overtime games. Especially when I am at a game where it could have been very boring and cold. The excitement of the game keeps you a little warmer. Good comeback by the Packers too.
Hate: Blaming bad plays on rookie quarterbacks. Okay, yes there are sometimes where the decision making of young quarterbacks is fully due to lack on experience; like not getting rid of the ball quick enough, not recognizing double coverage or a safety blitz pre-snap, things like that. However, you can’t blame everything on a player being a rookie, they are professional athletes and played at a high level in college. Kiezer’s “jackpot” throw straight up in the air in overtime without looking was garbage. That’s not a rookie mistake. That’s just a really bad mistake.
Shout Out: Cleveland Browns fans. You guys have it rough, yet you are so dedicated to the team. Tailgating in the parking lot early on in the cold is insane for an irrelevant team. The fans I was sitting around were also very generous, shared everything they brought in (pretzels, beef jerky and some other snacks)
Fan Tips
If you are sitting in the upper deck, get food and drinks as you walk in before you go up, there are a lot more options on the bottom level