Browns faith in Andre Szmyt rewarded with 55-yard game-winning field goal

Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.

Staring at an offensive shutout for three quarters and hearing boos from an exasperated home crowd, the Browns did something in the fourth quarter they hadn’t done in a long time.

They played complementary football, just like coach Kevin Stefanski preached all week. And, voila! … they won a game in dramatic fashion.

Kicker Andre Szmyt atoned for his Game 1 misses with a 55-yard, game-winning field goal as time expired, sending the entire team sprinting to celebrate Szmyt’s heroics at the middle of the field.

The scoreboard read Browns 13, Green Bay 10, and you had to figure the Packers, full of themselves after two impressive wins, were still in disbelief on their flight back to Cheeseland.

In the last 3:38 of the game, the Browns:

* Averted their first shutout since the Johnny Manziel era when Szmyt connected for a 35-yard field goal.

* Achieved their first defensive takeaway of the season when safety Grant Delpit baited Jordan Love by showing coverage on tight end Tucker Kraft and jumping the the route on receiver Dontayvion Wiks and intercepting the ball at the Green Bay 29 with 3:08 to go. Delpit returned it to the 4.

* Scored their only touchdown of the afternoon when Quinshon Judkins powered behind 290-pound fullback Adin Huntington for a 1-yard score, the first of Judkins’ NFL career. Significantly, Szmyt calmly nailed the PAT to tie the score at 10-10.

* Survived a final threat by the Packers and a replay review that did not reverse a Josh Jacobs fumble when Shelby Harris powered through Green Bay’s line and blocked a 43-yard field goal try by Brandon McManus with 21 seconds to go.

* Pulled out the victory when Joe Flacco moved the ball far enough – 16 yards, it turned out – to set up Szmyt’s game-winning make.

“I’m really proud of that young man, really happy for that young man,” Stefanski said of Szmyt. “He’s been through a lot in his life. And the kid’s come through.”

Stefanski wasn’t just referring to Szmyt’s missed kicks against Cincinnati, which cost the Browns a win in the opener. It turns out that Szmyt lost something more important than a game. His mother, LaLa, died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm in July at the age of 66.

“It's good to come through and I know she's here,” Szmyt said. “She's there with me and giving me strength and support. And when I make these kicks, like the first thing I think about is her and how she'd love to be here. She was like my biggest fan.”

Knowing the background of Szmyt’s challenges after losing his mother explains why the Browns showered Szmyt with support after the Game 1 failures. He has made every kick in the two games that followed – two PATs and three field goals, including the biggest kick of his athletic career.

“I think having faith in a guy is just going to make him a stronger kicker throughout his career,” said guard Joel Bitonio.

“It's a roller coaster of emotions up and down,” Szmyt said. “Tough games like week one, it feels like everything is kind of crashing down. But then when it's like this, you know, it feels unbelievable. But there's the part of me where, you know, it'd be even sweeter if she was here. You know, I know she's watching and she's there in spirit.

“Hey look, there's a lot more that's going on in life than kicking and stuff. And obviously I put so much into my craft and this is my life, this is my everything. I’m blessed to still have a job after the first week.”

In the loser’s locker room, Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons, who pressured Flacco but was held sackless and committed two offsides penalty, said, “Man, football is like a move sometimes. That’s how football works.”

For once, the movie had a happy ending for Szymt and others on the winning side, like Flacco.

While authoring a pointless afternoon through three quarters, it crossed everyone’s mind that it might be time for Stefanski to call on rookie QB2 Dillon Gabriel to energize a lifeless offense.

Flacco had thrown one harmless interception at the end of the first half and was avoiding sacks behind two backup tackles but not getting close to the end zone. But Stefanski sternly refused to consider pulling him, and Flacco was able to make just enough little plays to contribute to the fourth-quarter comeback.

“It’s hard to go out there and play games like today and keep it together, but that’s what football is sometimes,” he said. “There were times where there probably were guys down the field that were open and, it’s just I didn’t make it happen.

“It’s hard when you’re in your own stadium and you can’t put points on the board and everybody feels it. But you got to keep going out there and doing your job and having faith that, you know, something’s going to happen and we’re going to get it done.”

There were other heroes on this day … Bitonio, for gutting out a sore back and playing after not practicing all week … Judkins, for running harder than any Browns back since Nick Chubb, and totaling 94 yards on 18 carries … Delpit, for making the big defensive play … Harris, for registering his seventh blocked kick of his career … Myles Garrett, for outplaying Parsons and making it tough on Love with ½ of the defense’s total of five sacks … defensive tackle Maliek Collins, who had 1 ½ sacks and was credited by Harris for creating the crease for his field-goal block.

But none shone brighter than Andre Szmyt, who seized the moment and made his mom proud.