by The Cleveland Browns stunned the San Francisco 49ers 19-17 today at the Stadium in a game that took nearly 4 hours to play. The loss was the first of Brock Purdy’s regular season career, as the Browns defense gave him issues all day. We’ll get to that in a bit, but the monster effort by the Browns defense helped erase the disastrous performance of Browns starting quarterback PJ Walker who was dreadful, going 18 of 34 for 192 yards and two interceptions, one of which almost cost the Browns the game.
Again, all of that ended up not mattering as several Browns players stepped up huge today to deliver this massive upset, and keep Cleveland in contention amongst the AFC’s top teams. Let’s hand out some game balls.
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The Defense
Reason – Constant pressure on Brock Purdy, moved his career regular season record to 15-1 with his first ever loss. After a first drive in which Purdy and the 49er offense moved the ball with ease, the Browns defense shut them down the rest of the game. Their other touchdown coming off of a interception returned to the Browns 10 yard line. Other than those two drives, the Browns defense held them in check.
Purdy, was held to 125 yards on 12 of 27 passing, with a touchdown and a pick in his worst day as a pro. The Browns never allowed him to get comfortable, and despite only 2 official sacks, they never allowed him to have a clean pocket to step back and pass.
The held Christian McCaffery to 43 yards on 11 carries. They also held George Kittle to 1 catch on 1 yard. That cannot be denied!
The Officials
My goodness were they bad, both ways! The Browns got the short end of the stick in the first half several times, but then it swung in their favor on the last two-minute drive, that ended up winning the game for the Browns when back to back horrendous passes from Walker to Moore should have been easy receptions resulted in a third and long. Walker and the Browns were then bailed out on a ridiculous personal foul call on former Brown Gipson Sr. The drive was dead in the water before that penalty occured.
Amari Cooper
I don’t know how anyone can make a case for anyone else to be MVP of the season thus far for the Cleveland Browns. Cooper has been the one player they can count on all year thus far. He did it again today by getting so wide-open numerous times, that even Walker couldn’t miss him. Cooper had 4 huge catches or 108 yards, including a monster one in the first quarter which led to the Browns only points of that half. Cooper continues to be Mr. Reliable out there catching passes from 5 different Browns quarterbacks in the last 2 seasons.
Dustin Hopkins
What a difference a kicker makes eh? Hopkins went 4 of 5 today, including a kick from over 50 yards. He also nailed what turned out to be the game winner. GM Andrew Berry gets a lot of heat for moves he has made including what appears to be a sinking ship with Watson thus far, but, his free agent signings from this year, and his trade for Hopkins all looked great today!
David Bell
Bell had 1 catch for 6 yards today, but it was the biggest of his Cleveland Browns career as it came on fourth down and kept a vital drive alive. Bell has sure fire hands and simply knows how to get open. As I said in the pre-season, the Browns need to cut ties with the non-existent Peoples-Jones who once again did absolutely nothing today in a Casper the Friendly Ghost act, with 0 catches. Bell needs to be the number 2 or 3 guy, it’s that simple and should be clear as day. The more you drag DPJ out there, the less time for Bell and Tillman and that must change.
Play calling
After a disastrous first quarter that saw a missed FG, an interception and his defense allow a 5 play 85-yard opening drive touchdown, it would have been easy for Stefanski to panic, and he didn’t. Walker was not ready to start against such a strong defense as SF, and Stefanski called a smart game to give him a fighting chance.
One great example was not giving up on the run, and his exciting two back combination while Chubb is out. Kareem Hunt went for 47 yards on the ground, and 24 yards in the air on 3 big catches, Ford, took off for 84 big yards on 17 carries, along with 2 catches. Njoku wasn’t going to get open down field, so they used him on screens which also moved the ball well. Stefanski takes a lot of heat, but coached well today, settling for Field Goals as well, and not trying to get cute.
The Wind
SF kicker Jake Moody had been perfect through five games to start the 2023 season, he then met the vaunted Cleveland Browns stadium wind, and missed two kicks that cost his team the game.
The Browns will attempt to move to 4-2 as they travel to Indianapolis next week and visit the Colts. The Colts, got trounced on the road today in Jacksonville, 37-20.
