The Cleveland Browns faced a Super Bowl Team for the second week in a row in the preseason.
And for the second week in a row, they held their own, but came up just a little bit short of victory.
In this week’s contest, the Browns lost by one point, 33-32 to the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs after an 18-18 tie the week before against the Philadelphia Eagles who also played in last year’s Super Bowl.
This week’s game was decided when Toledo Whitmer alum and Super Bowl Champion Phil Hoskins blocked Cade York’s 40 yard field goal with 57 seconds left to go in the game.
Browns Score 22 Points in First Quarter
The Chiefs scored first as Harrison Butker, who currently has the 4th best field goal percentage in NFL history (Justin Tucker is number one) converted a 32 yard field goal with 10:58 left in the first quarter.
After the Browns returned the ball back to the Chiefs, former Kansas City Chief and two time Super Bowl Champion Juan Thornhill intercepted a Shane Buechele pass for a pick six with 8:36 left in the first quarter. After the Browns converted a two point conversion, they took an 8-3 lead.
step in KC. take over KC. @Juan_Thornhill | #DawgPound pic.twitter.com/kRtJzKQbnj
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 26, 2023
“That’s what we’re about, that ball,” said Browns Head Coach Kevin Stefanski. “Anytime it’s in the air, we got a mentality that it belongs to us. We’ve been ball searching, so we like to score points any which way we can.”
The Browns would score two more touchdowns in the first quarter.
With 6:56 left in the first quarter, Watson connected with tight end David Njoku for a 10-yard touchdown pass. After Cade York made the extra point, the Browns were ahead 15-3.
A CHIEF SLAM !! @deshaunwatson x @David_Njoku80 pic.twitter.com/JsjVSaMXer
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 26, 2023
The Browns scored again in the first quarter on a 2-yard touchdown run by John Kelly Jr.
York then added the extra point to give the Browns a 22-3 lead with 1:45 left in the first quarter.
come for the TD, stay for the celly
📺: #CLEvsKC on @nflnetwork & @WEWS
📲: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/Ebs43ClSj0 pic.twitter.com/u2gnYMaBCE— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 26, 2023
Super Bowl Champs Begin Comeback
The Chiefs then scored two touchdowns in the second quarter to make the score 22-16.
The Browns would however get their second pick six of the game with 28 seconds left in the first half when Caleb Biggers returned a Blaine Gabbert pass for a touchdown.
RUN IT UP DEFENSE!! @BiggsWorld5 | #DawgPound pic.twitter.com/fkSVxcdD34
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) August 26, 2023
With the pick six, the Browns took a 29-16 lead into halftime.
Second Half of Browns vs. Chiefs Game
In the second half, the Chiefs outscored the Browns 17-3 in order to get a 33-32 victory over the Browns.
The Chiefs scored 14 points in the third quarter as they got two touchdown passes late in the third quarter to take a 30-29 lead.
With the Browns trailing 30-29, Cade York made a 40-yard field goal with 4:19 left in the game to give the Browns a 32-30 lead.
The lead, however, would not last long as Harrison Butker made a 44-yard field goal to put the Chiefs ahead 33-32 with 1:48 remaining in the game.
The Browns would have one more chance to win the game with 57 seconds left, however, York’s 43-yard field goal attempt was partially blocked by Chiefs defensive tackle Phil Hoskins who played high school football in Toledo, Ohio at Whitmer High School.
As you might imagine, in the post-game press conference, head coach Kevin Stefanski was asked about the blocked field goal at the end of the game.
Stefanski expressed confidence in York in his post game comments.
“I know he’s going to continue to work at it, I know he wants to finish that kick right there for his team,” said Stefanski. “I know he is working very, very hard.”
Stefanski ended the press conference by discussing his thoughts about the team at the end of the pre-season.
“I feel good about where we are,” said Stefanski. “But it’s based on the work that we’ve done, and it’s been a ton of work and obviously you get to use number 24 (Nick Chubb) now, which is fun. So I felt that the guys that played today did a nice job in a bunch of those different situations. We feel really good about where we are, but now we got a lot of work to do even in this next week. We got three practices next week as we get into the Cincinnati week.”
The Browns now begin to prepare for the season opener on September 10 against the Bengals.
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