Sunday was an eye-opening reality check for the Green Bay Packers. They were heavily favored to beat a limited and struggling Cleveland Browns team. Many thought the Packers might be the best team in the NFL. But rather than coming out and flexing their muscles, they were outcoached, outplayed, and outworked. The best football teams are those that can dictate the trenches. Every team struggles to win football games if their offensive and defensive lines don’t perform. That was the case for the Packers on Sunday. The Browns won the matchup in the trenches, and they ultimately won the ball game.

Through the first two weeks of the NFL season, one of the Packers’ biggest strengths was being able to win in the trenches - both on offense and defense. The offensive line was keeping Jordan Love upright, allowing him to produce some of the best numbers in the NFL. The defensive line was living in the opponent’s backfields, shutting down opponents’ rushing attacks and making life unpleasant for quarterbacks.

Sunday’s matchup with Cleveland was shaping up to be another favorable matchup. Cleveland’s offensive line was banged up, and its quarterback is immobile—the perfect recipe for the Packers’ new and improved pass rush. Not to mention, Green Bay’s offensive line was finally getting healthy, and Matt LaFleur is known for being able to neutralize elite pass rushers. Unfortunately, strong matchups on paper don’t always translate to satisfactory performances on the field.

A tough moment for Packers player Zach Tom who is on the sideline due to injury. pic.twitter.com/N780Qs57gX

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 21, 2025

The Offensive Line's Performance Was Offensive

One of the main reasons why the Packers started 2-0 was that the offensive line had performed very well in both games. That was not the case against Cleveland on Sunday. The offensive line performed poorly, to say the least. The Packers started Sunday’s game with their regular starting offensive line, with both Aaron Banks and Zach Tom returning from injuries. That lasted one play. Eight different offensive linemen ended up playing. Zach Tom got hurt. Aaron Banks got hurt. Rasheed Walker even missed a few plays after his face mask broke off his helmet. The Packers’ front five was constantly shuffling around, and it showed.

Zach Tom left the game after the first offensive play of the game after aggravating his oblique injury. Jordan Morgan replaced Tom at right tackle for the rest of the first half. Matt LaFleur said after the game that it was “obviously” the wrong decision to let Zach Tom try to play in the game. Then Aaron Banks suffered a groin injury at the end of the first half and never returned after halftime. Morgan moved over to left guard, and Anthony Belton came in to man the right tackle position. When Walker's face mask popped off and he needed to leave the game for a few plays, Belton moved over to left tackle, and Darian Kinnard filled in at right tackle. The only two players who didn’t miss a snap or play two positions were Elgton Jenkins and Sean Rhyan, and they were just as bad as everyone else.

Before Sunday’s game against Cleveland, the front five of the Packers had done a fantastic job keeping Jordan Love upright. Love had only been sacked twice in two games and hadn’t taken many hits. That changed against the Browns. Love was sacked three times in the first half alone. He was pressured eight times and was never able to get into a rhythm. Love ended up being pressured on 41.9% of his drop-backs and only averaged 1.6 air yards per target, according to Next Gen Stats. "From my perspective, he was under duress for a majority of the game," Matt LaFleur said after the game. "We gotta look at some of the things we're asking our guys to do in terms of protection scheme. We gotta come up with better stuff for our guys to put them in better positions to go out there and compete."

In addition to poor pass protection, the Packers struggled to run the football. As a team, the Packers rushed 31 times for 81 yards (2.6 yards per rush). Josh Jacobs recorded 1.9 yards per rush. The longest rush of the day was a ten-yard scamper by Jordan Love. The Packers were unable to move anyone in the run game, and the Browns were constantly disruptive at the line of scrimmage. Unfortunately, the lack of production in the run game is becoming a trend for the Packers. It was just an abysmal performance.

Last week, Walker confidently declared, "I think we can go undefeated, honestly. Pound for pound, I look at these teams and I don't really see who is better than us." He proceeded to play one of his worst games in recent memory. He was called for two penalties - one of which was a drive-killer. When listening to Walker’s comments, his tone didn’t come off as cocky or overconfident. It’s better to be confident than not in the NFL. If he is going to make bold declarations for all to hear, then his performance needs to back up his words.

The Browns’ defensive front dominated the Packers’ offensive front, plain and simple. The only real positive was that rookie Anthony Belton held up fairly well for the second straight game. The rest of the unit? Not so much. The Lions and Commanders combined to record two sacks, four tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits. The Browns recorded six tackles for loss, five sacks, and seven quarterback hits today. It was a stark contrast from what the Packers showed in Weeks 1 and 2. And to top things off, the offensive line was flagged for five penalties - four false starts and an illegal man downfield. The Packers made a point to keep Myles Garrett from wrecking the game, but in doing so, they allowed everyone else to wreck it, including themselves. It was a sloppy, but humbling experience, to say the least.

Mason Graham recorded a 43% pass rush win rate against the Packers today.

Average for a defensive tackle is 9%.

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) September 21, 2025

There's No Defense for the Defensive Line's Play

First and foremost, Joe Flacco is a competent NFL quarterback. The 40-year-old signal caller has started 194 games over his 18-year NFL career. There’s not much he hasn’t seen or experienced. That said, he’s old, immobile, and limited as a passer. It’s not like he had a ton of success against the Packers on Sunday. He finished 21/36 for 142 yards and an interception. Those numbers led to Flacco finishing with a 55.6 passer rating and only 3.9 yards per completion. His longest completion was only 17 yards. Flacco didn’t make any game-changing plays, but he managed the game effectively and avoided any momentum-swinging turnovers. The Packers were unable to force him into any big mistakes. While on paper the numbers look pretty decent, they don’t tell the whole story.

The Browns started the day without Jack Conklin, their starting right tackle. They also lost starting left tackle Dawand Jones early in the game due to a knee injury after Javon Bullard went low on Jones while trying to make a tackle. That left the Browns with two backup offensive tackles in the game for most of the day. Rashan Gary, Micah Parsons, and company were facing off against KT Leveston and Cornelius Lucas. Browns’ guard Joel Bitonio was barely able to walk, per Kevin Stefanski, but still managed to make it through the game and did so effectively. He was even given a game ball for his tough performance. No matter how you look at it, Cleveland’s offensive line was in rough shape. The Packers’ defensive front should’ve dominated the line of scrimmage - but Cleveland still did.

The Packers’ pass rush was decent. It should have been great. They were able to record 10 quarterback hits, but they only recorded two sacks, and one of those sacks was by an unblocked Rashan Gary. They sacked Jared Goff four times despite facing Taylor Decker and Penei Sewell. They had a similar result against Jayden Daniels - sacking him four times and recording 12 quarterback hits even while facing Laremy Tunsil and Josh Conerly Jr. Yet today, against two backup offensive tackles, the Packers' pass rush could only sack Flacco twice? That’s just not good enough. This was set up for the Packers’ defensive front to wreak havoc, but they were relatively pedestrian for much of the game.

The Browns controlled the run game as well. Rookie Quinshon Judkins rushed 18 times for 94 yards (5.2 yards per rush) and a touchdown. He broke a 38-yard rush in the fourth quarter that led to the Browns scoring their first points of the game. Judkins is a talented back, but with multiple backup offensive linemen in the game for Cleveland, the Packers should have been able to dictate the line of scrimmage and keep him in check.

Not to pile on Micah Packers, but bigger contracts come with bigger expectations. The Packers gave him the biggest contract in NFL history for a non-quarterback to be the best player on the field, but he was not. Parsons finished the day with six pressures, two quarterback hits, and drew a holding penalty. That’s not bad, but against two backup tackles, it’s not enough. He was also flagged twice for being offside, including one that led to the game-winning kick by Cleveland. "Two off-sides is unacceptable for myself,” Parsons said after the game. “Just things we shouldn't be doing, I shouldn't be doing, it's unacceptable. I fully apologize for my actions."

It’s hard to complain about the Packers’ defense when they pitched a shutout for 56 minutes of the game. All in all, the defense did enough for the Packers to win. That said, it’s games like this that separate good defenses from great defenses. Going into Sunday’s game, they led the league in pressures. They have one of the best defensive players in the NFL and a brilliant defensive coordinator. The Packers had the ingredients to make Flacco’s day incredibly long, but they didn’t.

Myles Garrett runs around the double team for the sack pic.twitter.com/Yxmy8aAoHG

— Steve Palazzolo (@StevePalazzolo_) September 22, 2025

Adversity Can Humble, But It's Time to Learn From It

Despite a disappointing loss, the locker room isn't overreacting. They know they are still a good team, and that there is still a lot of football in front of them. No one is panicking after one loss. “This is all part of adversity. Undefeated seasons, they're hard. Let's be real. Sometimes, just like today, you s— the bed,” Parsons said. “That's just the reality. It happens to the best teams. Even the best Super Bowl champs make mistakes, and they pay for it."

So what now? There’s no need to hit the panic button after one game. The Browns were more physical, tougher, and executed better, but that doesn’t mean the Packers can’t still have strong offensive and defensive lines. Today they played terribly, but they can watch the tape, learn from it, and move forward. They saw firsthand what can happen if they show up without the right mindset and attitude. Now they will need to make sure it doesn’t happen again, or they are going to see similar results

The Packers weren’t going to go through the 2025 season unscathed. Adversity comes when it’s least expected, and that was the case today. But such is life in the NFL. "You go back to the history of the champions and who've they've played and games they should've won. It's just that competitive,” Parsons said. “It's that hard to win. It's hard as h— to win football games. When you win football games, it's a celebration. But when you lose, it sucks."It does suck, but there’s no reason to dwell on one loss. The Packers face the Dallas Cowboys next week, and they will assuredly do all they can to exploit the same issues the Packers experienced today. It's up to the Packers whether they let that happen.