BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns had a very disappointing opening game loss to the Bengals, 17-16 on Sunday. There were many contributing factors that resulted in the one-point loss, including several key dropped passes and other missed opportunities. However, the most glaring downfall in the loss was the two missed kicks by first-year kicker, Andre Szmyt.
The former Lou Groza Award winner at Syracuse made his first two kicks, an extra point and then a 45-yard field goal in the second quarter. However, Szmyt missed the extra point after the Browns took the lead, 16-14 with 7:20 to play in the third quarter.
Szmyt then missed the potential game-winning field goal from 36 yards as the kick sailed wide right. Szmyt was on the Browns practice squad near the end of the 2024 season and was kept on the roster in the final cut downs over veteran kicker Dustin Hopkins.
Kevin Stefanski was asked if the Browns will bring in competition for Szmyt this week with the Browns traveling to Baltimore to play the Ravens on Sunday.
"For me, I'm still focused on (Sunday)," Stefanski said on a Zoom call with the media on Monday. "Obviously, Andre knows we trust him, knows that he's got to come through for us in those moments. I thought he had a really good warmup, banged a couple early in the game and missed those two kicks at the end. Those are kicks that we expect him to make, but I'm really just focused on that game and we expect him to come through for us."
After the game, Szmyt was asked what went wrong on the field goal.
"Similar to the extra point, I rushed my approach and pushed the ball," he said. "I got to do better and I expect better out of myself. Just try and forget about it and move on to next week.
"Watch the film and see what went wrong," he said. "That's kind of what it felt like. Forget about it and give myself 24 hours, analyze what happened and move on."
The question is whether the Browns will allow him to have another week.