Instead of the sweet taste of victory in their preseason exhibition with the Eagles on Thursday night, the Browns were left with a stale tie after the two clubs ended regulation knotted at 18 points apiece. Cleveland was in a position to go ahead in this game late in the fourth quarter, however, but squandered the opportunity with two ill-timed misses from kicker Cade York.
Coming out of the two-minute warning, the Browns put themselves within field goal range and York lined up for the 47-yard attempt to go up by three. That attempt flew wide right, but the club was given the gift of the Eagles lining up in an illegal formation. So, not only did York have another crack at the go-ahead score, this time it was from 41 yards out. And he missed wide left.
Those misses spoiled what was otherwise a solid night for York, who had hit two 43-yard field goals and a 37-yarder earlier in the contest. That said, York had been 0-2 in his attempts this preseason coming into this matchup.
"Confidence is never gonna be an issue for me," York said after the game, via Pro Football Talk. "I don't think the preseason so far is a good indication of how I've been kicking so far."
"Well, I know what they're going to be talking about on Cleveland sports talk radio tomorrow. I mean, back-to-back chances to take the lead, and (Cade) York missed it twice."- Ross Tucker pic.twitter.com/zfxXdfEkJo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 18, 2023
York went on to note that he has only missed one kick during roughly 40 to 45 attempts in practice, so it doesn't seem like he's all too fazed by these misses in exhibitions. It also doesn't seem like his head coach is all too bothered by it either.
"I think it's preseason, so everyone is working through the preseason," Kevin Stefanski said after the game. "And certainly, as you know Cade wants to make those so that we can finish as a team. So, we can go get that [win]. But he's like any young player. He's like any player on our roster. It's preseason, so he's got to continue to work through it. ... You're constantly trying to perfect your craft. Obviously making the first three is great, and then he knows he wants to make that last one. So, I think that's something he'll continue to work through."
The head coach emphasized that preseason is the time where players work on their "craft" and "get better."
"[Cade's] disappointed to not make that kick at the end. He wants to be there for the team and that's why he's going to continue to work really hard," Stefanski said (via NFL.com).
York was a fourth-round pick of the Browns in 2022 out of LSU. During his rookie campaign last year, he converted 75% of his field goal attempts and 94.6% of his extra point attempts.
