The oddsmakers were certain that it was going to go one way.
 
So did almost everyone else.
 
Thus, the fact that it went the other way – in every way, shape and form – was … well, really odd.
 
It was exactly 10 years ago today, on Sept. 18, 2005, that the visiting Browns defeated the favored Green Bay Packers 26-24 and gave first-year head coach Romeo Crennel his first victory at any level.
 
The Browns had gone 5-11 and 4-12 the previous two seasons. The Packers had won three straight NFC Central championships and had been to the playoffs four years in a row.
 
The Browns had lost 27-13 to the Cincinnati Bengals the week before – at home, no less – in the season opener and looked bad doing it. They were especially inept offensively. Their quarterback was Trent Dilfer, who was much more of a game manager than he was a playmaker.
 
The Packers had a quarterback named Brett Favre. Perhaps you have heard of him.
 
Hardly any opponents ever win at historic Lambeau Field, and in fact the Browns had never won there.
 
As such, all this pointed to a Packers victory, and likely a one-sided one at that.
 
But it was just the opposite. After spotting the Packers a 7-0 first-quarter lead, the Browns rolled to a 19-6 advantage after three quarters. The only thing that made the game close was that Green Bay finally got its act together and scored 17 points in the fourth quarter.
 
Favre got his passing yards – 342 of them – in completing 32 of 44 attempts. And he got his touchdowns – three, to be exact.
 
But Dilfer matched him yard for yard, score for score, hitting on 21 of 32 tries for 336 yards and three TDs. Plus he threw no interceptions while Favre was intercepted twice.
 
Tight end Steve Heiden came to the Browns that season as a young player who was a blocker, not a pass catcher. But he caught two TD passes, a one-yarder and a 62-yarder that would turn out to be his career-high.
 
Wide receiver Braylon Edwards, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft, was someone who, when he decided to play, could be a game-changer. He showed some of that by catching an 80-yard touchdown pass on which he outraced the entire Green Bay secondary.
 
It was that kind of day for the Browns, when what wasn’t supposed to happen, happened, surprising everyone, especially the oddsmakers.