Nick Chubb tore through the Jacksonville defense with one touchdown on 144 yards rushing in Browns' 27-25 road victory. (Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
It took the efforts of several men for the Browns to slink out of Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Stadium with a 27-25 victory over a one-win Jaguars team on a nine-game losing streak.
There was Jarvis Landry and his eight catches for 143 yards and his first touchdown of the season. He should have had two. The sunny skies in Florida were therapeutic to the wide receiver having a physically and mentally challenging season.
There was Baker Mayfield tossing two touchdowns to end a streak of three games without one, while extending his streak without an interception to four games. That Mayfield badly missed a couple short throws for touchdowns made the game closer than it should have been.
There was Andrew Sendejo breaking up a pass in the end zone and a two-point try after Jacksonville’s last touchdown. The maligned safety saved eight points in a tighter-than-expected game.
And let’s not forget Jacksonville coach Doug Marrone, whose decision to take a PAT off the board for a three-point lead at the start of the second half was another feeble bow to analytics that cost his team more than one point.
After a Browns penalty on the PAT, Marrone greedily tried a two-point play from the 1, which failed. And that forced him to go for two again after Jaguars running back James Robinson’s touchdown run cut the Browns lead to 27-25 with 2:14 to play. It failed again.
Which leads us to the man who had the biggest hand in the win that surged the Browns to 8-3 and atop the AFC wild card standings.
Who else but Nick Chubb?
The running back had his third straight 100-yard game since coming back from a four-week layoff with a knee sprain. Chubb’s season-high 144 yards and one touchdown included pulverizing runs through tackles and cutbacks that sprang him for back-breaking gains of 29, 22 and 12 yards in the fourth quarter.
But it was a Chubb reception, strangely enough, that sealed this close win.
Clinging to that two-point lead and facing third-and-12 from the Browns’ 35 with 1:25 to go, Chubb caught a screen pass, blasted around a Joel Bitonio block and then lunged just far enough for the first down. Only then could the Browns breathe easy in the heavy Florida air.
“Chubb is a stud. Some of those cuts he made today were [amazing],” said Bitonio.
“We lean on him, especially late in these games where we need these critical yards and these tough yards, to earn them,” said Mayfield.
Chubb bailed out his head coach on a day on which Kevin Stefanski seemed intent on needlessly airing out the offense.
Yes, Mayfield (19 of 29, 258 yards, two TDs) had his best game in a month, but there were some erratic moments when he missed Landry twice on the same series – one that would have gone for a TD and another in the end zone – and Rashard Higgins so alone Mayfield must not have believed it and sailed it over his head.
Stefanski also came out in an empty formation on the offense’s first play from the Browns’ 8-yard line, which resulted in an immediate sack to the two, a punt from deep in the end zone and favorable Jacksonville field position that ended up in three points.
Stefanski also blew a challenge and timeout on an obvious Harrison Bryant drop in the end zone, called a pass to Kareem Hunt on third-and-1 from the Jaguars’ 22 (it was wide, of course), and then eschewed a 40-yard field goal to make it a 30-19 score with 5:42 to play.
The fourth-down carry by Hunt was short by the width of an index card after a measurement.
Jacksonville quarterback Mike Glennon (20 of 35, 235, two touchdowns) beat the Browns Myles Garrett- and Denzel Ward-less defense -- which was further depleted by the loss of safety Ronnie Harrison to a shoulder injury on a tackle on the game’s first play – and posted the touchdown to make it a two-point nail-biter at the end.
Stefanski was disappointed his key calls in this game all seemed to come up short.
“We did not get it done [on the short-yardage plays], and ultimately, I have to look back and see what I can do better for the guys,” he said.
The feeling at the end was that the Browns hardly played their best game, yet finished the night at 8-3 and on top of the AFC wild card race. They’re the No. 5 seed with five games to go.
“I think the thing that we take from this is obviously not only just winning the game but we still have a lot of our best football ahead of us,” Landry said.
Prior to the game, CBS analyst Boomer Esiason opined that the Browns probably will make the playoffs but “they don’t have a chance” against top seeds Pittsburgh or Kansas City because “they don’t have a passing game.”
Landry’s rebirth under the Florida sun would seem to dispute that.
The day after turning 28 years old (on the 28th), Landry was all smiles and admitted he vented frustration to receivers coach Chad O’Shea and Stefanski about his recent de-emphasis in the game plan.
“It is always [better], I guess in a sense, to have that tough conversation when you are winning and you still feel like you may not be getting the ball,” Landry said. “I just trusted this team, kept my head up and kept working hard for the guys around me, knowing that it will come. It came today, and I just made every play that I possibly could get my hands on.”
Bitonio said, “We have not played a full-complete game yet. I think if we put it all together … I think it is going to be something special.”
And if all else fails, there’s always Nick Chubb.