Nick Chubb was untouched on his 26-yard TD run that sealed a 31-21 Browns win. (Getty Images)
Browns survive injuries, turnovers and defensive lapses to yet again avert two losses in a row
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
It was hot and loud and nerve-wracking. Players were curling up with injuries all over the place. The Browns’ home-opener in front of a championship-starved, sellout crowd was turning into a battle of attrition.
Ultimately, the Browns’ depth prevailed. They gutted out a 31-21 victory over the plucky Houston Texans, averting the dreaded 0-2 season start and continuing the amazing trend of never losing two games in a row under coach Kevin Stefanski.
The Browns’ offense attacked Houston’s zone defense with shorter throws and got touchdowns on the ground from fullback Andy Janovich, Nick Chubb and Baker Mayfield, and a nifty TD run of 33 yards by rookie Demetric Felton after a short pass.
Chubb (95 yards on 11 carries) and Kareem Hunt (51 on 13 attempts) did the heavy lifting in the second half. Chubb closed the door on Houston’s upset bid with a 26-yard TD run with 5:52 to play bringing the FirstEnergy Stadium crowd to its loudest roar of the day.
“I did not think it was really clean football, but we had guys step up and make plays really throughout the game,” Stefanski said.
The Browns survived two offensive turnovers and injuries to receiver Jarvis Landry, who did not return after injuring a knee on the first official play of the game, and quarterback Baker Mayfield, who hurt his left shoulder trying to trip up safety Jason Reid running with an interception in the second quarter.
Stefanski said Landry would have an MRI on Monday and wouldn’t speculate on the severity. It must have been serious for Landy not to come back; he returned and played through cracked ribs in the Indianapolis game last year.
Mayfield left for the locker room but sprinted back in time for his next offensive series. He ended it with a 5-yard run with nobody open and proceeded to pick apart the Houston zone defense for 19-of-21 passing for 213 yards. Mayfield said he was “feeling it a lot,” but the pain was not enough to keep him out.
“The guy’s tough,” said defensive end Myles Garrett. “He’s like Brett Favre 2.0, less picks though. Stuff just rolls off his back.”
Tyrod Taylor, Mayfield’s counterpart and one-time mentor and teammate, was not as fortunate.
Taylor repeatedly fooled the Browns’ defense with first-down play-fakes and abused it for 4 of 6 conversions on third downs as Houston came out throwing.
But Taylor injured a hamstring on a 15-yard touchdown run to go up, 14-7, midway through the second quarter and did not make it out of the locker room after halftime.
“The first 15 minutes, it was tough,” Garrett said. “They were doing things that weren’t seen before. We weren’t expecting them to throw the ball that much on early downs.”
Rookie Davis Mills, Taylor’s replacement, was intercepted on his second series by linebacker Malcolm Smith, which set up a short field goal. But Mills caught fire for one touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, culminating a 16-play drive with a 2-yard strike to Brandin Cooks on a slant over the goal line.
That made it, 24-21. Hunt and Chubb took over from there, and Chubb’s 26-yard run – another perfectly called and executed scoot on which he was untouched – accounted for the final points.
Mills was decked for a face-planting sack by safety Grant Delpit, making his NFL debut, and the Texans missed a 41-yard field goal just before the 2-minute warning, sending 67,431 home happy.
It wasn’t a resounding triumph, but a sign of the times that a 10-point victory by the Browns could be regarded as a tad unfulfilling. The Browns were favored by 13 1/2 points -- the largest pointspread of their expansion era.
Garrett admitted the defense is a work in progress.
“A little bit,” he said. “The D-line is pretty much new except for me and Porter [Gustin]. It’s tough to get that chemistry right away. It’s inspiring to go into that film room and see something we have been working on and it works cleanly. It just didn’t get there in time.”
Besides Taylor, the Texans lost during the game to injuries receivers Niko Collins and Danny Amendola, cornerback Terrance Mitchell, tight end Antony Auclair, and Reid, who forced a fumbled by Donovan Peoples-Jones in addition to his interception.
Mayfield said the offense was “not real great. We didn’t start well. We turned the ball over twice.Obviously, this week It’s better to learn from a win and not a loss, but we just have to be better and take care of the ball."
On Friday, Stefanski implored the fans to leave their tailgating in the Muni Lot in time to be in their seats for the opening kickoff. They responded and made the stadium as full as anyone could remember for the start of a game.
“I thought the crowd was outstanding and in their seats right at the kickoff, so I hope they are back at the Muni Lot already but nice job. They helped affect the game,” Stefanski said.
They were rewarded with a gutty win on a day it could’ve gone the other way.
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