Browns lose more than another game in Pittsburgh as Nick Chubb is lost for the season
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
PITTSBURGH, PA
How do you replace the heart and soul of your team?
That’s the task ahead for the Browns as they embark on life after Nick Chubb, who suffered a horrifying knee injury in Cleveland’s latest nightmare at the confluence of those bedeviling three rivers.
Oh, yeah, they lost the game, too, again, their 20th in a row in Pittsburgh in the regular season, 26-22.
Chubb’s left knee was bent grotesquely on a hit by Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick as he was gaining five yards on an inside run to the Steelers’ 3 on the second play of the second quarter. Chubb was pumping life into a Browns offense totally intimidated by the Steelers’ fired-up defense in the early going. He had 64 yards rushing in virtually one quarter before the devastating hit.
The injury was so upsetting that ESPN mercifully declined to show replays of it.
Nick Chubb had a similar severe injury to his left knee his sophomore season at Georgia in 2015. (Associated Press)
Almost immediately, players from both teams knelt in prayer out of respect and despair for the man Steelers coach Mike Tomlin referred to as Mr. Chubb in his mid-week press conference. The cart came out in record time. The injury was eerily reminiscent of Chubb’s injury to the same knee his sophomore year at Georgia eight years ago. Then, he tore three ligaments – everything but the ACL.
Chubb was transported to a local hospital as a precaution before the game ended and was on his way back to Cleveland ahead of the team. Coach Kevin Stefanski wouldn’t say the suspected damage to the knee after the game. He did concede Chubb’s season is over.
“He doesn’t have the C on his jersey, but he’s a captain, he’s a leader, he’s the definition of this team, of this city, of this organization,” said a dejected Deshaun Watson. “We got a lot of holes to fill while he’s away. It’s tough to even speak on it.”
The sight of Chubb being carted off should have sucked the life out of the Browns. But they scored on the next play and took their first lead, 11-7.
They would lose it, regain it at 22-19, and then lose it for good when edge rushers Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt combined on a strip-sack of Watson (Highsmith) and a scoop and touchdown return (Watt) for the winning points with 6:58 to play. Highsmith and Watt wrecked the game from the beginning, when Highsmith returned a deflected Watson interception 30 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage – nine seconds into the game. Nine seconds!
“We’re a resilient team, but you know what Chubb is,” linebacker Anthony Walker said. “It’s hard to replicate the heart and soul of your team. He won’t feel sorry for us. Nick’s probably like, ‘You guys should have f****** won that game.’ As a team, we got to respond. We got a decision to make.”
Second-year back Jerome Ford, the logical replacement for Chubb as the team’s feature back, rushed for 106 yards, including 69 on a run that set up the Browns’ go-ahead score at the 10 minute mark of the third quarter.
The Browns committed four turnovers on offense and allowed two defensive touchdowns. And even after the gut-punch from losing Chubb for the season, they still had a chance to win at the end. Watson had the ball at the Steelers’ 47 at the two-minute warning.
But in his first chance to rally the Browns to a heroic win, Watson failed.
He threw incomplete under severe pressure on second down. He was sacked for the sixth time on third down. And he threw an uncatchable ball for Donovan Peoples-Jones on fourth down. A closer pass to DPJ might have earned an interference call on Steelers rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. But Watson’s pass was thrown out of bounds – one of six he tossed beyond the boundary on the night.
Watson (22 of 40, 235 yards, one TD, 70.3 passer rating) lost two fumbles, tossed one interception off the hands of tight end Harrison Bryant, and was assessed two face-mask penalties in his first appearance in a prime-time game as a member of the Browns.
“I told everyone on the offense, the whole team, I'm going to do better for this team, for this organization, so we can win games like that,” Watson said. “I'm fine with taking the criticism, and I will be better.”
Watson said he apologized to the team for drawing a 15-yard penalty for pulling the facemask of linebacker Kwon Alexander as the two tangled up on a keeper run toward the Steelers bench in the third quarter. He drew another foul on an inadvertent facemask when he stiff-armed linebacker Nick Herbig running from pressure in the fourth quarter.
To be fair, Watson was under constant pressure throughout the evening as Highsmith and Watt overmatched – as expected -- Browns tackles Jedrick Wills and rookie Dawand Jones.
“They have two very, very good rushers, so you try to do your best to slow them down,” Stefanski said. “So, yeah, that’s the challenge, but the bottom line is we just didn’t do enough.
“You’re not going to win games turning it over four times. We didn’t play well enough to win the game. We did too many things to contribute to losing. Good news is we have a short week. We get to be out there in front of our fans [Sunday] and don’t have to wait seven days.”
The Browns’ 20th straight regular-season loss in Pittsburgh wasn’t all on the offense.
The defense allowed a 71-yard TD pass from Kenny Pickett to George Pickens in the middle of the field in the second quarter. Pickens had only four receptions on 10 targets but he hit Jim Schwartz’s defense for 127 yards. Pickett advanced to 2-0 against the Browns despite only 15 of 30 completions for 222 yards. The Browns sacked Pickett only two times but had two takeaways -- a Grant Delpit interception and a recovery after a Denzel Ward forced fumble.
“We should’ve found a way to win that game,” Walker said. “We gotta come up with one more stop on defense. I have to be better. A huge tackle on third-and-10 that I didn’t make to get [the ball] back. They scored [on the Pickens’ big play] on the next play. That’s a momentum-shifter.”
This was a typically brutal Cleveland-Pittsburgh game, often resembling a street fight more than a football game. The Steelers scored 26 points despite only nine first downs and 255 total yards on offense.
“It’s hard, man,” Walker said. “This is a hard division to win on the road. But we got to get it done. We consider ourselves an elite team. We consider ourselves an elite defense. It’s hard, but we’ll be prepared to go next week.
“We don’t have a choice.”
The Browns play Tennessee Sunday in Cleveland Browns Stadium. They are 1-1 after being this close to starting 2-0 for the first time since 1993. But now they seem far off their goal with Chubb out for the season.
