Browns’ running game anemic without Chubb
The answer, or at least part of it, is obvious to Cleveland Browns guard Wyatt Teller.
“I think that missing 24 [running back Nick Chubb] is a big deal to that,” Teller said. “He’s the human eraser, as we like to call him. Damn good player. So we’ve got to be able to run without one of the best running backs in the league. It’s not easy.”
Chubb is sidelined for the rest of this season with a knee injury suffered in the Week 2 at Pittsburgh.
The Browns have rushed for 171 yards and averaged 3.1 yards per carry in the two full games since losing Chubb. They actually had a slight uptick in their performance in Sunday’s 28-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens than even the previous week in a win over the Tennessee Titans.
Against the Ravens, the Browns ran for 93 yards on 25 carries, a 3.7 average. The week before against the Titans, they ran for 78 yards on 31 carries, a 2.5 average.
“We had to run the ball well early,” Teller said of the Baltimore game. “When you don’t do that and you get behind, it’s hard to just be able to run the ball. I know that’s what a lot of people say and a lot of couch coaching would say, but it’s not that easy.”
Even with Chubb missing essentially the last three quarters of the Pittsburgh game, the Browns entered the Titans game gaining 202 rushing yards per game and 5.4 yards per carry. Part of why they were able to maintain that through the end of the Steelers game was because of Jerome Ford, who came off the bench to rush for 106 yards.
Ford was viewed by the Browns front office and coaching staff as the answer to the question of who would back up Chubb. That was despite Ford having only eight career carries coming into his second season in the league.
In the two games since Pittsburgh, Ford has carried the ball a combined 19 times for 44 yards. Pierre Strong Jr. leads the Browns since then with 76 yards on 11 mostly mop-up role carries, including a 40-yard run with less than a minute remaining against the Ravens.
Kareem Hunt, who was signed two days after Chubb’s injury, was supposed to provide a veteran presence at the position. He’s carried 10 times for 25 yards in two games.
“Yeah, we can better,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “Obviously, I trust in the guys we have. I trust in the scheme, those type of things. We’re four games into the season, so it’s an incomplete sample size to draw a ton from it, but we can better. We will be.”
The Browns did run into two topeight rushing defenses in the past two weeks. Tennessee’s defense entered Sunday ranked fourth in the league against the run, while Baltimore’s ranked eighth.
The problem is, coming out of the bye, the Browns face another top-three run defense in the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers defense, considered overall one of the best in the league, entered the week ranked third in run defense.
Teller, though, knows the Browns won’t be able to pass without being able to complement that with the run. They can’t do that if they don’t figure out what the issues may be beyond not having Chubb.
“We’ve got to be able to run the ball early and often, and whenever given the opportunity to make a big play, we got to take it,” Teller said. “So execute on their mistakes. Every team makes a mistake. Like I said, if there’s 70 plays and one guy misses on a play, you got to be able to make one guy miss and make plays. … If we all do our part, our 1/11, we’ll be all right.”