Browns: 3 players who need to step up against the Texans

Nick Chubb

This is where you play the Bane theme from Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. This man-beast of a running back has been sorely missed. While Kareem Hunt has performed admirably, he hasn’t performed remarkably. Now that Nick Chubb is back, the Browns offense should be clicking on all cylinders again.

Chubb couldn’t be replaced, and it’s pretty obvious of a statement to make. Since his injury against Dallas in the last minute of the first quarter of Week 4, the Browns as a team has yet to break 130 yards rushing. This after having games of 215, 158, and 308 yards rushing in weeks two, three, and four. Hunt is averaging nearly 1.4 yards less per rush than Chubb, with Hunt failing to break 80 yards rushing in six straight games.

Chubb has only ever gone three straight games, twice, without hitting 80 yards in his career. Those two occasions were to start his career when he was averaging 2.6 carries per game and Weeks 15 and 16 in the 2019 campaign, bleeding into Week 1 of this season. Oh, and that opening stretch of six games, where he only had 16 carries? He still had 173 yards rushing, for a yards-per-carry of 10.8.

So Chubb’s really good at this football thing.

Chubb could conceivably set new career marks for himself and the franchise against the Texans, and if he does that, then there’s no real chance the Texans could keep it close.