CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield has had an up-close-and-personal view of what first-year running back Nick Chubb can do for an offense, and he likes the view as a teammate far more than a competitor.
Mayfield saw Chubb break a 92-yard rushing touchdown and register 176 yards and the one score on 20 carries, an average of 8.8 yards per attempt in Sunday’s 28-16 victory over the Atlanta Falcons at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland.
“I just starting seeing red,” Mayfield said with a laugh while recalling how tough it was to see Chubb succeed against his University of Oklahoma teammates in the College Football Playoff Semifinals back in January.
“It is a lot better when he is on my team. He is a physical runner. He is able to impose his will. The runs that sometimes end in just four yards, he is turning them into six and seven-plus. It hurts a defense. It does. It takes a toll on them late in the game when they are realizing they have to gang tackle, they have to bring more people in and they have to swarm to the ball. It is really good to have a guy like that on your team.”
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On the way to the career-high 176 rushing yards, Chubb set the franchise record for the longest scoring play, which was the second-longest player by a rookie in the NFL, behind only Pittsburgh Steelers’ Bobby Gage broke a 97-yard score in 1949.
“We made it look like a run that we ran on the last series to the strong side of the formation,” Mayfield said. “When I handed it off, it parted like the Red Sea. The whole right side of the line did a great job. JC (Tretter) had a push-by block. He was in the clear after that. I had a pretty good view of it.”
The 176 yards were the fifth-best single-game performance by a Browns rookie, and of his five rushing touchdowns, three have come from at least 41 yards away. Chubb has touchdown runs of 92, 63 and 41 to his credit in his first professional season.
Chubb is the first play since Doug Martina during the 2012 season to have at least three 40-yard touchdown runs in the first 10 games of his career.
“He has been waiting for his time,” Mayfield said. “He is a patient guy. He is not going to speak a lot anyway, but he has been waiting for his time, I can tell you that. I am very happy for him. He is playing at a very high level.
“The best part about it is he never expected anything else. He is happy with what he is doing. He is going to keep trying to do that and running hard for our team. He is getting extra yards. He is creating plays and breaking a lot of tackles.”
And Browns interim coach Gregg Williams is confident there is more to come from Chubb after seeing how he has handled being a feature back at the NFL level.
“He is a good runner,” Williams said. “He has good vision, and then once he gets out there, he is not easy to bring down and can run away from you. He showed his runaway ability, also, to separate and finish the play. That was excellent.”
