CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb has been one of the team’s most consistent performers since being selected in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft, but in the last two games, fumble issues have plagued the second-year rusher.
After committing a turnover against the Seattle Seahawks before the bye week break, Chubb lost fumbles on back-to-back plays in the first quarter of Sunday’s 27-13 loss to the New England Patriots, the first of which was returned for a touchdown and the second took away a potential first-and-goal inside the 10-yard line.
“There were some things I could’ve fixed, and that’s what I did during the game,” Chubb said following Wednesday’s practice at team headquarters. “I corrected it, and I knew if I just did things right mentally and stayed focused, it wouldn’t happen again.
“I learned from it. It just wasn’t my day, so I learned a lot. I remember feeling how I felt, and I don’t want to feel like that ever again, and I’m going to do whatever I can not to.”
Chubb finished the loss to the Patriots with a game-high 131 yards on 20 carries, an average of 6.6 yards per rush and caught a seven-yard pass out of the backfield, and much of that production came after the two first-quarter fumbles.
“Probably just my teammates and my coaches just picking me up and just encouraging me, supporting me,” Chubb said of how he made the in-game adjustment against the Patriots. “I put it on myself that I would not let it happen again and continue working hard.
“That’s what I did. I put it behind me. I went out on the field and let loose. I just wanted to win that game so bad because I felt like I let my team down. That’s why it was easy to put it behind me because I knew I had to keep going forward in order for us to have a chance.”
Although Chubb had the two fumbles against the Patriots and lost one more against the Seattle Seahawks before the bye week on October 13, he is still one of the NFL’s best rushers.
Chubb has gained 738 yards and scored six touchdowns on 134 carries. He averages 5.5 yards per rush, has 25 first-down runs (18.7 percent of his carries), five 20-yard gains and three 40-yard bursts, including an 88-yard score in a 40-25 win over the Baltimore Ravens on September 29.
“Nick’s a professional, high character,” Browns coach Freddie Kitchens said. “Just all of the intangibles that you have in a football player, Nick has. I have total confidence that Nick is going to continue to work and I expect him to have a good game, just like he always does.”
Denver Broncos coach Vic Fangio added in a conference call with the Cleveland media, “He is a really good back. He obviously is capable of breaking big ones like he did against Baltimore and like he did against New England this past week. He is a back that plays a lot for them. He is capable of staying in there every down. I think he is one of the better backs in the league.”
After the two-fumble game against the Patriots, Chubb is determined to build onto those numbers and live up to the lofty words of Kitchens and Fangio when the Browns play a road game against the Broncos on Sunday.
“We don’t care who it is,” Chubb said. “We’re going to try to run the ball as well as we can. That just shows that we can run the ball against anybody. Hopefully, that continues.”