The Cleveland Browns survived Mother Nature and a visit from a cadre of old friends in Houston Texans uniforms and won a hard-fought but sloppy 10-7 win.
This wasn’t a game that produced many moments for the highlight reel at the end of the season. Outside of a Nick Chubb TD run and a couple of fantastic plays early by Myles Garrett, the game just sort of plodded along. The dreary weather that caused the almost 40-minute delay never really relented. Long passes and deep routes were effectively eliminated by default, and it led to a lot of runs from both teams into stacked boxes.
As you might expect, the Browns happily fought that battle and prevailed. But it wasn’t easy. Both Nick Chubb (126) and Kareem Hunt (101) topped 100 rushing yards, with Chubb’s final 57 sealing the win.
Nick Chubb just broke all of his fantasy managers’ hearts 🤣
pic.twitter.com/NejJrZClY3— PFF (@PFF) November 15, 2020
The two teams combined for under 300 total yards of passing, with Baker Mayfield finishing 12-of-20 for 132 yards. He did not throw a TD or an INT and he missed two throws he has to make in the first half that kept potential points off the board.
Romeo Crennel’s Texans just couldn’t string plays together consistently. With the threat of the deep pass all but eliminated by the wind and icky conditions, Deshaun Watson couldn’t attack the secondary like he or the Texans hoped. Ex-Browns RB Duke Johnson found scant running room. Houston’s only TD came on a throw from Watson to ex-Browns TE Pharaoh Brown, but it was too little, too late.
It’s a home win that improves the Browns to 6-3. That’s the important part. It wasn’t pretty but Kevin Stefanski and his Cleveland team won’t apologize for it. Nor should they. For a young team learning how to win, every W is savory.
