With the Cleveland Browns still reeling from their 31-30 loss to the New York Jets in Week 2, star running back Nick Chubb stepped forward to take his share of the blame for the blown lead.
Chubb scored a touchdown with 1:55 remaining from 12 yards out, putting the Browns up 30-17. The Jets, however, were out of timeouts, and if Chubb had gone down voluntarily, Cleveland could have knelt to bleed the rest of the clock.
Instead, Chubb’s third touchdown of the day left the Browns up 13 points, and the Jets pulled off a historic comeback.
"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have scored right there," Chubb said Tuesday. "Honestly, looking back at it, it cost us the game.
"A lot of things went wrong, not just one thing. But collectively as a unit, as a team, we could've all done things different. But it's only a problem because we didn't win. So, I probably should've went down."
Cleveland coach Kevin Stefanski also took his share of the blame for failing to instruct his players on the appropriate strategy.
"That's something that's my responsibility to communicate to that huddle," Stefanski said. "Putting yourself up potentially 14 points inside of two minutes, you should close out that game.
"Yes, I wish I had said that to Nick, and Nick would've done it. But it does not change the fact that we had plenty of opportunities to win that game."
Among the other factors that led to the Browns’ collapse were a missed PAT after Chubb’s ill-timed touchdown, Cleveland’s defense allowing two touchdowns in the span of a minute and the Jets recovering an onside kick, a play with just a 16.1 per cent success rate last season.
The loss dropped the Browns to 1-1 on the season. The Pittsburgh Steelers visit Cleveland on Thursday night to kick off Week 3.