Cleveland star running back Nick Chubb will miss the rest of the season after sustaining a “significant” knee injury in last night’s 26-22 loss at Pittsburgh as a two-point road favorite.
I was at my computer when the injury happened and fortunately wasn’t watching. However, my volume was on and hearing Chubb screaming in agony was extremely difficult to listen to.
I was watching live when Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theismann’s leg on Monday Night Football back in the 1980s. That was the worst injury I had witnessed until seeing Alabama WR Tyrone Prothro sustain a grotesque leg fracture that ended his career and hospitalized him for weeks in a 2005 win over Florida.
Then there was the unfathomable knee injury to South Carolina RB Marcus Lattimore vs. Tennessee on Oct. 27 of 2012. It ended Lattimore’s career that was so promising that the 49ers still selected him with a fourth-round pick in hopes that he could recover and get back to his old self.
His recovery unfortunately wasn’t meant to be, and Lattimore never played again.
The Lattimore injury literally had me sick to my stomach for hours. Since then, I try to turn my head and avoid all replays of injuries of this nature. And from everything I’ve heard from last night’s announcers and post-game analysis, Chubb’s injury was on a similar level.
Pittsburgh star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick delivered the hit to Chubb’s knee and was also injured on the play. Both men were taken to local hospitals before being released later Monday night.
According to the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Fitzpatrick is believed to have suffered a chest contusion, but scans were negative, and the Steelers are optimistic that he’ll be fine moving forward.
According to Josina Anderson of CBS Sports, Chubb’s hospital visit was precautionary to see if he had any critical circulatory issues around his knee. There weren’t any and he’s expected to undergo more testing this morning.
The 27-year-old Chubb ran for 106 yards on 18 attempts in Cleveland’s 24-3 season-opening home win over Cincinnati last week. He had already produced 64 rushing yards on 10 attempts before suffering the injury last night.
The University of Georgia product ran for a career-high 1,525 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2022, averaging 5.1 yards per carry. Chubb has produced at least 996 rushing yards in all five seasons with the Browns since they selected him early in the second round with the No. 35 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
In 77 career regular-season games, Chubb has 6,511 rushing yards, 48 TDs and a 5.3 YPC average. He also has 123 career receptions for 1,011 yards and four TDs.
With Chubb sidelined, backup RB Jerome Ford had 106 rushing yards on 16 attempts. He also had three catches for 25 yards and one TD.
Ford, who Cleveland selected in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Cincinnati, had 12 rushing yards on merely eight attempts as a rookie. He’s run for 142 yards with a 4.6 YPC average so far this season.
The Browns host Tennessee in Week 3 and as of Tuesday morning, most books had Cleveland installed as a 3.5-point favorite with the total in the 40.5 to 41.5 range.
Cleveland and Pittsburgh are both 1-1 straight up and against the spread. The Steelers rallied to prevail thanks to TJ Watt’s sack, forced fumble and scoop-and-score TD on Deshaun Watson, who also threw a pick-six in the first quarter to Alex Highsmith.