'We can't point the finger': Amari Cooper, Nick Chubb focus on their role in Browns' loss

BEREA − Amari Cooper had a chance to secure the game late in the fourth quarter for the Browns. All he needed to do was either recover the onside kick or bat it out of bounds.

Nick Chubb had a chance to allow the Browns to run out the clock on the final two minutes. All he had to do was fight all of his instincts and not score a touchdown.

Cooper was unable to either recover the onside kick or bat it out of bounds. Chubb did what his instincts told him and scored to provide a 13-point lead.

Both became mitigating circumstances in what turned into an epic collapse Sunday to the New York Jets. Neither were the only reason why the Browns find themselves at 1-1 instead of 2-0, but both were not necessarily insignificant things either.

Both Chubb and Cooper are among the more reserved players on the Browns. Yet, on Tuesday, both acknowledged their own part in one of the NFL's the biggest regular-season collapses in recent years.

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"That’s all we can do," Chubb said Tuesday. "We can’t point the finger, because we all took a part in it, we all played a role in what happened collectively as a team. Everybody has something to do with it."

Of the two, Cooper's role was clearly a more in-the-moment game-changer. The Browns led 30-24 with 1:22 remaining when he joined the rest of the hands team on the field, needing just to make sure the Jets didn't get the ball back.

Cooper lined up on the right side of the formation, opposite the side it appeared like Jets punter Braden Mann was going to send the onside kick. Instead, Mann kicked it directly toward Cooper, who lingered back for a moment.

During that moment's hesitation, the Jets' Will Parks dove in to deflect the ball and Justin Hardee recovered it at the Jets 47. Nine plays later, Joe Flacco hit Garrett Wilson on a 15-yard slant route to set up Greg Zuerlein's go-ahead point-after kick.

“It was my play to make, and I didn’t make it to sum it up in a few words,” Cooper said Tuesday.

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Cooper had worked on the Browns' hands team throughout the offseason program and training camp. He had also been on the hands team in previous stops with the Raiders and Cowboys, although he wasn't on it in his final season in Dallas last year.

Regardless, Cooper said there were two correct options on the play, but did neither.

"Just more aggressive," Cooper said of how he should've handled the play. "It's a relatively new style of onside kicking the ball now. Usually they pop it up in the air and you go grab it, get hit or whatever like that. But it's kind of a new way of teams onside kicking the ball to where you don't really know if it's going to go 10 yards it's moving at an awkward angle, more difficult to locate the ball and make a play on it. Because on one hand you want to get to the ball as fast as possible but on the other hand you don't want to misjudge the ball. So it's just more difficult. But at the end of the day you've gotta make those type of plays."

Chubb's role in the matter became a bigger deal in the aftermath than in the moment. The Browns had a first down at the Jets 12 with 2:02 remaining and the Jets out of timeouts.

The clock was already stopped because Kareem Hunt had gone out of bounds on the previous play, a 12-yard run on a sweep to the left. If Hunt had stayed inbounds, the clock would've run down to the two-minute warning, opening the door to the Browns to take three kneel-downs to run out the clock.

The next play, Chubb also ran to the left and found a seam to the end zone. The score, in the moment to most, seemed like the right move in giving the Browns a 30-17 lead after Cade York's missed PAT with 1:55 remaining.

"I think the first-down marker was at the 1 or 2 and the goal line is right there, too," Chubb said. "I probably could have got down. It would have been third and short, third and inches, but it probably could have happened. I could have went out of bounds, but people were behind and they would have pushed me in or something like that. I probably should have just dropped down after I made the cut.”

The decision to score instead of doing that became a hot topic in hindsight. Had Chubb gotten the first down at the 2 and gone down, it would've allowed the Browns to come out of the two-minute warning and kneel out the clock.

That Chubb was involved invoked flashbacks to a 2020 win over the Houston Texans in which he ran out of bounds late while loose on a 59-yard run to preserve a 10-7 win. In that case, the players had been told by coach Kevin Stefanski to do just that, with the term for such a move being "no mas."

“We all work together," Chubb said. "We all communicate. But at the end of the day, I’ve been in that situation before and so I really can’t put it on anyone but myself at this point. I think the biggest thing is I was aware of what was going on and I thought the game was over if I’m being honest.

“Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have scored right there. Honestly looking back at it, it cost us the game. A lot of things went wrong, not just one thing. But collectively as a until as a team we could have all done things different, but it’s only a problem because we didn’t win. So I probably should have went down.”

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. The Browns know playing the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" game is counterproductive, especially so early in the season.

That more the case in the circumstance the Browns find themselves in this week. Four days after the epic meltdown, they'll return to the same stadium to play a crucial early-season AFC North game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“We have a very, very accountable group," coach Kevin Stefanski said. "Having said that, I have addressed those things, put it on me and those type of things. The players do not hide from it. I do not hide from it. For us, the focus really goes to Thursday night.”

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Amari Cooper, Nick Chubb accept roles in Browns' setback