Instead of saying 'no mas,' Cleveland Browns get no win in home opener vs. Jets | Takeaways

CLEVELAND − Two years ago, Nick Chubb made certain bettors furious. However, he made his Browns teammates ecstatic when he said "no mas" to adding to their lead in a three-point win over the Houston Texans by running out of bounds instead of scoring on a long run late.

On Sunday in the home opener against the Jets, Chubb scored the touchdown, albeit a much shorter one with a lot more congestion around him. The 12-yard run gave the Browns a 13-point lead with 1:55 remaining.

The clock would hit zero with the Jets, not the Browns, celebrating. The Jets scored 14 points in 93 seconds of game time to rally for a 31-30 victory.

Which leads us back to Chubb's touchdown run. The Browns have a call named "no mas" they use when they want the ball carrier to go down to essentially allow for them to run out the clock.

“That is a scenario where that is on me to communicate that to the huddle," coach Kevin Stefanski said after Sunday's game. "We have done that before. Having said that, we need to close that game out.”

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The Jets had used their final timeout two plays before Chubb's scoring run. The play after the timeout, Kareem Hunt was unable to stay in bounds with 2:02 remaining, stopping the clock before the two-minute warning.

On the next play, which was first down, Chubb ran to the left and beat the defense to the front corner of the end zone for a touchdown. The two-minute warning then came after the score.

"Look, at one point you're sitting on the bench and they have the opportunity to run the clock out," said Jets quarterback Joe Flacco, who completed 26 of 44 passes for 307 yards with four touchdowns, including 11 of 19 for 132 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. "Obviously when he scores, you are thinking, OK, that is not what he is supposed to do. But I am sure they were still thinking 'OK, it is 30-17.'"

The problem for the Browns, rightly or wrongly, wasn't that the Jets weren't about to say "no mas" at that point. The problem was, in the heat of the moment, they didn't either.

That was just one takeaway from what will go down as one of the most crushing defeats for the Browns in the past 24 years. Per ESPN Stats and Info, NFL teams had won the past 2,229 consecutive games when leading by at least 13 points in the final two minutes.

Of course, the last team to not do it was the Browns in a Week 9 game against the Bears in Chicago in 2001. They lost that one in overtime.

Browns passing offense, specifically Jacoby Brissett and Amari Cooper, was exceptional

The thing about the way Flacco and the Jets finished the game was that it overshadowed how Jacoby Brissett had started the game. The Browns quarterback had just one incompletion in the first half, and that one only came after the officials overturned a Donovan Peoples-Jones touchdown catch on his ninth throw of the game.

Brissett, who shook off what appeared to be an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, did not throw consecutive incompletions until his 18th and 19th pass attempts of the game. Even the first of those was nearly a score, but David Njoku couldn't quite get his feet down inbounds.

For the game, Brissett completed 22 of 27 passes for 229 yards with a touchdown. However, it'll be the one interception he threw, with six seconds remaining, that some remember.

The bigger takeaway was how Brissett and No. 1 target Amari Cooper had the breakthrough game that was hoped for by many. Cooper was targeted 10 times in the game, catching nine for 101 yards and a touchdown.

“I think it was just the flow of the game," Brissett said. "A lot of the ones that we got [defensive pass interference on] last week we didn’t this week, and we actually had a chance to connect. I thought he played well. Yeah, it was just more the flow of the game.”

Browns RBs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt wore down the Jets defense

There could be some situational criticisms directed at the Browns' two star running backs for the plays around the two-minute warning. There should be no criticisms about how they ran the football on Sunday, especially in the fourth quarter.

The Jets came into the game as the league's No. 3 rushing defense after Week 1, when it gave up just 63 yards on the ground in an opening loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The Browns ran for almost twice that in the final 15 minutes alone.

The Browns were limited to just 61 rushing yards on 20 carries through three quarters. Chubb was at 37 yards on 11 carries, and Hunt was at 10 yards on four runs.

Chubb ran for 50 yards on five carries in the fourth quarter, including two touchdowns. Hunt ran for 48 yards on nine carries in that same span.

"Just keep leaning," All-Pro guard Joel Bitonio said of the difference. "I think we have two great running backs and some great play calls. You know, it might not be pretty all the time, but I think if you keep learning and keep running it, I think we have enough guys that we're going to get a few breaks and we had a few big runs in the fourth quarter."

That helped the Browns run for 123 yards on 17 fourth-quarter runs. They finished with 184 yards as a team, with Chubb getting 87 yards and Hunt adding 58.

It's time to talk about the Browns' defensive miscues

The fact the offense has scored 26 and 30 points in the first two games of the season is a sign of potential, especially since that was expected to be a concern due to the situation at quarterback. The fact that hasn't translated into two wins, and almost was two losses, is reason to look at the defense.

What's most disconcerting about the defense's issues is that they're fundamental in nature. They're coverage snafus created by a lack of communication between not inexperienced players, but secondary players who have played together prior to this season.

Those miscommunications have allowed both the Panthers and Jets to completely erase double-digit deficits in the fourth quarter. Specifically, they allowed them to get back into the game in a blink of an eye.

Those miscommunications have also left the Browns at 1-1 coming out of an opening two-game stretch that it felt like they needed to go 2-0 through to set themselves up going forward. Now, with the Pittsburgh Steelers in town on Thursday, those miscues have put them in a crucial early season game which they have to win and do so against a team that has gotten the better of them more times than not in the past two decades.

That's the kind of situation in which the Browns have put themselves. It's the situation from which only they can get themselves out.

Contact Chris at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com.

On Twitter: @ceasterlingABJ

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns had chance to run out the clock, but ran into end zone