Nick Chubb Running Out Of Bounds At The 1 Cost Browns Bettors A Cover

The Cleveland Browns never trailed on Sunday in blustery conditions that caused a 35 minute delay before kickoff of their game against the Houston Texans. Cleveland took a 3-0 lead on their first drive of the game and then neither team scored until a Nick Chubb touchdown with 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter put the Browns up 10-0.

Houston would manage to find the end zone with five minutes left to make it 10-7, and suddenly Browns bettors were in for a sweat. The Browns were between -3.5 and -3 favorites depending on the sportsbook of your choice, and as such they were either going to push or lose without a score on their last drive. That required a borderline miracle, but wasn’t out of the realm of possibility. When Nick Chubb broke free down the sideline on a toss play, it appeared a lock you would win no matter what number you got Cleveland at, but Chubb — having seen fellow Georgia alum Todd Gurley make the wrong move by scoring a touchdown to allow too much time — stepped out at the 1 with no one around him to let the Browns put two knees on it to end the game at 10-7.

It’s a bad beat and also probably the deserved outcome for Browns bettors, as there wasn’t a lot of hope prior to that play for a cover, but there’s nothing worse than thinking you have a loss, then suddenly getting hope for a win, only to have it ripped away from you in this kind of manner. Honestly, there wasn’t really a great math argument for or against this move by Chubb, as it was pretty much a lock for Cleveland to win either way as they’d go up by 10 (not, say, a touchdown to make it a one score game) and it still required two non-fumbled snaps to win on knees.

That said, it wasn’t the wrong play either and the Browns got the win, just not the cover to the dismay of everyone with that -3.5 ticket.