The Cleveland Browns defeated the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season 26-24 in heart-stopping fashion. The Browns controlled the game for the most part but found themselves down 24-23 with just over a minute remaining on the clock.
Buy Browns TicketsThe rest is history including the legend of kicker Cade York, the great hands of Donovan Peoples-Jones and the first Week 1 road victory for Cleveland since Bill Belichick was in town.
There are things that need to be cleaned up as the team opens the season, especially with the passing offense and huge blown coverages on defense. For now, the emphasis is on the win and what went well.
Here are three (really five) impressive statistics from the Browns victory:
6.4
RB Nick Chubb’s average yard per carry was 6.4.
Normally large yard-per-carry averages are based on only a few carries or skewed by a really long run. For Chubb, neither of those were the case. Instead, Chubb carried the ball 22 times with a long of just 25 yards.
With the passing game limited with QB Jacoby Brissett, riding Chubb and getting strong production will be vital this season.
1/0
The Panthers had 1 sack, star defensive end Brian Burns had none.
Burns has had 25.5 sacks through his first three years. What is more impressive is that Cleveland was able to protect Brissett with James Hudson III starting in place of Jack Conklin and Ethan Pocic taking over at center.
A little bonus stat, Carolina only got hits on Brissett four times.
4/2
The Browns had 4 sacks, star defensive end Myles Garrett had 2 (should have been 3)
Despite the Panthers working to get the ball out of QB Baker Mayfield’s hands quickly, Cleveland was able to get a lot of pressure on him. Garrett had two straight sacks including a strip sack to end a drive. Earlier, Mayfield fumbled a snap which he jumped on and Garrett downed him. The official scorer called it a tackle for loss instead of a sack.
The Browns hit Mayfield six times and deflected passes seven times.
