Browns’ offensive snap counts, stats, and notes: Week 10

Below, we analyze the snap counts and stats on offense for the Cleveland Browns’ Week 10 game against the Houston Texans.

• We saw a near-identical performance from Baker Mayfield in the same weather conditions. He didn’t turn the ball over and came up with some big throws when needed. I thought Mayfield also did a great job on the first drive of picking up the bad snap and throwing it away — Jarvis Landry seemed close enough to the area, so I hated to see a grounding flag thrown on that.

• Nick Chubb got the start, but Kareem Hunt took more snaps, as the team wanted to ease Chubb back into action. By the end of the game, though, they each ended up with 19 carries and, incredibly, over 100 yards rushing.
• Chubb was a little rusty with his vision and getting his “feel” for the game in the first half. What I loved seeing was Hunt’s running in this game — he was not going down easily, and it made me think that the injuries he had for a few weeks was slowing him down, but the bye week got his strength back.
• In the fourth quarter, Chubb started to find his groove, including his cutback on the touchdown run and then the stop/start ability on the final run of the game for 59 yards. Statistically, it was funny because that carry took Chubb from about 3.7 yards per carry to 6.6 yards per carry on the game.
• Pro Football Focus pointed out that the Browns ran the ball on 64% of their snaps, the second-highest mark by a team in 2020:

Over 64% of their total offensive plays were rushes — the second-highest rate in a single game by any team this season. Chubb and Kareem Hunt combined for seven explosive runs of 10 or more yards. Five of those runs came in the fourth quarter, with two on the final drive that helped seal the win for the Browns.

• Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins, and KhaDarel Hodge each played 58% of the snaps. Landry wanted to have a big game and make up for some lapses the past few weeks, but he didn’t send the right message by earning a 15-yard penalty for spiking the ball and staring at the defender after the catch.
• I’m sure these receivers are dying for weather without wind again so they can get a tad more involved in the passing game again. Higgins was Mr. Reliable again, coming up with a few key sideline catches. That reliability with Baker Mayfield is becoming evident not just to fans now, but the current coaching staff, which hopefully helps him earn a contract extension.
• Donovan Peoples-Jones caught two short passes on his 16 snaps.

• The tight ends were not involved much in the passing game this week, which makes sense when the team ran the ball 64% of the time. In his return game, Austin Hooper played 85% of the snaps.

• Welcome back, Wyatt Teller! He was sorely missed, and Teller graded out with a monstrous grade of 96.4, dominating in run blocking. That grade comes despite the one whiff he had in pass blocking that led to a sack (the only one of the game for Houston).

• Not only that, Pro Football Focus approved of the performance by LT Jedrick Wills:

Jedrick Wills Jr. continued his run of strong pass-blocking for a rookie left tackle — he didn’t allow a single pressure and lost just one rep in total on 22 pass-block snaps for the game. Granted, he was helped out some by the offense, as he saw just five true pass sets all game long. It was still an impressive performance nonetheless.

The real good news with Wills’ performance is that he wasn’t a poor performer in the run game. He had entered this one with five straight run-blocking game grades below 60.0, and it looks like he will end that streak here. It still wasn’t spectacular by any means, but Wills wasn’t hindering the team’s rushing success like he had been in recent weeks.