When Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb broke a tackle from New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed and scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to put his team up 13 points with under two minutes remaining in the game, it looked like it would go down as the game-sealing score. Instead, the Jets were celebrating on the sideline.
While the touchdown did make it difficult for the Jets to mount any sort of a comeback, it actually made it more likely than if Chubb had just simply gotten the first down and gone down. So in a strange turn of events, New York Jets coach Robert Saleh said he was glad Reed missed the tackle.
“I’ve never been so happy for a missed tackle in my life,” Saleh said after the game, according to Cleveland.com. “That was our only chance.”
Had Chubb gone down, the Browns could have run the clock down and closed out the victory. Instead, the Jets scored a quick touchdown, got the onside kick, then scored another touchdown in the final two minutes to pull off a stunning upset over Cleveland.
It’s hard to blame Chubb for not anticipating that his team would allow 14 points and an onside kick in the game’s final two minutes, but it is true that if he’d simply gone down instead of scoring, the Browns probably win the game.
