Opening kickoff touchdown from Bengals silences hyped Browns crowd in Week 7

The Cleveland Browns are finally home for Week 7 action against the Cincinnati Bengals, ending a grueling three game road trip which the team left 1-5. But, headed into the game, Browns fans had something big to cheer for despite the team coming back home with such a poor record - Nick Chubb's return.

Chubb, who is coming back from a catastrophic knee injury in Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2023, was back in the lineup and active. He received a very lively reaction from the crowd as he was introduced at Huntington Bank Stadium, officially marking his comeback from yet another season-ending knee injury.

Unfortunately, as has been the case for much of this Browns season, that hype lived for just a few moments. On the opening kickoff, the Bengals received a ball right at the goal line and managed to avoid all Browns defenders to return it for an opening return touchdown. The Browns crowd was understandably silenced after being so excited to see Chubb return and, hopefully, a shockingly good performance from the Browns offense overall. Still plenty of game left, but this return was a true shot to the heart.

Chubb's performance through one drive

Chubb was targetted fairly often on the first drive of the game for Cleveland after that touchdown. That is a great sign for the Browns, as they need to find looks on offense outside of Watson's arm and the team's thinned wide receiver room. Chubb saw two targets - one drop off pass for short yardage that he was unable to corral and one carry for almost enough yards to get a third down conversion.

No such luck on that conversion attempt, but you have to imaging that Chubb will be getting a ton of those looks and carries throughout this contest against an average run defense O-line like Cincinnati's. Chubb seemed primed for a fairly small workload in Week 7, but given an injury to RB Jerome Ford and the fact that Cleveland was immediately on the defensive thanks to that opening score from Cincinnati, Chubb will probably see a good chunk of carries in the game.

This is a great sign if you are a Browns fan despite the score. If trainers and coaches feel good enough to send Chubb out for multiple carries per drive, and specifically on carries meant to convert on third downs, it means he is strong enough for a few big runs. Time to see if Chubb is ready to carry this struggling offense.