And then there was Chuba Hubbard. At times this year injured and nearly forgotten, he got back to the kind of metronomic running that established him and this team a year ago. When you need hard yards, ugly yards, in the cold and the rain, he’s your guy. So on a day when they wanted to clutch and grab against a better team, to kill clock and keep it close so they’d have a chance late, it was a day practically created for Chuba Hubbard. And he answered early with the attention-getting (the fans’ and the Rams’) touchdown, and also those late slam-it-up-the-middle-for-5s late.
“I said this a few weeks ago that I prayed so many times for moments like this,” Hubbard said. “Been in Carolina five years now, and the goal has been to bring wins to Carolina, bring good football to Carolina, no matter how that looks. So that’s always been my goal. I know that’s been the goal of other guys that have been here since way back as well, and to see it come to light now, it’s just a blessing.”
Hubbard’s the show-up-early-stay-late guy of the organization. Three hours before kickoff on the Jugs machine, an hour before every practice. He also has the gift of bringing guys with him, the power of example that makes him worth rewarding, which is why they did. He’s not going to do it any differently today, either.
“Things don’t just change overnight, and we saw glimpses of it last year,” Hubbard said. “And we just kept chopping away, kept chopping away, finished the way we wanted to this year. Obviously a little choppy start, but we got back to our ball and our process and it just kind of started coming to light, so it feels good.”
Hubbard noted, because it’s intrinsic in him, that “I still feel we haven’t played our best.” But there were moments in the huddle Sunday when he felt it coming, when the receivers and tight end were looking for chances to block rather than passes to catch, joining the linemen in a day built around the ground game (35 attempts for him and Rico Dowdle after they got a not-enough nine in San Francisco).
“Everybody just wanted to pound the ball and run and win the game that way,” Hubbard said. “It was crazy. Everybody was just like, Hey, run that, run it towards me or bring it over here. Everyone in the huddle was saying that, so to have guys that are unselfish enough to be like whatever it takes to win, I’m going to do it, it’s a special team.”