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The Browns ran the ball 18 times for 45 yards against the New York Jets. Those figures represent a season-low for the mighty Cleveland rushing attack.
It came in a game where the team figured to lean on the run. With the top four wide receivers all out due to a COVID-19 snafu and two inexperienced offensive linemen were thrust into action, an offense built around the prodigious talents of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt figures to be the one chance for the Browns offense to survive.
Instead, Baker Mayfield threw the ball 53 times. Hunt got just four carries, netting 11 yards. Chubb had a brutal day, managing just 28 yards on 11 carries and going down on first contact on almost every attempt.
Was the blocking good? No, no it was not. Rookie RG Nick Harris was badly overmatched by Jets DT John Franklin-Myers. Replacement left tackle Kendall Lamm and TE Harrison Bryant both whiffed on some blocks, too. There was very little room for Chubb and Hunt to run, but they didn’t exactly attack aggressively up the field either.
Was the game script favorable to running the ball? No, it was not either. But early in the game it was, and the Browns consciously chose to emphasize the pass. The first two drives featured nine passes and two Chubb runs. The Jets loaded the box ready for the run, but that has been a situation where Chubb can break the big play. The Browns didn’t stick with it, not even when the score situation favored the ground-and-pound.
It was a tactical error by the Browns coaching staff and Kevin Stefanski. The Browns have thrived all season by hitting big plays on the ground and setting up play-action off that. On a day with no receivers with any experience and a Jets defense missing its best player (DT Quinnen Williams) on the front, it was a poor choice.
It’s not the only reason the Browns lost. Mayfield fumbling on the final two drives was a killer, as were the inexcusable blown coverages that led to the Jets’ TD passes in the first half. But the run game was the one real chance the depleted Browns had to win the game, and they barely tried it.