Newsletter: The Cost of Living in Shotgun

The only way the Browns can run the football in 2024 comes with significant sacrifice.

(Photo - Cleveland Browns)

Good morning. Hope the coffee is good and hope you have been able to get the Neuralyzer treatment from Men In Black and forget all about the Sunday football we were forced to sit through. Still amazes me the Browns have not won a regular season game in that stadium in over 20 years. I get the long stretch of ineptitude for the franchise but to not stumble into one victory there is insane. The playoff win was nice but that wasn’t in a packed Heinz (Acrisure) Field. It’s different with those fans in the stands and doing whatever the hell it is they do. The Tomlin Voodoo. That stupid song. All of it.

The Steelers have the Browns in, as I noted in the Gameday Newsletter, “The Gates of Hell” in that stadium. No other road venue does that to them. At least not to this degree. They had a real chance once again to end the drought and they couldn’t get out of their own way.

I spoke last week about the Browns fractured run game. How the decline started in 2022 and has been working into now the league’s worst rushing attack — or at least in that conversation as a few other teams could argue for the title. The biggest problem is their lack of identity that comes from these run game issues.

Last year, and to a greater degree this year, the Browns have been unable to muster any run game production from under-center. For the season the group is dead last in yards per rush (3.2) when the quarterback is under-center. That number has gone down to 2.2 yards per carry since Week 9. It is beyond a troubling concern and makes you think the franchise totally missed the mark on this identity, or at least to move off it quick enough. Yesterday they tried to get something moving with under-center looks early but two snaps of it they went away from it. You can deduce why.

The Steelers owned the line of scrimmage and played downhill fast. The Browns only got under-center to runt he ball three times and lost four yards. This is an all too common theme this season. So, the Browns have to live in shotgun and it’s not all bad as they certainly have run the ball far better from these looks.

Since Week 9 they are 17th in the NFL at 4.1 yards per carry and for the season they sit at the same number. Not good, but respectable. They pair it with some RPO schemes and just generally position and finesse block better than anything power or gap-down based. They also started pairing it with some quarterback read yesterday as well. Winston read the backside EDGE and pulled the ball for two nice gains.