Run The Damn Ball?

The Gipper

Most of the commentators I heard that discussed this game were scratching their heads as to why the Browns did not give the ball to TR more in the second half. I guess he had 10 carries in the first half, but only 4 in the second half. I know he also caught a few passes. Is it because the Browns were behind and "had" to throw?

On that int. the Browns were in like a 2d and 5 near the red zone. Instead of making risky passes, why not hand it off to a sure handed RB.

More of Shurmur's blundering? Possibly.

I will say that that int. was the difference in the game.

The Gipper

In terms of stats, here is how things were in this game:

Richardson: 14 carries for 47 yds 3.4 avg. 1 TD 4 receptions for 57 yards

compare:

Rice: 18 carries for 49 yards 2.7 avg. 8 receptions for 47 yards.

(certainly TR didn't take a backseat in this game)

QBs:

Weeden: 25/52 for 320 yards with 1 int.

Flacco: 28/46 for 356 yards with 1 TD and 1 int.

Here is the big difference:

Boldin 8 catches for 131 yards

Little (Browns top receiver) 4 catches for 77 yards.

Now, just imagine how close the number of Weeden would be (and how close Little's would be) if Little had simply held on to say just half of the balls he dropped.

I don't know if there are statistics on it, but I bet that Little dropped 50 some yards of passes that were in his hands. Had he caught them his yardage numbers would have been about the same as Boldin's who made all his catches.

Weeden probably would have surpassed Flacco's yardage numbers, if not his completion % numbers.

CLEVELandMILIDH

I agree, I was gonna post a thread at halftime saying "Run the fucking rock Shurmur". But they Scored, so I kept quite.

We never run the ball twice in a row. Its either run on first down pass on 2nd and 3rd. Or its pass 1st down, run second, pass third. Its so obvious the defense has to know whether were running or passing just bye what we do on 1st down. Trent had to be averaging around 4yds a carry on a team that nobody can run against, and we never gave him the ball. I don't get it.