CLEVELAND: Sometimes the numbers just don’t compute in sports.
That proved to be the case for the Browns on Sunday in a 23-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium — at least when it came to the running game. Despite the score, the Browns rolled up 169 yards on 22 carries for 7.7 yards per attempt.
That average per carry is the eighth-highest in Browns history and team’s best since Dec. 3, 1978 against the Seattle Seahawks.
“The guys did a great job blocking, running and maneuvering,” quarterback Robert Griffin III said. “When you rush for that many yards, you definitely expect the outcome to be a little bit different.”
But the result was the same in a season that feels more like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day as the Browns fell to 0-13.
It was the first time the Browns rushed for more than 100 yards as a team since the last time they played the Bengals, when quarterback Kevin Hogan led the charge with 104 yards. In the five games since, the Browns rushed for 237 yards — an average of 47.4 yards per game.
Running back Isaiah Crowell, with a long run of 42 yards, nearly got that on a single carry. He finished with 113 yards on 10 rushes for an 11.3 average.
“That was another one of the areas, as I told you, that we need to get the running game back to going,” said Crowell, the first Browns running back with three 100-yard games in a season since Trent Richardson in 2012. “That part of it we did OK, not great, but better. We have to continue to get better at it.”
Crowell deflected much of the credit for his success to the team’s much-criticized offensive line.
“I feel like our line did a great job in opening up lanes for me to run,” he said. “I feel like Duke [Johnson Jr.] and I did a great job, along with the offensive line.”
That Crowell’s production, which included a couple of runs on which he showed bursts of speed, came on a field that was slowly deteriorating because of a light but steady snowfall didn’t escape Browns left tackle Joe Thomas.
“I think Crow was doing a great job running hard. When you get conditions that are a little sloppy and snowy, I think Crow is the perfect type of running back,” Thomas said. “He runs with his whole cleat in the ground. He doesn’t slip and he makes guys miss. He is the type of guy you want out there when you have tough conditions.”
In the first half, however, it was as if the Browns’ coaching staff forgot Crowell existed. He had just four carries for 27 yards, with a long of 19 yards, in the first two quarters while the Browns were falling behind 20-0.
Crowell said he didn’t know why he didn’t receive more attempts in the first half, but Thomas offered a theory.
“I think early on maybe we get a few run calls, and if they don’t go for the four yards and you’re not on track [for a first down], it’s hard as an offensive coordinator to call them again,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if that was the case today.”
Right tackle Austin Pasztor, who played alongside new starting guard Jonathan Cooper, a four-year veteran who spent time with New England and Arizona, said the execution was better in the second half. Much of Crowell’s yardage came behind that side of the line, almost all of it in the second half.
“We can’t play in spurts,” coach Hue Jackson said. “We can’t play not well enough in the first half and then come out in the second half and do some things better and think you can catch a good team because they have good players, too. We have to find a way to start faster.”
George M. Thomas can be reached at gmthomas@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeorgeThomasABJ.