What's Wrong with the Cleveland Browns' Rush Defense?

It’s like Groundhog Day all over again. Stop me if you have heard this one before: The Cleveland Browns can’t stop the run.

Despite three solid efforts in a row, the Browns slipped back down into their old ways and let the Houston Texans run wild on them on Sunday.

When a team rushes the ball 54 times, it is never a good thing. When a team rushes for 213 yards, it is even worse. When a backup running back is the one who does that to you, it is time to truly evaluate what you are doing on defense.

“It was fun out there,” Houston running back Alfred Blue said. “I was running the ball behind my offensive line and they were making some great blocks. The receivers were making blocks. It was really like playing in the backyard.”

Blue rushed for 156 yards on 36 carries Sunday and never gave the Browns a shot. This allowed the Texans to dominate the time of possession and hold the ball for a whopping 33 minutes and 53 seconds of the game.

So what went wrong? After holding two of the last three teams to fewer than 90 rushing yards, why was Sunday so different?

The answer is more complex than you might think.

The first and most obvious reason is that the Browns lost their big man in the middle before this game. After returning from knee surgery in Week 10, defensive lineman Phil Taylor lasted just one game before heading back to injured reserve with yet another knee injury.

Taylor is a 6’3”, 335 pound space-eater. He commands double-teams and can still make one-armed tackles in the run game. He does not post flashy stats, but you would be hard-pressed to find a team in the NFL who wouldn’t want him on their defensive line.

In his one game back from injury, the Browns dominated the Cincinnati Bengals and held them to 86 rushing yards and no touchdowns.

Sunday’s performance can’t completely be blamed on the loss of Taylor, however. In the first four games of the season, which he played in, the Browns allowed 610 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.

This problem is bigger than even Taylor.

"

That Cleveland run defense.

— Andrea Hangst (@FBALL_Andrea) November 16, 2014"

The Browns came into the week ranked 28th in the league in rushing defense, allowing 134 yards per game. That is after allowing just 92 yards per game and zero total touchdowns on the ground in their last three contests.

All those games had something in common, however. Those opponents gave up on the run. The three lowest rushing totals against the Browns this year were in the last three weeks, with 21, 26 and 22 attempts.

Consider this: The Texans manhandled the Browns in the run game on Sunday and rushed the ball over 50 times. They averaged 3.9 yards per carry.

The Bengals couldn’t move the ball on the Browns at all less than two weeks ago and ran it just 22 times. They averaged 3.9 yards per carry.

The difference between the Browns being good against the run and allowing opponents to become fantasy stars is the opposing offensive coordinator’s commitment to running the ball.

Opponent	Att	Yards	TDs
@ PIT	29	127	2
NO	27	174	1
BAL	33	160	1
@ TEN	30	149	1
PIT	32	138	0
@ JAX	35	185	2
OAK	21	76	0
TB	26	113	0
@CIN	22	86	0
HOU	54	213	0

Opponents who have rushed the ball at least 29 times are averaging 162 yards and have scored six rushing touchdowns. Teams that do not are averaging 112 yards per game and scored just twice once the ground.

When the opponent decides it is going to impose its will on the Browns and then sticks to the game plan, it tends to work this season.

According to Team Rankings, opponents rush on first down against the Browns 37.04 percent of the time. That is highest in the NFL. That means teams know it will work. Team Rankings also indicates the Browns are allowing 8.0 rushing first downs per game. That is tied for second-worst in the league.

Teams are starting sets of downs on the ground and moving the chains there as well.

The Browns were getting better in this department. Perhaps they deserve some of the credit for forcing their opponents away from the run game over the last three weeks and keeping their attempts down.

So why did that change on Sunday?

The Browns were out-schemed by a mile against the Texans. Their offensive coordinator, Rick Dennison, knew that not only did he need to give the Browns a heavy dose of the run, but he needed to stretch out their depth as well.

With Taylor and Armonty Bryant out for the year, and with both Billy Winn and Desmond Bryant on the injury report, the Texans decided to hurry up the pace and keep the Browns' personnel on the field longer.

This limited the amount of times they could substitute on the line and gassed out the big men.

“We had a hard time stopping their run game,” cornerback Joe Haden said after the loss. “They kept going with the hurry-up tempo and we struggled against it.”

It didn’t help matters that the Texans came into the game with the fourth-best rushing offense in the NFL, averaging 137 yards per contest. They have been able to run the ball on every opponent they have faced this season.

That does not change the fact that the Browns need to find some answers—and find them quickly. As of now, every opposing coordinator preparing for the Browns knows exactly what he is going to do. He is going to feed his running backs until the the clock runs out.

The ones who stay committed to the run have beaten up the Browns on the ground. The Browns will still see the ninth- and 10th-best rushing offenses on their upcoming schedule. Those teams won’t forget about the run. Those teams will make the Browns prove they can stop it.

If they can’t, they will find themselves with plenty more losses like the one Sunday to Houston.

All quotes and observations were acquired firsthand unless otherwise noted.