Las Vegas has a glaring weakness on defense, and Cleveland has the ability to take advantage of it on Sunday
The Cleveland Browns have been the target of much-deserved criticism over the past couple of weeks, and the brunt of it has been focused on the offensive side of the ball.
Despite the overall meltdown in the passing game as of late the Browns’ run game has been fairly efficient. The main problem is that, for some reason, Kevin Stefanski and Ken Dorsey haven’t emphasized running the ball this year despite averaging 4.3 yards per carry when they do.
There’s a good chance that Cleveland’s offense will finally lean on the ground game on Sunday due to one publicly overlooked fact.
The Las Vegas Raiders currently have one of the worst rushing defenses in the league when it comes to EPA and is on pace for one of the league’s all-time worst in multiple categories.
Worst run defense in the NFL by a WHOPPING 0.123. pic.twitter.com/IfAZXQjMaJ
— Connor Livesay (@ConnorNFLDraft) September 24, 2024
Here are some of their stats and rankings when it comes to stopping the run in 2024:
Opp. rush yards per game: 152.7 (30th in NFL)
Opp. rush yards per carry: 5.4 (32nd in NFL)
Runs allowed of 20+ yards: 4 (T-31st in NFL)
The craziest aspect of this is that opposing offenses haven’t even been running the ball against them at an unusually high rate. Teams are averaging 28.3 rushes against them each week which is just slightly above “middle of the pack” right now.
If the Browns are going to have offensive success this weekend, it’s pretty safe to say that it will start on the ground. I’d expect to see Cleveland running the ball more than 22 times on Sunday, which is the number of rushes that they’re currently averaging per game.
A heavier dose of Jerome Ford and D’Onta Foreman will go a long way when it comes to the Browns’ chances of getting their second win of the season.
Are you confident that the Browns will run the ball more this weekend? Join fellow Browns fans in the comment section below.
