The Cleveland Browns play the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday and if they want to win the game they need to “run the damn ball”. We did some mid-season research and looked at the season thus far the Browns and the evidence is pretty clear that when they run the ball then this team wins ballgames.

Over the last three weeks, Cleveland and their coach Kevin Stefanski have decided to go away from what has brought them success this season. To say that they are trying to force the issue might not be exactly the right use of words here, but Stefanski has certainly shown his hand with his desire to throw the ball. Considering too that he’s had quarterbacks rookie Dorian Thompson Robinson and aging 38-year-old Joe Flacco flinging the ball around the yard just doesn’t make any sense.

Some here will likely try to argue that the team was down in previous games and had to throw the ball and that’s simply wrong. These same folks are defenders of Stefanski to the end and love to try and tell other Browns fans that they don’t know anything about play calling and football and those views are just smug and cocky.

Browns fans know more about football than most and these proponents of Stefanski and his play-calling genius need to stop putting down these fans. While I’ve been critical of Stefanski’s play calling over the last four seasons, he’s called a pretty good game most times this season.

However, when you start looking at what is actually working for the Browns and producing wins, Stefanski and his team of coaches need to settle back to running the ball if they want to get to the playoffs.

Cleveland has had their quarterback throw the ball 40 times or more in four games. Three of those games have all occurred in the last three weeks. The team is 1-3 in those battles. On the other hand, when Cleveland has run the ball in games as many or more than passing the ball they are 4-1. That means they are 3-4 in games where the pass was thrown more than the rushing attempts.

Cleveland should be a running team. The weather, the grass field and its identity now and historically have always centered around the run. These social media analysts that we all follow and get sucked into believing all the time love to say that you can’t win in the NFL without passing first. That theory is just bogus. You can share every stat in the book but in Cleveland, we run the damn ball.

The weather might be frightful tomorrow down at the stadium and for that matter probably for the remaining home games. Hopefully, Stefanski gets the memo and runs the ball for the rest of the season.