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Film Room: What Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell bring to the Browns running game

Jason Bridge / USA TODAY Sports

Look closely and you can see potential in the Cleveland Browns’ running game.

Cleveland overhauled its coaching staff this summer and brought in offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan to fix its running woes. In years past, Cleveland was reliant on plodders like Trent Richardson and Willis McGahee. Richardson didn’t have vision to find lanes, while McGahee was on his last legs. Neither cracked four yards per run in 2013 nor do they fit Shanahan’s scheme.

Shanahan’s runs are based on zone blocking and stretch runs are heavily used. They get defenses going laterally so the runner can sift out where alleys are and get downhill. Every step is important and can’t be wasted. It needs a runner who can consistently pick up a minimum of four yards and every now and then break a run or two. It’s a strict discipline.

Ben Tate knows. He spent three years in Houston under former head coach Gary Kubiak, who learned the offense under Kyle Shanahan’s father, Mike. After serving as a backup, Tate left for Cleveland to be a starter. His familiarity with zone blocking made it an easy transition.

It showed in Pittsburgh during Week 1. Tate’s first regular-season game as a Brown was against the Steelers and he carved them up. He ran six times for 41 yards, a 6.8 yard per carry average. He was decisive and comfortable, turning corners quickly while watching for cutback lanes.

He ripped off a 25-yard run in the second quarter when he burst past a linebacker in the backfield and later duped another to the outside after cutting back across the numbers and near hash with his slinky style. 

Eventually, he was tackled and left the game, like always.

That’s the problem with Tate. You can never rely on him. For all his talent, he’s always been more useful in finding out more about how the body breaks down. The Browns aren’t panicking, though; they drafted Terrance West in the third round in April.

West will be the main back for the next two to four weeks and his style is similar to Tate's. At 5-foot-10, 225 lbs., he’s quick and agile, making people miss at the line and the second level. He runs hard even though he’s sometimes too fast to the line and fights for yards after contact even though his pad level is sometimes too high. He also likes to cutback.

On his first carry of the third quarter against the Steelers, West looked like a veteran on a stretch run. He patiently read his blocks and ran outside. He passed by the right tackle and turned his shoulders to the sideline. A Steelers linebacker watched him and aggressively ran toward the sideline despite a cornerback forcing the run back inside next to him. 

When he and West met at the line, West sliced the grass with his left foot and cut inside, leaving the linebacker on his knees. He hurdled another defender and cut back again, hurdling another before finally being tackled.

“A 22-yard rip for the rookie West!” a commentator said.

West is a pup among dawgs. He’s still learning when to cut and when not to. Sometimes he cuts too much. Other times he’s too slow to. That’s the main concern with him.

In Shanahan’s offense, he can’t take too many steps to cut because he’ll end up running into his own linemen. That’s what Richardson does on stretch runs with the Indianapolis Colts. Blockers come across fast with their down blocks and when the back’s not at the same speed, the offense is slow moving.

Later in the third quarter against the Steelers, West took too long to slash inside off of the right guard’s inside hip. It was a stretch run. He took three steps to commit to the alley between the center and left tackle despite a lurking linebacker in the next gap to the right. There wasn’t anywhere else he could have run. Still he was hesitant. Unsure. He took another three steps to jump-cut and nearly ran into the left leg of the center where he was ganged up on by the Steelers and pushed to pickup four yards.

When West isn’t running in place of Tate, rookie Isaiah Crowell is.

He went undrafted after a troubled history at Georgia, where he was dismissed to Alabama State. He’s more talented than either of the two above him on the depth chart, but he needs to be reliable. Cleveland needs him to be decisive and powerful. He has the potential to be and they know it.

They barely played him in the preseason. Before the finale against the Chicago Bears, he ran twice all preseason and then he ran 13 times for 102 yards. Some believe the Browns were secretly trying to stash him away and still wanted to see what he could do if he made their roster. When he made it, he became part of a potentially dangerous three-headed rotation.

When he filled in during West’s breaks on Sunday, his potential became reality. He carried five times for 32 yards and two touchdowns! What makes him a good fit in Shanahan’s scheme is he doesn’t take too long to get downfield. He sticks his foot in the ground and lowers his pads.

His first touchdown was decisive. He ran from pistol set and took two steps to straighten his pads. His pads were low and the ball was tucked away. Crowell ran with a forward lean and dove through a cutback lane behind the left tackle for a three-yard score.

His second touchdown was similar. He showed patience and vision for 15 yards. He took a stretch handoff to his right where two alleys were forming. One was down the middle, the other to his right.

He ran right, where the center and a tight end led the way with a crater-sized hole. Then Crowell had another two-way go: right, toward the sideline and risk getting tackled short of the goal line or cutback inside two outside blocks and dive in.

He smartly chose the second and slashed forward, squaring his shoulders and tightening his grip as he dove into the end zone when a defensive lineman lunged at his feet.

“Isaiah ... Crowell,” a commentator said, impressed.

Crowell, West and Tate have the talent to be the league’s best group of running backs. They aren’t perfect, but they complement each other well. Tate brings experience in Shanahan’s zone blocking scheme. West is explosive with jump cuts and likely to stay healthier than Tate. And Crowell brings a decisive, downhill style that fits the scheme well.

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