There is a misconception. Sometimes people point to the attempts and say, see, they abandoned the run, but the reality is that when the run game is ineffective, you don't have as many plays. When you don't get first downs, you punt, and the other team gets the ball.
If you run it poorly on first and second down, you typically are third and long and if you don't make it, you will punt and may not get the ball back for many minutes. Hence you get 2 rushing attempts on the drive.
More plays equals more chances to run so when you run it poorly, of course, you are going to have less attempts.. You could go by the percentage of runs vs passes, but when you are constantly doing poorly on 1st down, chances are you are being put into a position of either passing or punting.
