Why the Chiefs ugly win over the Chargers was a thing of beauty

The Chiefs Can’t Run The Football Conventionally

The Chiefs ended Sunday with 106 yards rushing on 27 carries for a 3.9 yards per carry average. While those numbers aren’t much to write home about, they aren’t awful either. The real concern with this run game is the fact that it appears they have to get “cute” in order to generate rushing yards. K.C. simply cannot, at this point, line up and run the ball right at the defense and get any kind of positive yards.

The Chiefs run game is reliant on fake reverses, misdirections, and—possibly the most concerning—Patrick Mahomes option runs. Despite having the NFL’s reigning rushing champion Kareem Hunt, the offensive line looks so weak at generating push up the middle that the Chiefs are afraid to even try.

The defending rushing champion ended the day with 16 carries for 49 yards and a 3.1 yards per carry average. That’s just not good enough.

The Chiefs have an explosive assortment of weapons that could put them in a position like they were on Sunday where they are trying to protect leads late in games. In those situations you have to be able to run the football to both run the clock and rest your defense. On Sunday, the Chiefs didn’t do a good job of either of those things. Consequently the Chargers ended up running 74 offensive plays and dominating the time of possession.

That is the other thing that has to get fixed moving forward if the Chiefs want to be a true playoff contender and take some of the pressure off their defense.

Now let’s get to what went well.