Chiefs surprise Texans by relying on run game in Week 1
It was surprising how much the Kansas City Chiefs ran the ball in Week 1.
Andy Reid is somewhat notorious for not running the ball. In fact, during Thursday night’s telecast of the Kansas City Chiefs win over the Houston Texans, the stat crew threw something interesting out there.
In 2019, the Chiefs ran the ball the least of any Super Bowl champion in history, with an average of 23.68 rushes per game. That was actually slightly less than the 24 rushes per game the team registered in 2018.
Much has been made the last several seasons of the reduced value of running the ball. Throwing the ball is a more efficient way to play, especially when you have a player like Patrick Mahomes making the throws. Even so, Thursday night’s performance showcased a unique side of the Chiefs offense—one we haven’t seen in the last two years.
The Chiefs ran the ball 34 times in Week 1, with the bulk of those carries going to rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire who posted an impressive debut line of 25 carries for 138 yards and 1 touchdown. He displayed his unique ability most prominently at the beginning of the third quarter with a dazzling 27-yard run, where he froze multiple defenders in their tracks with his violent cuts.
The Chiefs offense was expected to score points, but the reliance upon the run was not. In the two seasons Mahomes has served as the starting quarterback, the team has only eclipsed 30 rushes in a game on three occasions, but all of those games come up short of the 34 carries in last night’s performance. In fact, of all the teams that made the playoffs in those two years the Chiefs ran the ball the fewest times on average.
Is this an evolution of mindset on the part of Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy or simply a short-lived aberration? The former would make some sense, as they spent a highly valuable draft pick on Clyde Edwards-Helaire. I’d argue his versatility as a runner and receiver was largely why they picked him, but in last night’s game he had 25 carries and only two targets. It’s just one game, but it’s interesting to say the least.
Is there reason for an evolution? Statistically, the last two seasons the Chiefs have ran the ball an average of 48 percent more in their wins than in their losses. Now, they’ve won a lot of games and tend to have the lead late which would increase the volume of runs. Yet, the percentage difference is distinct enough to include more factors than just having a late lead.
It’s just one game. Two seasons worth of games is too small a sample size to usually draw any correlation between running the ball and winning, and teams with the lead tend to run the ball more to close out a game. Still, this was a fairly surprising break from the norm for a team with a coach like Andy Reid and a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes.
Next up, the Chiefs will travel to Los Angeles to face the new-look Los Angeles Chargers in their new stadium. Last season, the Chargers ranked 25th in run defense efficiency. It’s not hard to imagine this could prompt a continuation of Thursday night’s offensive gameplan.