Derrick Nnadi, Demarcus Robinson earn high grades for Chiefs vs. Bills

The Kansas City Chiefs took down the Buffalo Bills in Week 6 and that means it is time to hand out grades and see who was this week’s MVP.

While not many would have predicted the way they won, the Kansas City Chiefs ran all over the Buffalo Bills in Week 6 while getting huge pushes up front and stopping the Bills run game. The Chiefs looked like the Tennessee Titans and steamrolled over this Bills defense.

The offensive line was fantastic and the Chiefs seemed to control the game throughout. After moving to 5-1, the Chiefs look to be in a prime position of making it back to the Super Bowl.

Now, onto the game grades! I am focusing a lot on the unsung heroes in this edition.

Derrick Nnadi – B+

This was a man who was consistently in the correct spot at the right time. I wanted to make sure I give him a shout out since he looks like he is improving week in and week out. Even if he doesn’t make the flashy plays, someone like Nnadi who can take on double-teams and be a factor in the run game is extremely valuable. Being able to control your lanes allows guys like Chris Jones to be a little more disruptive because you know you have a guy like Nnadi there to help.

Nnadi end the game with 4 tackles, 2 solo, and a couple of his awesome fist pumps. Doesn’t that celebration just bring a smile to your face? He truly is earning his playing time on a stacked d-line and came up huge by controlling his gap. If he keeps this up, the Chiefs will continue to do well against the run.

Demarcus Robinson – B+

With Sammy Watkins out, D-Rob did his best Sammy impersonation. He had a couple of extremely nice catches, especially on a play breakdown, as well as some nice blocks in this one. He really stepped up as the No. 2 receiver against Buffalo and actually paced the Chiefs in receiving yards and tied for the team lead in receptions.

With the Chiefs not passing the ball a ton in this game, he was the receiver on the field a lot as he excels in blocking. He ended up with not only more snaps than Hardman and Pringle combined, but more snaps than even Tyreek Hill!

While Hardman struggled in this game, Robinson really stepped up and is making the decision to give Hardman more playing time extremely hard, man. (Sorry for that terrible pun.) Robinson ended up with 69 yards on 5 catches and is showing why the Chiefs brought him back. He looked like a legit number 2 wide receiver in this game, if he can keep this consistency, he is looking at a nice payday.

Chiefs Cornerbacks – C

This was tough to grade but I am mostly grading Bashaud Breeland and Charvarius Ward here. The stats make it look like they played a great game, but in reality, Josh Allen missed some easy throws and the Bills dropped a good amount of balls.

Breeland had a tough penalty go against him but he had a couple others that were legit. He bounced off of Allen on a run but made up for it later with a great tackle for loss where he blew up a run play. Overall, I still expect him to improve as the season progresses since this was only his second game back this year.

Charvarius Ward again struggled at times in this one. I know he was going up against Stefon Diggs often but he seemed to not be on top of his game for a second straight week. He had a penalty that was costly before Diggs made an amazing catch in the end zone against Ward for a touchdown. While Ward was in fantastic position to make a play, he never turned his head which led to Diggs making that spectacular catch.

Ward got burnt a couple times but never really got beat on paper for it with Allen and the receivers not being on the same page for much of the game. At the end of the day, the stats look a lot better than the performance but a win is a win, and they kept the Bills from the huge plays that decimated them against the Raiders.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire – A

I can already hear folks upset that Edwards-Helaire isn’t the MVP, but hear me out. He a great game but someone else, or some other unit, was slightly better. It looked like the signing of Le’Veon Bell lit a fire under the rookie and he was running hard in this game. He was gouging the Bills defense consistently for 7-8 yards at a time. It was impressive, tough running while once again showing that great contact balance he possesses.

Edwards-Helaire ended up with 161 yards on 26 carries while chipping in 8 yards on 4 catches and looked like he was breaking some ankles out there. While he had his best game a rookie, the offensive line was giving him some massive holes to run through. The Bills had some extremely light boxes and he saw that on 18 of his 26 carries.

The Bills were content it seems with giving CEH that on the ground as long as Mahomes didn’t have any huge plays through the air. On those 18 carries against light boxes, he was expected to gain 109 yards but he actually gained 135 adding 26 yards over the average back. You’ll take those numbers.

Offensive Line – MVP 

This whole group deserves this week’s MVP award. From the beginning, Andy Reid threw a change-up by taking out Austin Reiter and inserting Daniel Kilgore and the difference was noticeable. I get the Bills have struggled getting pressure this year, but this could not have been a better game up front.

Mitchell Schwartz went down with a back injury and I was getting extremely nervous but Mike Remmers swung from left guard to right tackle and filled in admirably. Nick Allegretti was inserted into his role at left guard and looked like he brought some nasty in there. He got called for a terrible holding penalty where he just dominated his guy—no chance it should have been a penalty—and outside of that he was outstanding.

This was hands down the best the offensive line has looked all year. It didn’t matter if it was CEH, Darrel Williams, or Darwin Thompson, they had a huge hole to run through.

Mahomes had time to pass on the occasions this running team decided to let him throw, and there was only one sack given up on the day. This o-line really played like everyone was against them. They seemingly heard all of the talk and they backed up their play and then some. If they play like this week in and week out, I can’t see how this Chiefs offense doesn’t just roll.

Giving Mahomes time in the pocket is like giving a Tesla a five-second headstart against a 1994 Toyota Rav-4. It’s just unfair. Add in the pushes they were getting in the run game and this offense was dynamic. In weather that was not ideal to throw in, they knew they were going to be counted on and they did not disappoint. Kilgore looks like he’ll be there the rest of the season if this play continues.

Who would you grade? Who should be graded next week? Tweet me @HomestretchKC and I’ll look at it. Let’s keep this #RunItBack tour going strong!