KC Chiefs run game has tough task against Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Chiefs’ ground game has had an up-and-down year, and will have a tough draw this weekend at Tampa Bay.

The 2020 Kansas City Chiefs are not known for their rushing game, but the unit has experienced its fair share of success. Despite losing their top two rushers from the 2019 campaign, Kansas City has managed to spice things up on the ground.

It hasn’t helped that the Chiefs have lost the starting right side of their offensive line. Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz has now been gone for half of the season with a back injury. Compound that with the loss of 2019 starting right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, and the subsequent loss of his replacement on the roster, Kelechi Osemele, and the Chiefs have certainly had to work to put together a piecemeal offensive line.

Such chaos on the roster might cause some NFL offenses to collapse under their own weight, but the Chiefs are not the average team. Kansas City’s elite passing offense affords the Chiefs a fair amount of space in the ground game. Reserve offensive linemen Mike Remmers and Nick Allegretti have held their own in 2020, and one more lineman is coming to the rescue, as tackle/guard Martinas Rankin has been activated and will be ready to make his season debut this Sunday.

The Chiefs face a formidable opponent in Week 12 at Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers are tops in the NFL at defending the run, allowing just 3.2 yards per carry. In fact, the Bucs rank No. 2 in the league in total yards allowed on the ground in spite of the fact that they are one of just two teams that has not yet had their bye week.

Carolina’s Christian McCaffrey has been the most successful against the Bucs front. Although, “successful” doesn’t really describe it. Take a look at these notable outputs from some of the league’s best running backs:

• Alvin Kamara, New Orleans: 12 carries, 16 yards in Week 1
• Christian McCaffrey’s 18 carries, 59 yards in Week 2
• Aaron Jones, Green Bay: 10 carries, 15 yards in Week 6
• Josh Jacobs, Las Vegas: 10 carries, 17 yards in Week 7

Linebackers Devin White and Lavonte David are the centerpiece of the Bucs’ front, ranking 5th and 6th in the NFL in solo tackles, respectively. Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is also tops in the league among defensive linemen with 44 combined tackles. We will also see a couple of familiar faces on Sunday: Bucs defensive end Rakeem Nunez-Roches, a 2015 draft pick of the Chiefs, spent three seasons in Kansas City, and kicker Ryan Succop was a Chief from 2009-2013.

This will be the first time Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles have ever faced off against Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The last time the Chiefs squared off against Arians, it was 2014 and he was the head coach in Arizona.

The Chiefs haven’t seen Bowles since he was the head coach of the Jets, during the 2017 debacle in New York. Bowles’ Jets beat the Chiefs that day in spite of 366 yards passing from Alex Smith.

The Bucs just allowed Rams wide receivers Cooper Kupp (11/145) and Robert Woods (12/130) to explode on the national stage in a frustrating loss. It’s possible that Bowles gets too haughty with his elite run defense and chooses to overload against the pass. While the Bucs scramble to get a handle on the MVP frontrunner, Kansas City could find some seams on the ground. Mahomes leads the NFL with 3,035 passing yards, and he is third in the league with 27 touchdown passes.

But the Chiefs still have to execute. Tampa Bay’s defensive line is excellent at occupying blockers and allowing their elite linebackers to make plays in the run game. The Week 5 loss of defensive tackle Vita Vea (one of the NFL’s best run defenders) hasn’t caused the Bucs to lose even a step in their dominance in the ground game. You won’t hear Nunez-Roches’ name called a lot on Sunday, but he plays a huge role in funneling opposing running backs into the vacuum tandem of White and David in the middle.

Hopefully the Chiefs’ vaunted passing offense will help create some space in the box for running backs Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Le’Veon Bell. Expect a lot of pre-snap motion, moving running backs from split wide into the backfield, etc. as Kansas City tries to sort out how Tampa Bay is defending Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill. We could also see more outside runs like we did in Las Vegas on Sunday night, something that the Chiefs have not utilized much in 2020.

As raw and “Frankenstein” as the Tampa Bay offense is (who would have thought a year ago that the Bucs would add Tom Brady, Leonard Fournette, Lesean McCoy, Antonio Brown, and Rob Gronkowski?), their defense is the exact opposite. They are a cohesive bunch that works together extremely well, and they have for a significant length of time.

Another factor to consider: There is a distinct chance that we will be witnessing a Super Bowl preview in this weekend’s matchup. Tampa Bay is currently the sixth seed in the NFC playoff race, at 7-4 and in second place in the NFC South. They are not likely to let off the gas in any way. The Chiefs are riding a 5-game winning streak and have a firm grip on both the AFC West lead as well as the #2 seed in the AFC.

Will Reid and Arians pull out all the stops in order to get the win on Thanksgiving weekend? Or will either hold anything back in case they meet again (on this same field) in February? This game promises to have a playoff feel to it. We’re banking on Mahomes vs. Brady IV being yet another barnburner.