The Saints exposed Chiefs offensive line as their Achilles’ heel

The Saints may have exposed the Chiefs most glaring weakness: the offensive line.

The Kansas City Chiefs beat an excellent football team on Sunday when they defeated the New Orleans Saints 32-29. The Chiefs improved to 13-1 on the season and are in an excellent position to secure the top seed and first round bye in the AFC. All in all, the Chiefs are in a great position and Chiefs fans should be feeling really good about the team. So I don’t want anyone to think I’m nitpicking when I say that the New Orleans Saints exposed a potential Achilles heel for the Chiefs in this game.

I believe that the Chiefs overall talent is clearly the best in the NFL. They are the defending Super Bowl champions and are unquestionably one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl again this year. I could have written another piece today on how the Chiefs found a way to win another tough game despite some issues, but I’ve written that piece several times this season. We know the Chiefs can win tough games. We know they are talented enough to win another Super Bowl. We know they are the powerhouse of the AFC.

So I believe the conversation now becomes what could keep the Chiefs from winning the Super Bowl? What are the biggest road blocks that they need to clear? The more I think about it, the more I watch this team, the more I believe that it’s not opposing teams that are the biggest worry. Instead, it’s the Chiefs not getting in their own way. I believe the Saints showed the NFL what K.C.’s greatest potential weakness is, and that attacking it could be the only way to beat the Chiefs. That potential weakness, the Achilles’ heel that could stand between them and repeating as Super Bowl champions, is the offensive line.

Through much of the season, the discussion has been more about if the defense could do enough for the Chiefs to repeat as champions. While the defense certainly isn’t as dominant as the offense is, that’s not how the Chiefs are built to win. The Chiefs are built to outscore their opponents. Period. This isn’t a team that’s built to win 13-10 defensive slugfests. So while the defense could stand to tighten some things up, the fact that they are allowing 22.1 points per game is good enough—as long as the Chiefs keep scoring like they can.

The Chiefs offense is a prolific powerhouse. They are among the very best in the NFL in yards per game, passing yards per game, and points per game. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is playing at an all-time great level, and with weapons like Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and Sammy Watkins at his disposal, there isn’t a lot a defense can do to shut this offense down—that is unless the offensive line fails to give Mahomes the time and protection he needs to get the job done.

In the first 12 games of the season Patrick Mahomes was only sacked 15 times. That’s just 1.25 sacks per game. However, over the past two weeks Mahomes has been sacked 7 times. That’s nearly three times the number of sacks/game over the past two weeks as they allowed over the first 12 games. That’s a problem. It was especially bad this week against an aggressive New Orleans front four that not only sacked Mahomes four times, but hurried and hit him on countless others.

In fact, in Pro Football Focus’ game recap they stated:

"The Saints created pressure on 39.5% of Mahomes’ dropbacks, the highest pressure rate the Chiefs have allowed this season"

Giving up the highest pressure rate of the season so far is especially concerning because the Saints almost never blitzed. They mostly got that pressure with just their front four attacking the Chiefs offensive line. Time after time, the game announcers pointed out how the Saints were dropping eight into coverage and keeping the safeties back to take away throwing lanes and protect against the deep ball.

That’s a major reason why Mahomes had such a horrible yards per attempt number on Sunday—254 passing yards on 47 attempts is just 5.4 yards per attempt. That’s way below his average. In fact, it was his single lowest yards per attempt line of his NFL career. While not every team can generate as much pressure as the Saints can with their front four, you can bet they are going to try after seeing the tape from Sunday.

Now, to be fair to the Chiefs, they are definitely beat up along the offensive line, especially at the tackle position. Mitchell Schwartz has been out since week six when he injured his back. His backup, Mike Remmers, was out this week with a back injury. Starting left tackle Eric Fisher missed almost all last week of practice and was clearly struggling with a back injury of his own in this game. With Schwartz and Remmers out, the Chiefs were forced to move Andrew Wylie outside at right tackle. With Fisher hurt and Wylie playing out of position it was by far the worst tackle play the Chiefs have had this season.

The interior line is far from perfect, too. Austin Reiter has been subpar at center this season. Nick Allegretti has shown some flashes at guard and Stefen Wisniewski saw his first action on Sunday since returning to the team after being a key part of their line during their Super Bowl run last season. My hope is that when/if Wylie is no longer needed at tackle, Wisniewski won’t relinquish his spot at guard. I’ll have to go back and watch the tape to really get a feel for how Wisniewski fared on Sunday, but Wylie has not impressed this season, and if Wisniewski can play anywhere near the level he did last year for K.C., he would be a much needed improvement on the interior to pair with Allegretti at guard.

The tackle position is a real concern right now though. Back problems can be chronic and linger all season. The fact that all three of KC’s top tackles are currently fighting back issues is a big problem. There simply are no guarantees that any of them will be 100% the rest of the season. Is Schwartz anywhere near returning? We don’t know. Will they consider resting Fisher to try and get him healthy for the playoffs? Who knows? If they do rest Fisher, could they be risking Mahomes health if he’s without both his starting tackles? It definitely is a major concern, especially after seeing the abuse he took on Sunday. Mahomes is obviously THE key to a Chiefs Super Bowl win and must be protected at all costs.

To make matters worse, it looks like the Chiefs may have lost Clyde Edwards-Helaire for a little while with an injury on Sunday. While the Chiefs also have veteran Le’Veon Bell, having one less rushing weapon just puts more pressure on the passing game (and therefore the pass protection) . The offensive line also must create more space for Darrel Williams who will likely now see an increase in playing time.

Bell is a master of using the space that a line creates for him, and Williams is a decent between the tackles pounder, but the line has to do its part for them to get the job done. CEH was the most explosive back on the roster and the one guy that could explode through a very small opening and create yards of his own. That won’t be the case as long as he is out.

The Chiefs beat an excellent New Orleans Saints team on Sunday. They are still the most talented team in the NFL and the class of the AFC. They’re still the favorite to win the Super Bowl. However, the game against the Saints did expose their biggest weakness right now and it isn’t their defense—it’s their offensive line. The Chiefs have to keep their elite offense intact if they want to win it all, and that means they have to protect Mahomes. You can bet that every team they face the rest of the season will test their ability to do so, because if teams can get constant pressure on Mahomes while dropping eight men into coverage, that gives them a huge advantage.

So how will the Chiefs respond? Will they focus on trying to get guys healthy and just hope they can get by until then? Will they scheme around their tackle issues better than they did on Sunday? Will they try to coach up young guys like Yasir Durant to help fill in?

I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know that its a problem that could be the greatest threat to the Chiefs repeating as Super Bowl champions. So far it hasn’t cost the Chiefs a win, let’s just hope it stays that way.