The Kansas City Chiefs debuted their running game on Monday night, and it was a huge success.
At first glance, the phrase “smashmouth Chiefs” has an odd look to it, and saying it out loud feels even stranger. The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Denver Broncos on Monday night by pounding them into submission, and it’s very different from some of the high-flying, flamboyant Chiefs teams that won Super Bowls.
But the offensive linemen love it. That came across loud and clear in a piece from Jesse Newell of The Athletic, who asked lineman Kingsley Suamataia what his team’s offense had shown the NFL in the win.
That’s Chiefs football: point blank, period,” Suamataia said. “That’s how Chiefs football is played: It’s bullyball, smashmouth ball, and let’s get it going.”
It’s an approach forced in large part by necessity, but it worked to near-perfection against Denver. Running back Kenneth Walker III tore through the Broncos defense seemingly at will, and it compensated for a performace from quarterback Patrick Mahomes that Mahomes admitted was “pedestrian,” according to Newell.
The 60-yard touchdown run from Walker exemplified how the new approach works. It was a fourth-and-1 gamble that looked like it might be stuffed, until Broncos cornerback Riley Moss closed inside too quickly.
“I knew they were going to crash in,” Walker said. “When they crashed in, I bounced it out.”
Walker found room to run outside, and he proceeded to outrun the Denver defense to score after breaking a subpar tackle from Moss. It wasn’t something the Chiefs planned, but it definitely worked to perfection.
“That fourth down and 1 was a thing of beauty,” said coach Andy Reid.
“Once he gets the edge,” Mahomes said, “he’s gone.”
“He’s a beast,” said defensive tackle Khyioris Tonga, who was subbed in as a de facto fullback on the play. “I was just trying to find a block for him, and I didn’t really need to.”
The Chiefs also got a touchdown effort from receiver Rashee Rice, who broke another Moss tackle to score on a 13-yard pass play. But Rice spent much of his night doing some of the dirty work for Walker, and he revealed the new mindset behind his approach.
“If you don’t block, you don’t get the rock,” Rice said.
“We did great in the running game. There’s a lot of plays where I’m getting in there, motioning down to that line, gotta put my head down and block a linebacker probably 15 times a day,” Rice said. “We’re all just doing our job. It don’t really matter.”
That mindset seems unlikely to last given Rice’s mercurial history, but it was a welcome change from going 6-11. The Chiefs will put it to another test on Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts, and it will be interesting to see if they can get similar results.
