Kansas City Chiefs: Kareem Hunt is the difference maker on offense
The Kansas City Chiefs finally got a victory this past weekend and rookie running back Kareem Hunt was heavily involved in the offense. Hunt having a good game seems to go hand in hand with the Chiefs winning.
When the Kansas City Chiefs were rocking and rolling to start the year, a big reason as to why was that Kareem Hunt was just another guy opposing defenses had to stop. When the Chiefs started to falter, Hunt wasn’t being utilized as much, which forced Alex Smith to have to throw more.
Not that we didn’t already know, but we saw on Sunday that when Kareem Hunt is going, the Chiefs offense is pretty dang good. He finished Sunday with 25 carries for 116 yards and a touchdown. It was his first trip to the end zone since week three when the Chiefs beat the Chargers in Los Angeles.
After that game, Hunt had two more games with over 100 yards rushing, but then was shut down for over a month. The worst outing for Hunt was against Buffalo where he had just 11 carries for 17 yards. That was pretty brutal.
More from KC Kingdom
- Win $650 GUARANTEED Plus $100 Off NFL Sunday Ticket With Caesars, FanDuel and DraftKings Kansas Promos!
- This Plus-Money Bobby Witt Jr. Prop Bet is on Fire (Hit in 15/21 Games)!
- How to Bet on the Chiefs vs. Cardinals in NFL Preseason Week 2
- The Royals Need to Extend Bobby Witt Jr. Immediately
- The 3 Most Intriguing Games on the Chiefs’ Schedule
The Chiefs are at their best offensively when they can mix things up more. If the running game is effective, it allows the offense to think up different kinds of plays. Once a team has to abandon the run (whether it’s due to trailing or it just not working, which we saw the Chiefs have to do several times over the losing streak), defenses can sniff out the plays much easier (see Giants and Bills games).
Hunt’s decline over the last month wasn’t all his fault, as the offensive line was abysmal during that time. Rookies do tend to hit a “rookie wall”, however, and hopefully that was Hunt’s and now he’s back to being legit at the running back spot.
If the Kansas City Chiefs want to be a playoff team and actually advance past the first round of the playoffs, then Kareem Hunt is going to have play magnificent football over the next month and a half. Some teams have the capability of being a one-dimensional unit, but the Chiefs aren’t that kind of team.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were the first team to figure out how to beat the Chiefs and every team in the league copied them after that. Basically, if a defense can stop Hunt from doing much of anything and force Smith to throw on every play, the Chiefs probably aren’t going to be able to keep up.
Hunt is the difference maker in this Chiefs offense and we saw it in the first five weeks of the season. Hopefully he’s back to being that explosive back again and can be the ultimate threat come playoff time.