Kansas City Chiefs: Do The Chiefs Need An Explosive Run Game?

The Kansas City Chiefs offense won another shootout against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2. Do the Chiefs need the run game?

The Kansas City Chiefs came out in Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers firing on all cylinders. After a Week 1 win over the Los Angeles Chargers where the offense took to the passing game, the Chiefs came out in Week 2 doing the same thing dominating the Steelers defense through the air. It begs the question of whether Kansas City needs a strong run game in order to win games?

The rushing attack struggled to get going against the Chargers as Kareem Hunt ran the ball 16 times for only 49 yards. Most of the Chiefs running plays came in the later part of the second half when they were trying to bleed clock with a strong lead. Against the Steelers, Kareem Hunt ran the ball 18 times for 75 yards. Both games the offense took to the air excessively.

The running backs for Kansas City haven’t been as big of a factor in the passing game either. Kareem Hunt has only one catch between the two games which happened against Pittsburgh which went for a five-yard touchdown. Outside of Spencer Ware‘s big grab before halftime and Anthony Sherman‘s amazing touchdown play, the running backs as a whole weren’t utilized in the passing game against the Chargers either.

Head coach Andy Reid has designed plays for his running backs coming out of the backfield over the past five seasons when Alex Smith was under center. Given the rising talent of Patrick Mahomes taking over the quarterback position and the plethora of talent in the receiving core, the running backs group have been almost forgotten about.

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Winning both of their first two games of the season in shootout fashion, Patrick Mahomes has completed 38 of 55 passes for 582 yards and ten touchdowns. That’s good for a 69.1 completion percentage and rating of 143.3. Absolutely exceptional and exceeding expectations for the young quarterback.

As Andy Reid has built the Chiefs 2018 offense around the strengths of Patrick Mahomes, some fans think the offense is high school football. If that were true, why can’t NFL caliber defenses stop it? How has Mahomes made it look so easy as he has dissected two defenses in back to back weeks while making it look easy?

As fun as it has been to watch this offense dominate opposing defenses in a way that is unfamiliar for Kansas City Chiefs fans, the lack of an emphasis on the run game has hurt the team in some ways. In Week 2, the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to run 74 plays on offense opposed to the Chiefs 54 plays. They had the ball for 32:11 of the game.

The quick firing Chiefs offense left the defense hanging for most of the Steelers victory. Asking the defense to go right back out drive after drive showed as the defense was gassed throughout the later parts of the game. The defensive line struggled to get pressure in the third quarter and the coverage was spotty as defenders were tired.

It almost led to the Steelers making a comeback late in the game. Kansas City’s secondary going into the season was the biggest concern. That concern has been on display as the secondary has been picked apart in both of the first two games of the season. One way to protect the secondary is controlling the time of possession and keeping the opposing offense off of the field.

I’m not complaining about the exciting wins the past two weeks, but simply stating that if Kansas City continues to forget about the run game till later parts of the game it could turn out disastrous at some point. If the Chiefs organization would have put more of an emphasis on the secondary needs this offseason we might not be worried about this kind of situation.

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Regardless, Kansas City has come out in dominant fashion and opposing defenses have no answer as of yet on how to slow down the Chiefs offense. Patrick Mahomes has been near perfect, and the nation is taking notice.

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