Chiefs: An OL? Oh Man!

Chiefs: An OL? Oh Man! – At first I was thinking, “Le’Veon Bell is going to love running behind this line and that was the reason Andy Reid wanted to emphasize the running game this week, to show Bell just how good this line could be.” Then, as the game wore on, I was so danged impressed with not only the Offensive Line, but with the way rookie RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire has developed because, that kid is ballin’ out!

Last week I wrote a piece called, “A Solid IOL Away from the Best Offense Ever” in which I said:

“With so much leverage that the 2020 Chiefs have wedged into the skill positions, it’ll be regrettable if they can’t shore up their offensive line to take advantage of all that talent, in time for another Super Bowl run.”

I just had no idea that HC Andy Reid could make those changes so quickly and that it would make such a huge difference. Now, everyone is buzzing about the Offensive Line of the Kansas City Chiefs. I’ll take a look at some of those articles as well as some of the fantastic plays by our new and vastly improved Offensive Line.

First, I want to couch my comments in the perspective that the Buffalo Bills may not have the best front seven right now. Yes, Jerry Hughes is an excellent DE but off the top of my head, I can’t name another front 7 player of theirs. Also, I know that Offensive Linemen love to fire out off the snap to beat the patootie out of a DL… as opposed to… backing up to pass protect and awaiting to be the one getting hit. That may have also been part of Andy Reid’s plan this week because when you make a change in the OL, you want to give those newly ensconced players the opportunity to “fire out” first, before asking them to back up and take it like a man.

What may be closer to reality is not that Reid came into this game with those kinds of primary goals — to first and foremost — establish a running game. Here’s Reid, a :16 second sliver of his post game media Q&A. This is just an audio clip explaining his offensive design:

Balance? The Chiefs — and Reid — set a record with the number of times they carried the ball vs the Bills. From a piece by Terez Paylor called, “Clyde Edwards-Helaire shouldn’t worry about Le’Veon Bell. The rest of the AFC should” he shares:

“The Chiefs finished with the most rushing attempts (46) and yards (245) ever under Reid, who is in his eighth season [in K.C.].”

The Offensive Line Was the Difference

The reality of the Chiefs game vs the Bills was that it wasn’t truly decided until the final minutes of the game. Why? Largely because Andy Reid chose to run the ball so much. Some will say it was all those penalties [and K.C. is now 5th in the league at committing them]. Some will say that it was the dangerous arm of Josh Allen that kept the final result in doubt [but Allen only completed 52% of his passes]. If we paid more attention to the efficiency of the Chiefs front five blocking offensive linemen, we’d have been more comfortable during the game. I wasn’t comfortable then… not until a day later.

I was also critical throughout, of RG Andrew Wylie, but he did make some very good plays and here’s one as pointed out by Geoff Schwartz:

Geoff Schwartz played in K.C. in 2013, Reid’s first year here and he played OG, perhaps a reason he appreciates Guard Pancakes so much and loves slathering them with his syrup. His brother and the Chiefs best offensive lineman, RT Mitchell Schwartz, went out during this game because of his continued back issues, so K.C. moved Mike Remmers from LG to RT, and inserted Nick Allegretti at LG. Along with Center Daniel Kilgore and LT Eric Fisher, Allegretti and the left side of the Chiefs OL was stellar during this game. Here, Seth Keysor, in his piece called, “The Chiefs’ offensive line (and Travis Kelce) smashed the Bills, and it was glorious” shows just how good the left side of the Chiefs OL was vs the Bills:

When an Offensive Lineman is assigned a defender, then puts a block on them, it’s called, “Hat-on-a-Hat.” If you’ve ever been to a Chiefs Training camp, you’ll hear OL coach Andy Heck, imploring his OL to do just that: take on a specific defender and drive through them. I’ve slowed down the following clip, a run by Clyde Edwards-Helaire, so you could see each OL doing just that: putting a Hat-on-a-Hat, including Travis Kelce, who pulls into the hole ahead of CEH to take on a LB. Then CEH does a great job of making the Bills LB, #54 A.J. Klein, miss on his way to a gain of 17 yards.

As you can see, that was Andrew Wylie — Chiefs #77 — 16 yards downfield attempting to put another block on a Bills defender. I bring up Wylie again, because I may have been too hard on him in this game. Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave Wylie a rating of 62.6, which is clearly above average and so I’m in, wait-n-see mode with him. If he can improve moving forward, then Reid should leave him be (perhaps until someone like Martinas Rankin is well enough to replace him).

The Featured Image: Blocking

In the featured image for this piece (shown again, above), I’ve mapped out all the blocks the offensive linemen made to free up CEH for this play: a Pitch Sweep Left. This time CEH makes Bills Safety, #23 Micah Hyde, miss. Here’s the actual play:

What To Expect Now?

Should Chiefs fans expect Andy Reid to now devise game plans which are run first affairs? Not so fast Buckaroo! Seth Keysor makes an important point about why the Chiefs continued to run the ball, when I’m sure most Chiefs fans tuned in to watch their high powered passing attack rip this opponent a new one… but Keysor said that on Monday, the Chiefs rushing attack averaged…

“… 7.6 yards [which] is only 0.2 yards lower than Patrick Mahomes’ yards per pass attempt on the season.”

At one point during the game, Sports Writer for the K.C. Star, Sam Mellinger, drove this point across clearly when he tweeted:

So, for those who may be wondering if the plan was to run the ball and only run the ball, it appears Andy Reid is most likely to do what’s working. Possessing a running game that is unstoppable on top of a passing attack that is unquestionable, makes for an unbelievable offense. Bringing Le’Veon Bell to town only makes opponents more worried. As well they should be. We all know how easily a running back can get injured (knock, knock, knocking on heaven’s door… and wood), so having both Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Le’Veon Bell in town to tote the rock, should not make anyone uncomfortable… not if you’re a Chiefs fan.

When the Chiefs hosted the Raiders, they outran the Chiefs 144 yards to 80. On Monday at the Bills, the Chiefs outran them, 245 yards to 84. While this piece is focused on the OL, it’s important to note that the DL did a very good job of stopping the Buffalo Bills rushing attack. True, the Bills were only averaging 94 yards rushing per game prior to the time the Chiefs faced them, but that kind of turn around on both sides of the ball was critical to team confidence… and they should be feeling high as a kite in that department after Monday. We’ll leave it to the Chiefs coaches to bring them back down to earth.

Let’s not forget the accomplishments of rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire alone. Part of his development — alluded to earlier — was him learning to trust his blockers and what that really means is, getting his timing right with their efforts to lock up a defender.

The Mahomes Effect on the Rushing Attack

Obviously, the Buffalo Bills were not going to allow the Chiefs to go deep. So, they used the Vegas Raiders approach… which ended up being all too predictable for Andy Reid. Anytime a HC can predict what the other team is going to do, the game has almost always already been won, in the design process.

That was okay with Reid, because he had a plan in place for that. If I was a DC in this league one week after watching the Raiders outscore the Chiefs 40-to-32… I’d take the same approach. The only difference is, Josh Allen and company could not keep up with the Mahomes led Chiefs. Also, Reid could see that if the Raiders were successful running the ball, they were simultaneously successful controlling the clock (35:18 to 24:42)… which is exactly what the Chiefs were able to do in this game vs the Bills, winning the Time of Possession: 37:45 to 22:15.

I’ll leave you with perhaps my favorite run of Clyde Edwards-Helaire of the day, a 31 yarder:

Anyone else notice the gargantuan hole the OL created for Clyde Edwards-Helaire on this play? Even I could have run through that humugasoidial crater of a hole! Go Chiefs!

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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