Chiefs v Pats: ”Snap” Judgements – In the Kansas City Chiefs game against the New England Patriots on Monday evening, there were some changes to the snaps counts, which may have had an impact on the outcome, or at least the way the game was decided. Since there was one QB for the Chiefs, I’ll skip that analysis and begin with the Running Backs. The following data comes to us from Football Outsiders.
Running Backs
That RB Darwin Thompson did not receive any snaps, on offense, versus the Patriots, looks like a positive to me. Some are saying that Clyde Edwards-Helaire should not be getting so many calls in which he’s asked to run between the tackles, but if Reid and Bieniemy didn’t call those plays then teams could just load up on stopping the Chiefs offense outside and deep. While I’m not happy that some teams seem to be able to keep the Chiefs offensive linemen from opening very many holes up the middle of the field, calling running plays there is still necessary to keep defenses honest.
Wide Receivers
R&B (Reid and Bieniemy) stuck with their top four wideouts for all of their offensive snaps. Giving Byron Pringle and Marcus Kemp some snaps could have helped to throw off a defense that appeared to be laser focused on stopping the Chiefs top four, and did a pretty good job of it, even though the Chiefs came away with a W.
Tight Ends
With Travis Kelce on pace to gain 1,188 receiving yards in 2020, the Tight Ends position is still in good hands and he celebrated his birthday on Monday with 3 more receptions for 70 yards. Deon Yelder had one catch and Nick Keizer had none, but his contributions are a big positive. The absence of Ricky Seals-Jones is a bit of a mystery since he was essentially brought in this offseason to be Kelce’s main backup.
Fullback
Anthony Sherman, the Sausage, get few offensive snaps, but is a force whenever he is called upon giving opposing defenses someone else to worry about.
Offensive Linemen
Obviously, R&B went back to Andrew Wylie at RT instead of Mike Remmers who had replaced Wylie for some time last week. It may be beyond my pay grade but at some point you have to believe Reid is going to make some changes to the inside part of the his OL. I hope it;s sooner than later as I’d like to see what some of these other talents can offer.
Defensive Linemen
I appreciate the way Steve Spagnuolo spreads the snaps around among his DL. It keeps them fresh and even though Taco Charlton only had 21 defensive snaps, he was productive from the left side. Taco had 3 tackles and one of those was for a loss plus, he had a sack which came at a critical point in the game. Not bad output for 21 snaps.
Linebackers
Willie Gay started this game without much fanfare, or production. He was in on two tackles and one solo tackle. His snaps were in replacement of Ben Neimann which doesn’t make much sense to me because it’s Anthony Hitchens and Damien Wilson who continue to underperform.
Defensive Backs
What once was a huge concern at CB has become a point of strength for the Chiefs. Otherwise, playing without Bashaud Breeland for four games, Charvarius Ward for one game, and then losing L’Jarius Sneed for 6 weeks, would have left a giant hole in the defense… but it hasn’t at all.
Special Teams
Harrison Butker missed another extra point and fortunately it didn’t cost the team a win. We can rest a lot easier knowing that Tommy Townsend has done a stellar job replacing Chiefs great, Dustin Colquitt. Tommy the Toe (what a great Mob nickname) averaged over 60 yards per punt on 4 punts. That’s crazy good!
Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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