Chiefs have used running game -- and a rookie kicker -- to turn 2014 around
Amazing things happen when you run the ball. Well, OK, not you, specifically -- unless you happen to be Andy Reid reading this, in which case, woo, hats off, cowabunga, dude, and all the rest. Have a frozen Snickers on us, guy.
No, no, no. By you, we mean the 2014 Kansas City Chiefs, who committed to the boring, old-school, right-of-Glenn Beck rushing approach in Miami back on Sept. 21, toting the rock 41 times for 174 yards and winning near South Beach for the first time since 2005. On Sunday, they read from the Gospel of Barry Goldwater again, rushing 39 times for 154 yards and a score against the Chargers. Another victory, this one by the count of 23-20, the franchise's first in SoCal since 2007 and just its fourth win in San Diego over its past 16 visits.
The Chiefs (3-3) are what they are, and they are not Denver. The less Reid (you still reading this, coach?) and his fellows come to grips with this, the better they (and the rest of this season) will probably play out. They are 1962 football, power first, running to set up the pass, deep in tight ends who can block or stretch the field vertically, unafraid to punt and hope their defense can set up something more tenable.
And, more often than not, it kind of works. The Andy Gang is 3-1 this fall when it runs the ball at least 24 times in a contest; 0-2 when it doesn't. In the Reid era, the Chiefs are 13-5 when they hit that magic 24 number (winning percentage: .722), and just 1-4 (winning percentage: .200) when they fall short.
Which is not to say we don't believe in the magic of Alex Smith. It's just funny how much more magic No. 11 has in his wand when he uses his legs (and the legs of others) to set things up first. The individuals who need the ball in their hands the most are tailbacks Jamaal Charles (95 rushing yards on Sunday, and now the franchise's leader in career yards) and Knile Davis (25 on 10 carries), tight end Travis Kelce (four catches, 33 yards), wideout Dwayne Bowe (five grabs, 84 yards) and rookie scatback De'Anthony Thomas (26 combined yards on three touches). It ain't rocket science: If the first two are rolling, things will invariably open up for the latter three, and vice versa. And no defense on this planet -- even the one in Seattle -- can stop all five during the same game.
San Diego sure as heck couldn't, and the Chargers came in with the NFL's No. 9 rush defense (99 allowed per tilt) and the No. 4 pass defense (209.3 per contest) in the loop. The Bolts made the tactical boo-boo of challenging the Chiefs to beat them Cro-Magnon style, and that's the biggest club in Reid's tool belt at the moment.
The visitors held the ball for 39 minutes Sunday to the Chargers' 21. San Diego gunslinger Philip Rivers, Captain Bolo Tie, America's MVP Wannabe, was on the field for three plays, total, in the entire third quarter. Three.
See? Amazing.
Over a period that stretched from early in the second quarter to early in the fourth, the Chiefs went on three scoring drives that went 9:31, 6:25 and 7:43 -- that's a grand total of 23 minutes and 39 seconds of Rivers over there on the sideline, chewing on his liver. It doesn't make for the most exciting slice of television, granted, but it's the sign of a good game plan executed to near-perfection.
The Chiefs are what they are. And what they are is get a lead and stall for time, baby.
Flip through our photo album of Chiefs cheerleaders.
Reid is now 14-2 coming off byes as an NFL coach, and the prep work for this one showed in almost every facet. Rookie cornerback Phillip Gaines more than held his own in his first extended duty of the season, and a patchwork secondary that included Gaines, street free agent Jamell Fleming and NFL journeymen such as Kurt Coleman and Ron Parker held Rivers and the Chargers to 182 passing yards and only three conversions on 10 third-down tries.
Even the goofy stuff turned into gold. On first-and-10 from the San Diego 11 on the first play of the fourth quarter, Smith threw a screen to big fullback Anthony Sherman -- essentially a 5-foot-10 guard -- in the right flat. No. 42 stumbled and rumbled into the end zone, bulldozing over at least two Charger defenders in the process.
This was a bullying, intimidation kind of game, more like Chiefs-Raiders of old, and several bodies on both rosters hit the turf often as a result. The Kansas City defensive front won individual battle after individual battle early on, hammering away at the pocket and at Rivers' psyche. A 14-play, 56-yard drive late in the second quarter was capped by a 28-yard Cairo Santos field goal that put the Chiefs up 10-7 with 3:11 left in the half.
A Tamba Hali sack-strip on the Chargers' first play of the next series pushed the hosts back toward their own end zone, and the Chiefs eventually took over at their own 45 with 1:45 to go, up three. One problem: Junior Hemingway dropped a wide-open throw up the middle of the field on third-and-6 from the Chiefs' 49.
Given a second life, Rivers got out his surgical tools and went to work. Keenan Allen for seven. Incompletion. Malcom Floyd for 12. Antonio Gates along the left boundary for 27. And the killer: A floater toward Gates over the top, tipped by Parker into the falling tight end's hands in the back of the end zone for 27 yards and the score, putting the hosts back up on top, 12-10, with 14 seconds left in the half. The hosts went 80 yards in 41 ticks, and could have stuck a dagger in the Andy Gang right there.
Instead, the visitors came out of the locker room with the first possession and, as they did in Colorado and Florida, simply refused to give the ball back.
The Chiefs held the rock for 13:58 of the third period, and while they got only a Santos field goal out of that entire stretch -- his second of three, a set that would later include a 48-yard game winner with 0:21 left in the contest -- it left Rivers and the hostile Qualcomm Stadium crowd frustrated and bored. And unlike last month's trip to Mile High, the Chiefs finished what they started, too.
More good news: The "gauntlet" part of Reid's slate is over, more or less. The Andy Gang was handed a grueling dance card of four road games out of their first six. They split the away dates, rolling at Miami, escaping at San Diego and coming within a drive of pulling off the incredible in Denver and San Francisco, too. They humiliated the NFL's proudest franchise of the 21st century, the New England Patriots (5-2), into a state of utter panic. They also made the Tennessee Titans (2-5) look like absolute world-beaters. The truth is in the middle there, somewhere.
Still, six of the next 10 down the stretch for the Andy Gang are at home, including two in a row against the Rams (2-4) and floundering Jets (1-6), a slate that would seem to set things up for a wild December -- even an honest-to-goodness postseason charge. Although projections are a dangerous business, sometimes, and if there's one thing we've already learned to expect from the 2014 Chiefs, it's the unexpected.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
