The Buffalo Bills in Week 6
A team that might have taken this idea to heart is the Buffalo Bills. Back in their Week 6 meeting, the Bills used a lot of sub packages and aligned their cornerbacks and safeties deep on a number of plays, trying to keep everything in front of them and slow down Mahomes and company.
The result? Kansas City ran for 245 yards – by far their best rushing game of the season – en route to a 26-17 victory. Edwards-Helaire had his best game of his rookie campaign, rushing for 161 yards on 26 carries, an impressive 6.2 yards per attempt.
Early in the game the rookie ripped off this nine-yard gain on a split-zone design against one of these light defensive looks:
You’ll notice the alignments of the safeties and the cornerbacks. The safeties are 15 yards or more downfield, and the cornerbacks are also playing off the line. With the soft Cover-4 look and the light box up front, the Chiefs are in a position to keep the ball on the ground. Edwards-Helaire finds a crease – thanks to a great slice block from Travis Kelce working across the formation – and 1st-and-ten becomes 2nd-and-one in an instant.
Given the status of Patrick Mahomes’ turf toe injury he might not be called upon to run the football in Super Bowl LV, but the threat of him as a ball-carrier is also an effective weapon. Especially against these light packages. When a defense is outmanned up front stopping the run is hard as it is, but that is doubled when you have to account for a mobile quarterback.
Take this 2nd-and-five play from Week 6. Because the defensive end has to account for the threat of Mahomes on this zone running play, that means the offensive line has one fewer defender to block:
Again, the Bills are in the 4-2-5 package and they align the safeties deep before the snap. In contract to the previous play, however, they spin into a Cover-3 look, dropping safety Jordan Poyer down into an underneath zone. But this play is made due to the combination of the light box, and the offensive design. Given the threat of Mahomes as a runner, defensive end Darryl Johnson has to stay home in case the quarterback decides to keep the football. Essentially, the concept of the QB keep “blocks” Johnson. That means that the Chiefs now have their five offensive linemen to block the three down defenders that are remaining. As you can see, particularly on the end zone angle, that creates a pair of double-teams initially. Then, when linebacker Tremaine Edmunds dips to the inside, Edwards-Helaire has the vision and the footwork to cut outside, turning this play into a 12-yard gain.
(For those wondering, yes Geoff Schwartz’s handy “Is It Duo?” page was referenced here, which is worth bookmarking).
One more example of this tension playing out in Week 6 is this zone play from later in the second quarter. By now you are probably noticing a bit of a trend, in that the Chiefs often rely on zone rushing concepts against these lighter looks, save for the power design against Denver with both the tackle and the guard pulling in front of the ball-carrier. I wanted to highlight this zone play because of tight end Travis Kelce. For everything he does as a receiver, his growth over the past few seasons as a blocker is also worthy of praise. We saw that earlier on a split-zone design, and we see it here on this lead-zone concept:
This play is gorgeous if you are an offensive line coach and/or a run game coordinator. You see some of the elements previously discussed (secondary playing deep, a light box up front, a 4-2-5 sub package) but when you see this play from the end zone angle you see the movement up front, how the linemen and Kelce flow upfield, and how the rookie running back takes advantage of the opportunities created by personnel and scheme. Center Daniel Kilgore flows to the second level to handle the backside linebacker, while Kelce gets to Matt Milano and chops him down to the turf. Once more, a big gain on the ground for the Chiefs against a sub package.
Now, we are close to finishing up, but we are not done just yet. Catch a breath, grab another sip of your beverage and join me on the other side as we wrap up this look at the Chiefs’ rushing attack.