Chiefs Offensive Line Loses Kelechi Osemele in 40-32 Loss to Raiders
Five plays into Sunday’s 40-32 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Kansas City Chiefs suffered a blow to the offensive line.
While attempting to set up a block on a Patrick Mahomes scramble, left guard Kelechi Osemele fell to the ground. After being attended to by members of the Chiefs’ training staff, he was carted off.
Following the game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid announced Osemele tore tendons in both of his knees. He was replaced by Mike Remmers.
Right tackle Mitchell Schwartz said the change at guard had nothing to do with the Chiefs’ first loss since November 10, 2019.
“I like to think it didn’t have too big of an effect,” Schwartz said. “I mean, we have some quality guys come in and play ball for us. That’s good and the communication was good. I don’t think we had any cutting guys loose or things of that nature.”
While the three didn’t play on the field at the same time, Osemele, Schwartz and Remmers shared a common factor — being the perpetrator of holding penalties.
Each of the three penalties came at different points of the game, and just two can be connected to reasons for the final outcome.
Osemele’s nullified a 58-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to Tyreek Hill, while Remmers’ led to a sequence of events that forced the Chiefs to punt in the second quarter.
“Any time you’re going backward with holding calls or things of that nature, it doesn’t really give the offense a chance to succeed," Schwartz said. "You know in this game against a good team, especially, giving up negative plays can be detracting from that…. It definitely has to be better, we know that coming out of this, it can probably the biggest thing that we need to work on.”
Schwartz said the o-line also struggled to open holes for running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire to make big games. Edwards-Helaire averaged four yards per carry and did not surpass a nine-yard gain.
The downsides are something he wants to work on with his teammates to work on as they prepare to meet the Buffalo Bills next Monday — the first entire game they’ll have this season without Osemele.
“We had opportunities on our side, a couple of better blocks up front and Clyde breaks free and then all of a sudden we’re rolling,” Schwartz said. “Just got to do better across the board. You know, We got a chance to watch film and address it and work on it through the next week, because we got another big one coming up.”
