Chiefs Running Game Returns to Relevance in Win Over Raiders
In Sunday night's high-scoring victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs' passing game earned the headlines, but Kansas City's running game quietly had its most productive game in a month.
Rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire led the Chiefs’ ball-carriers with 69 yards and two touchdowns in Sunday’s 35-31 win, marking the first two-score game in Edwards-Helaire's young career.
The performance was his most productive since running for 161 yards against the Buffalo Bills on October 19.
“[It was] just me ultimately telling myself to play my game and be myself,” Edwards-Helaire told reporters after the game. “We talked about it the last interview, some of the things I needed to do I felt I needed to work on. Composure was kind of one of them just on the outside, just showing, man, this is where you need to be, and play like it.”
Edwards-Helaire ran the ball on 14 of the Chiefs’ rushing attempts with running back Le'Veon Bell totaling seven carries for 25 yards and a touchdown.
The Chiefs ran on 36% of their offensive snaps, a higher percentage than the run game saw in its previous two games — 29.8% against the New York Jets and 19.6% against the Carolina Panthers.
The run accounted for 108 of the Chiefs' 460 net yards against the Raiders.
“Being able to distribute the ball is the reason why we are the Chiefs,” Edwards-Helaire said. “We can throw the ball, we can pass the ball, we can do anything we want with the ball on the offense. Being able to have that as a luxury, being able to run the ball at will and being able to pass the ball whenever we need to keeps the defense guessing.”
