Andy Reid famously tapped into the Air Raid offense Patrick Mahomes operated at Texas Tech before the first season as the Kansas City Chiefs full-time starter in 2018, and now the future Hall of Fame coach is tinkering with his roots in the West Coast offense again.
Through two games in the playoffs, the Chiefs have utilized 13 personnel — one running back and three tight ends — on a whopping 23.7% of their offensive snaps. Those 29 plays in that personnel grouping is 25 more than any other team. Striking disparity.
On those plays, the Chiefs have averaged 5.9 yards, including a sizable 5.5 yards per rush. Patrick Mahomes has completed 5-of-7 passes for 49 yards with a touchdown out of 13 personnel.
Comparatively, during the regular season, the Chiefs came out in 13 personnel on 7.4% of their offensive snaps. It was a minuscule part of their attack.
Integral to Mahomes winning his first postseason road game was this grouping that clearly aimed to exploit the Buffalo Bills‘ depleted linebacker group down Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard. And it worked to perfection.
Notice how the Travis Kelce motion shifted Buffalo’s defense away from the eventual run direction. The Chiefs still had two tight ends — and a pulling tackle — to lead block on this 9-yard Isiah Pacheco run. These type of holes were frequent for the Chiefs en route to 146 yards on the ground for Kansas City at 6.1 yards per attempt.
The presence of those two tight ends — with Kelce drawing attention on the other side of the formation, gave Kansas City’s linemen time and space to get to the second level as pullers. Watch on this next play how No. 83, tight end Noah Gray, quickly engaged with defensive end, No. 90 Shaq Lawson, to turn him inside.
That meant it was No. 81, tight end Blake Bell, and No. 79, left tackle Donovan Smith, in one-on-one situations at the second level with two Bills cornerbacks, Dane Jackson and Taron Johnson. Advantage Chiefs in that scenario.
No surprise the play went for 29 yards, right?
With extra time to prepare, the Chiefs devised a brilliant game plan to specifically attack the weaknesses of what had been a surging Buffalo defense down the stretch.
And simply showing as much 13 personnel as they did was likely a shock to the Bills defensive strategy. Even against the Dolphins in the wild-card round, the Chiefs called 14 runs in that grouping and totaled 42 yards, including a 3-yard Pacheco touchdown.
Reid, as the Eagles head coach earlier in his career, had stretches where he took heat for not handing the ball to LeSean McCoy enough.
Times are different, and with Mahomes, the Chiefs head coach has more reason than ever to call pass plays.
But in ignoring the run game for long periods during this regular season, Reid wasn’t accentuating one of Kansas City’s strengths — the combination of its elite offensive line and the authoritative running style of Pacheco. Against the Bills, the Chiefs only faced five third downs, and their run-game success on first and second down was a big reason why.
In the Christmas Day loss to the Raiders, Pacheco carried the ball 11 times. The following week against the Bengals, he toted the rock 18 times. Pacheco has 39 attempts to date in the postseason entering the AFC Championship on Sunday.
This is not to suggest the Chiefs should turn into a ground-and-pound team with Mahomes at quarterback. Of course not. But any quarterback — and offense at large — significantly benefits when the team can run the football successfully.
Now, I must note, the injury to stellar left guard Joe Thuney could change things. And the Ravens have Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen at linebacker, not just second and third stringers available. Clearly, something else to consider. Those two related developments could push Kansas City away from running out of 13 personnel.
But the Chiefs have now shown 29 plays in these playoffs from a personnel grouping that went essentially unused during the regular season, and more offensive diversity from Kansas City gives the Ravens more to game plan for ahead of the AFC title game. Even if that creates a minor edge when the Chiefs have the football, it’s a win for Reid’s club.
Because margins become razor thin the closer you get to the Lombardi Trophy.
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Author: Chris Trapasso
January 23, 2024 | 12:25 pm
