Chiefs must lean on offensive line amidst offensive struggles

The Chiefs offensive issues persisted through the Monday Night loss to the Eagles. While the skill players weren’t great, the offensive line showed signs of promise.

What started as a promising game for the Kansas City Chiefs ended in disaster, with them blowing a second-half lead and losing 21-17 to the Philadelphia Eagles. The game was full of miscues, including dropped passes galore and critical red-zone turnovers from Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

While the onslaught of poor play affected nearly every skill player on the Chiefs, it did not take away from the offensive line’s performance. The poor offensive performance overshadowed what was a good outing by the front five against the Eagles’ elite front.

The unit gave up only one sack while also blowing open holes for running back Isiah Pacheco.

Pass protection

Outside of an extremely ugly rep on the game’s second play, the Chiefs’ protection against the vaunted Eagles pass rush was good. The unit has been solid in protection in general this season, and they continued the trend Monday night.

When looking at strictly five-man pass protection plays without using a chip block or other tight end presence, the Chiefs have the lowest sack rate in the NFL. It also gives Patrick Mahomes the longest time of any quarterback in the pocket at 3.11 seconds per pass attempt.

While Mahomes does more than his fair share to keep plays alive, the play by the line has been strong, especially given the circumstances in the downfield passing game. This week, in particular, their job would be tough, but they managed to keep Mahomes clean and give him enough time to attempt to distribute the football.

The Eagles attempted to run a number of stunts and twists to throw the Chiefs’ protection off, but the line was well prepared to thwart any would-be pressures violently.

Trey Smith continued his hot streak by battling with Jalen Carter and Fletcher Cox all game. He brought his lunch pail and made several impact blocks throughout the course of the night. On the infamous dropped pass, a heads-up play from Smith allowed Mahomes more time in the pocket.

As you can see, the Chiefs run protection with the slide side of the line to the right. Smith has a man in the B-gap next to him, but on the snap, the defensive tackle returns to the A-gap, becoming Creed Humphrey’s assignment. Smith keeps his eyes to the right, but once he feels that Jawaan Taylor has secured his block, he turns back to help.

On the opposite side, Carter nearly beats Joe Thuney, but when Smith comes back to give a help block, he slams the A-gap rusher into Carter, slowing him down and giving Mahomes a clean pocket.

Smith was outstanding all game, and even with his team down to its last play, he was delivering fierce hits and imposing his will.

Even on plays in which the Chiefs did receive the use of chip blocks, the line still had to protect for long periods of time.

McKinnon and Kelce both chip, but the line does an excellent job of mirroring the defenders and fighting to stick between their men and Mahomes. The ball is out of Mahomes’ hands after nearly five seconds in the pocket, and the Chiefs are rewarded with a pass interference call downfield.

When considering no one has a larger target on their back than Mahomes and looking at how much time he has been given in the pocket, it helps put in perspective how difficult the lines job has been in pass protection this season and also shows that they have done a nice job all year of handling the load this season.

Diversifying the running game

The Chiefs entered the game with back-to-back sloppy performances running the ball. In the first half, the team came out hot.

This zone run was very reminiscent of the long run he had in the Divisional Round against Jacksonville. The edge looks to drop on the snap, but Taylor sticks with him, and Smith creates enough movement to allow Pacheco a massive running lane.

The Chiefs ran their typical zone look early but changed the personnel.

Kadarius Toney has been dormant for a few weeks as teams have caught on to his role as the team’s “gadget player.” The best way to re-involve him in the offense would be for them to re-incorporate him into the regular game plan, and they did so this week in the running game.

The Eagles were unfazed by Toney, and on the snap, they did not have a single linebacker in the box. The line created movement, and Toney found a hole.

As continued to mix up personnel, they also ran a few different types of running plays, mixing in power as well as outside-zone looks with their typical mid-zone plays.

Taylor has looked improved in the run game since he got to town, and he was able to help create vertical movement with Smith to get power going. Thuney pulls around and lays a textbook block while Pacheco hits the hole hard.

Donovan Smith also had a bounce-back performance and made a couple of impact blocks in the ground game. While Kelce and Noah Gray are responsible for sealing the outside and working up to linebackers, Smith does a good job of reaching the and sealing the defensive tackle, and then getting just enough of the linebacker to free up Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

The Chiefs finished with 130 rushing yards, and while the running did stall in the second half, the line should have been effective enough to win the game.

The bottom line

As the issues with turnovers and consistency catching passes persist, the Chiefs will have to rely on the offensive line more and more. They are far from perfect, but they showed on the game’s biggest stage that they can compete with the best the league has to offer.

The team will need the line if they want any chance of defending their title in February.