So, Why is the Chiefs' Running Game Unproductive?

by Chris Thorman on Sep 24, 2007 10:28 AM CDT in 2007 Kansas City Chiefs Campaign

The Kansas City Chiefs as a team have 192 rushing yards through three games. Through three games last year, Larry Johnson himself had 295 yards rushing. As a team through three games in 2006, the Chiefs had 383 yards rushing. The Chiefs are obviously faltering, but why?

Poor offensive line play, the lack of a true fullback and an unproductive passing game are the culprits.

The Chiefs have allowed their opponent's defense to stop their running game behind the line of scrimmage a total of twelve times this season for negative 24 yards. More than half of those negative stops were by the Vikings' defense. The times the Chiefs make it past the line of scrimmage aren't much help either. We're averaging 2.7 yards a rush. Plain and simple, the offensive line is allowing defensive players behind the line of scrimmage too much. As bigbearomaha put it in the comment section of the game recap, our pass blocking is alright. Our run blocking is atrocious.

While at times the offensive line can give our QB the time to pass, they are unable to create any holes for any of our running backs. The combination of Larry Johnson's slow, patient running style (especially behind the line of scrimmage) and our offensive line is killing the Chiefs' offense. The days of LJ running a slow sweep and waiting for the hole to develop are over. Forget about them. This offensive line doesn't have the talent to pull those plays off. They are unable to contain an opponent's defense long enough for plays to develop.

The Chiefs' are a Herman Edwards, smash mouth team. From the power running attack we're supposed to have to our hit- 'em-the-mouth defensive style, the Chiefs scream slow, conservative, wear you down football. Why we don't have a true fullback is beyond me. Going into this season, we knew teams would stack the box as the Vikings did yesterday. But we refused to replace FB Tony Richardson in 2006 when he left for the Vikings. Since T-Rich's departure, the Chiefs have unsuccessfully tried a carousel of full backs, h-backs as well as simply leaving LJ to fend for himself in the backfield. Nothing has worked.

It seems quite natural that if you're going to emphasize the running game, you would have a full back to go along with that emphasis. But the Chiefs do not. And it is hurting them.

Up until the second half of yesterday's game, opponents had no reason to venture away from making Larry Johnson beat them. The vertical passing attack simply wasn't there. Teams could afford to line up nearly their entire defense on the line of scrimmage. Hopefully that will change after yesterday but still bet that opponents will put as many guys as possible on the line first and make us test them with our passing game.

I can't say I have a lot of hope for the Chiefs' running game this year. Beyond overhauling the offensive line and signing a solid fullback (which isn't going to happen this year), we better hope that the passing game develops into a legitimate threat. Otherwise, Larry Johnson is going to be spiking the ball in frustration a lot more this year.

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Comments

I think the schedule is partly to blame

While there is no excuse for the poor rushing performance against the Texans, the Bears and Vikings are two of the best defenses in the league, so it should come as no surprise that our team struggled against both of them. The lack of a true fullback, the loss of some of the greatest linemen (Shields and Roaf) in the past two years, and the aging of others, most notable Jason Dunn, are all contributors too. Kris Wilson is obviously not the answer, and I don't even know if Boomer Grigsby has played a down yet, if he has I most certainly haven't noticed.

The lack of a passing game also doesn't help. Hopefully the offense will implement a game plan similar to what we saw in the second half of yesterdays game, because we have guys out there that can catch if we get the ball to them. Defenses this whole year have been putting 8 in the box, and even when we do pass we don't take advantage of the coverage given, almost always settling on a dump or swing pass. If Huard can continue to show that he's willing to throw the ball down the field, defenses are going to have to respect that, especially with the emergence of Bowe as someone who will go get the ball and catches nearly everything thrown to him. Anyone else notice LJ's one big run came when we were driving down the field via our passing game? The defense had to play back, LJ actually got a hole on the left side, and then did his thing for 30 yards (unfortunately it was brought back by a WR holding that was questionable in my opinion, and occurred after LJ was past him).

Be patient Chiefs fans. Hopefully Solari took notice of what worked in the second half and will gameplan to do it all game against the Chargers, otherwise we can expect another ugly fist half/game.

by Chiefs n Chopper on Sep 24, 2007 11:40 AM CDT reply actions

Unfortunately

the SD game might be ugly either way. I'm just banking on us winning 6-7 at home and stealing a couple on the road.

by Joel Thorman on Sep 24, 2007 11:53 AM CDT up reply actions

FB is important

No doubt the tough schedule has something to say for the losses, but not the way in which the Chiefs lost. I am a personal fan of the fullback position and so I pay close attention to fullbacks whenever I'm watching football. I can't count the number of times I watched Tony Richardson throw a beautiful block to spring Priest Holmes, and later Larry Johnson, for a long run or a touchdown. I have yet to see Kris Wilson block at that level for even a single play. On the other hand, I've watched Kris Wilson whiff so many times, I can't count those, either. Boomer seemed to be a much better blocker in pre-season than Kris, but that's not saying much.
The problem, IMHO, is that Kris is a Herm Edward's favorite. I'm not sure why, but some players, Herm just likes. Kris is one of them. I don't think Boomer will play unless Kris gets hurt.
And yes, I definitely took note of Larry's one long run. That was definitely set up by the pass. And that bogus holding call wasn't the only bad call the Chiefs have suffered through this year. What about the illegal shift called on Larry Johnson earlier in the game? I paid very, very close attention to that play, and Larry was a rock that never moved. I also noticed no other illegal movement. Everyone was set before the snap for more than a full second. So why the call? The TV didn't show all the pre-shift moves, so something could have happened long before the snap, but as I understand it, an illegal shift only occurs if players fail to set for a full second before the snap.

I hope you're right about Solari taking notice of what worked against Minnesota and adjusting accordingly. At this point, I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude.

by Watson on Sep 25, 2007 1:28 PM CDT up reply actions

Great point...

Chris almost all the great RBs in the game right now have a great fullback plowing the way for them. One that comes to mind is Lorenzo O'Neal. I am sure if we asked LT how productive he would be if he lost LO , he would say not very.

The only good thing about letting T-Rich go is he hasn't played much the last two seasons because he has been injured. I love T-Rich and is one of my all time favs especially since I got to meet him and talk to him for a bit. I still miss him...

by Zach on Sep 24, 2007 12:16 PM CDT reply actions

I'm not sure...

But I know that the things I'm beginning to think are also resonating throughout the blogosphere.

See the link:

http://www.profootballtalk.com/photo.htm

by mikvogel on Sep 24, 2007 1:10 PM CDT reply actions

the biggest problem

is the playcalling IMO.

we ran the ball like 10 first downs in a row, so they would put 8 (i even saw 9 once) people in the box and stop us for a loss. if we, i dont know, called some play action on first down and our deep passing game works again, defenses wont be able to stack the box.

i dont think the FB is the problem...

by rockchalk on Sep 24, 2007 9:13 PM CDT reply actions

Giving something away

While I didn't do it for the whole game, I did take note of the Viking's defensive sets for several series. They had an uncanny ability to put eight and nine people in the box when we were running and back off to six of seven in the box on passing plays. The problem? They managed to do this even when we threw on first down or ran on second and long. (The runs on second and long I can understand, but backing off before a pass on first down. With the Chiefs??)
It seemed to me as if something beyond Solari's predictable play-calling was going on. I did my analysis live rather than watching the game taped, so this analysis is a bit shaky, but perhaps Huard or one/multiple of the other players is giving something away pre-snap.
On at least one play, they had seven in the box until just a second before the snap, then ran in the eighth player. It was an obvious passing down. We ran instead, but the Vikings weren't pass blitzing with those eight folks. They were playing run all the way. I know players get tendencies from film, but no one--not even the Chiefs--are that predictable.

Did anyone else notice what I'm talking about? Or did I just imagine it?

by Watson on Sep 25, 2007 1:08 PM CDT reply actions