Kansas City Chiefs Run Game, Led By Jamaal Charles, Regains Form

The Kansas City Chiefs running game is what makes the whole offense go. If the running game isn't moving very well -- like the last two weeks against the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos -- the Chiefs usually lose. It's pretty much that simple.

After two weeks of struggles, the Chiefs run game returned on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.. RB Jamaal Charles didn't get his first carry of the game until about seven minutes left in the second quarter but still ended with 88 yards on 12 carries.

"I don't know," Charles said after the game when asked what was the difference this week with the running game. "We did a few things differently this week. No matter what, we tried to come out and run the ball, whether or not they had eight or nine in the box."

The Cardinals tried...and tried...but they couldn't stop the Chiefs running game from being effective.

"Oh yeah, they blitzed on mostly all the plays," Charles said. "They blitzed, they tried to stop the running plays. No matter what, we tried to keep running the ball whether they blitzed or not."

The Chiefs' theme this week was getting back to basics and part of that is running the football. Charles says they committed to the run all day and RB Thomas Jones, who ended the game with 71 yards rushing on 15 carries, says they didn't change much on their side of things to make that happen.

"We didn't really change much to be honest," Jones said. "We were just really, really focused today. Obviously this was a big game for us. We play well at home and it was an opportunity for us to go out and get a home win.

"We didn't really change much during practice except for the basic situations and doing some more things we did in training camp to get back to that mentality we had to start the season."

Something worked on Sunday that wasn't working the last two weeks. The Chiefs had 155 total rushing yards the last two weeks and had 159 on Sunday. Whatever they're doing, keep doing it.