Chiefs-Raiders snap counts: Bolton and Gore get more work in big win

The Kansas City Chiefs won their sixth consecutive game on Sunday, notching a dominating 48-9 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium.

Let’s see how the Chiefs used their players in the win.

Please note: Since we’re on a short week before the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday Night Football, we will dispense with the week-by-week charts for individual players. We’ll return to that part of the analysis after the Week 15 game.

Starters (offensive): WR Josh Gordon, LT Orlando Brown Jr., LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Andrew Wylie, TE Blake Bell, TE Travis Kelce, WR Tyreek Hill, QB Patrick Mahomes and RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

Starters (defensive): RDT Chris Jones, LDT Jarran Reed, RDE Frank Clark, LDE Melvin Ingram, LB Willie Gay Jr., LB Anthony Hitchens, LCB Charvarius Ward, RCB Mike Hughes, CB Tyrann Mathieu, S Juan Thornhill and S Daniel Sorensen.

Did not play: None

Inactive: DB Dicaprio Bootle, QB Shane Buechele, CB L’Jarius Sneed, OL Kyle Long and T Prince Tega Wanogho.

Offensive takeaways

• On both offense and defense, snap counts for this game were impacted by the blowout victory; once Kansas City assumed a 41-9 lead with just under ten minutes left in the game, some starters took seats on the bench. But on offense, the effect was limited by a single-play offensive drive, in which rookie Derrick Gore took a first-down handoff 51 yards for a touchdown to extend the Chiefs’ lead to 39 points. Kansas City’s final offensive possession consisted of three kneel-down plays. So in total, offensive starters missed only four plays.
• For only the second time this season, the Chiefs ran the ball more than they passed it, rushing on 53% of the offensive snaps. But it should be noted that this essentially had to do with the Chiefs jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter — that they extended to a 35-3 lead at halftime. Until the second quarter, Kansas City emphasized the pass more than the run.
• Even allowing for running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire sitting down at the end of the game, Derrick Gore saw a significant uptick in usage.
• Wide receiver Mecole Hardman was used more than he had seen since the Week 9 game against the Green Bay Packers. Josh Gordon’s use returned to the levels we were seeing before the Denver Broncos game in Week 13.
• With Andrew Wylie still starting at right tackle in place of Lucas Niang, the Chiefs continued to use “heavy” formations with an extra tight end or fullback more often.

Defensive takeaways

• Putting starters on the bench impacted defensive snap counts significantly more. The Raiders ran 16 plays against backup players.
• Allowing for this, we can see that Daniel Sorensen started the game at safety. This was done so that safety Tyrann Mathieu could take a chunk of the slot cornerback snaps in place of L’Jarius Sneed, who missed the game after a death in his family. According to Pro Football Focus data, Rashad Fenton — who was active for the game after being limited in practice all week — took the rest. Mike Hughes started the game and played exclusively as an outside corner.
• The team used linebackers sparingly, averaging just 1.58 on the field for each snap — the lowest such figure of the season. That resulted in lower usage for all of the team’s linebackers, except for Nick Bolton. PFF data suggests that after starters sat down, Bolton took most of the second-level snaps.
• PFF data also shows that in this game, Chris Jones lined up as a defensive end more often than he did as a defensive tackle. That’s the first time we’ve seen this since the team’s current winning streak began. But based on replays shown during the broadcast, it appears that this was sometimes done not because of a philosophical shift, but rather as a means to confuse the Las Vegas offensive line. In addition, Jones (and most of the rest of the defensive lineman) remained on the field through the Raiders’ final two drives; their percentages of use remained in normal ranges — except for Frank Clark, whose usage dropped to the lowest level of the season.

Editor’s Note: Arrowhead Pride obtains snap count data from the NFL’s game stats and information system, which allows us to break out snap counts by run or pass on offensive and defensive plays. Because GSIS data ignores plays that were nullified by penalties, total offensive and defensive snap counts will vary from other sources, which get their data from NFL Gamebooks