The Kansas City Chiefs' run game did something unusual against the New York Jets on Sunday: it worked without a single big play. Per Arrowhead Pride, the Chiefs' running backs finished with 27 carries for 155 yards, 5.7 yards per carry and two touchdowns. The longest run of the day went just 13 yards. That is a grinding, efficient performance, not a highlight reel.
The number that matters most is the 55% success rate, a measure of how often a play keeps the offense on schedule. A surgical day on the ground like that is rarely an accident. It usually means the blocking scheme and the ball carrier are working from the same script. That, according to the film review, is exactly what is happening in Kansas City this season. For more on how coverage like this connects to the wider screen business, see our entertainment news section. Readers following this should also see New Horror Movies This Season, Dated and Sourced for October Nights.
Why was the run game so efficient against the Jets?
Because the Chiefs kept winning without needing to break anything open. Arrowhead Pride's film review credits a zone-blocking scheme that creates cutback lanes instead of one defined hole. Center Creed Humphrey gets horizontal movement on the nose tackle. Left guard Kingsley Suamataia and left tackle Kahlil Benson handle the backside, with Benson repeatedly driving his hips into a defender's outside shoulder and into the linebacker. Those blocks open the cutback for running back Kenneth Walker. This connects to our earlier piece, New Comedy Movies This Season, With Dates, Premises, and Picks.
The scheme also leans on pre-snap motion. One reviewed play shows motion bumping the weakside linebacker out of the box and pulling a smaller safety into the run fit. The backside defensive end stays home worrying about a bootleg. The result: six blockers against five defenders, and space to run through.
What makes Kenneth Walker different from previous Chiefs backs?
He turns bad calls into good plays. On a shortside toss that Jets outside linebacker David Bailey diagnosed perfectly, the design should have lost a yard or two. Instead, Walker got all the way backside, made multiple defenders miss, and saved the play. Arrowhead Pride argues that ability to mitigate wrong run calls has transformed the offense. His vision shows up too: fake a cut left, bounce back right at full speed, and let Humphrey cut off the pursuing linebacker.
The review also flags the under-center run game, which it describes as rediscovered this year. Running outside zone from 13 personnel, the Chiefs watched Benson get stonewalled on the frontside, only for right tackle Jaylon Moore and right guard Trey Smith to move the three-technique vertically and hand Walker an easy cutback the other way.
What did Emmett Johnson add?
Johnson got limited work, entering late, but he flashed in two ways. First, he hit the frontside edge on a weakside zone concept, beating a disengaging defensive end to the spot. That matters because defenses overplay the cutback lane when an offense cannot threaten the frontside. Second, he scored on a gap-scheme power run with Smith pulling, after Suamataia and Benson cleared out the head-up tackle. The review suggests the line can block gap runs and should do it more, with Johnson a natural fit.
What is the bigger takeaway?
Personnel, not just playcalling, drove the improvement. Arrowhead Pride credits Andy Reid's playcalling among the reasons the run game has been better this year, but concludes that Kansas City's personnel is simply better. Benson has performed beyond expectations. Moore is described as shaky in pass protection yet valuable as a run blocker. Together, the review says, they give the Chiefs what amounts to five guards on the field, creating extra horizontal space for Walker to exploit.
The film evidence supports a clear read: this is a scheme-and-personnel machine, not a hot streak. Whether the backside dominance holds against better front seven is the open question the numbers cannot yet answer.
