Chiefs’ offensive line withstands makeovers to deliver victory

Extreme makeover, Chiefs’ offensive line edition.

The five who lined up in front of quarterback Alex Smith in Sunday’s 27-20 victory over the Houston Texans formed an entirely different crew from last season. The ankle injury that prevented Eric Fisher from playing guaranteed the complete turnover.

The leader of the newcomers, veteran left guard Ben Grubbs, could not have been happier with the result.

“My hat’s off to all of them,” Grubbs said.

The group, starting from left tackle, included Donald Stephenson, a former starter who came off the bench last season, and Grubbs on one side.

The center, Mitch Morse, the second-round draft selection from Missouri, was making his NFL debut. So was right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardiff, the team’s sixth-round selection from McGill University in Montreal in 2014.

Right tackle Jah Reid was the latest addition, acquired from the Baltimore Ravens after he was cut earlier in the week, and it turns out just in time to start in place of Fisher.

This is a unit that’s been subject to injuries, position switches, promotions and demotions throughout the preseason as coach Andy Reid searched for the most effective combination. The mixing and matching occurred up until the final practice Sunday.

Against the Texans, Jah Reid often found Texans’ defensive star J.J. Watt breathing on him. Watt recorded two sacks — one after his helmet had flown off — and six tackles for loss, a terrific statistical day.

But the Chiefs schemed well enough to not allow Watts to dominate play, and largely made non-factors of other defensive lineman Vince Wilfork and Jadeveon Clowney.

“(Jah Reid) did a great job,” Grubbs said. “That’s a big challenge, coming from Baltimore, the week of a game, learning the offense, going on silent count and blocking J.J. Watt.”

Reid and Duvernay-Tardif worked after practices this week to get comfortable on the right side in case Fisher couldn’t go. The offensive line pairings — Stephenson and Grubbs along with Fisher and Duvernay-Tardif — was the objective of moving Fisher from left to right tackle, Andy Reid said earlier this week.

Jah Reid needed a crash course once Fisher, who had practiced with the starters most of the week, became unavailable on Friday.

“It’s a part of football,” Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles said. “People get hurt, so the next person steps up. People can lose trust and focus in a mix up at the last minute. But we stayed together and we just gave (Jah Reid) motivation and confidence that we got your back.”

Short range passes, quickly out of Smith’s hand, meant the line didn’t often have to hold blocks for long.

“They had success with that early,” Watt said. “We came in and made some adjustments at halftime and played better in the second half.”

The Chiefs had some issues. There were no second-half points. They didn’t burn clock to protect the lead as efficiently as they’d have preferred, and the Texans, with 11 second-half points edged closer. Houston forced the Chiefs to recover an onside kick with 84 seconds remaining.

When they did, the Chiefs went into victory formation and won a game on the road with an offensive line that’s had days to come together.

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ offensive line withstands makeovers to deliver victory."