Jamaal Charles beats the Seahawks’ ‘Beast’ at his own game

All week long, all Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles heard was how unstoppable Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch was.

Charles wasn’t in position to tackle Lynch on Sunday, but he still beat the Beast Mode.

Charles carried 20 times for 159 yards — his most in a game since late in the 2012 season — and two touchdowns in the Chiefs’ 24-20 victory over the Super Bowl champion Seahawks at Arrowhead Stadium.

“He’s the best running back in the NFL,” said Chiefs right tackle Ryan Harris. “Every person on this team will take Jamaal every time.”

Lynch had a solid game himself, rushing for 124 yards in 24 carries, but he came up a yard short on fourth and 1 in the fourth quarter and failed to add to his league-leading nine touchdowns.

Charles, meanwhile, delivered when his team needed it most. He scored on runs of 1 and 16 yards, and averaged a season-best 8.0 yards a carry, his best mark since a 226-yard rushing day against Indianapolis on Dec. 23, 2012.

“I’m not saying there was any challenge there for him because he’s Jamaal Charles,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid. “He doesn’t compare himself to anybody, nor does he need to. He keeps producing every week, and he’s done it for a number of years. He’s a special player … a very special player.”

Charles admitted the specter of Lynch on the other sideline may have affected him when he lost a third-quarter fumble while fighting for yardage.

“I think I was doing too much … I was trying to be like Marshawn and hold onto the ball and keep going,” Charles said. “I just have to learn how to go down. I’m a better running back than that, and I should have just gone down in that situation.”

Seattle converted the fumble into a touchdown that gave the Seahawks a 20-17 lead. But on the Chiefs’ ensuing possession, Charles blasted up the middle for a season-best run of 47 yards to the Seattle 9, setting up the Chiefs’ go-ahead touchdown on a 4-yard run by Knile Davis.

“Every time I lose an opportunity, like fumbling the ball, I always come back harder,” Charles said. “It makes me hungry. I made a mistake, and I want to come back and not make that same mistake again.”

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith sensed Charles’ frustration after the fumble.

“It’s just the type of competitor he is,” Smith said. “You know it was eating him up on the sideline. You could hear him, he was talking about it. After that, when he got his next chance, he was going to try to get it back.”

In all, the Chiefs rolled up 190 yards rushing, second only to the 207 they amassed in the Monday-night win over New England.

Charles accounted for 53 of the 86 yards on the Chiefs’ first-quarter touchdown drive. He caught two passes for 19 yards and carried six times for 34 yards.

Facing third and goal from the Seattle 1, the Chiefs deployed backup tackles Donald Stephenson and Jeff Linkenbach as eligible receivers and fullback Anthony Sherman as a tight end. Smith ran an old-fashioned option play, with Charles dashing in for the score, marking the fifth straight game he has scored at least one touchdown.

“The first drive, we just wanted to keep (our foot) on the pedal at every chance we got to go out and score,” Charles said.

Charles gave the Chiefs a 14-7 lead in the second quarter when left tackle Eric Fisher sprung him for a 16-yard TD run. Two plays earlier, he broke a 28-yard run up the middle, taking advantage of Travis Kelce’s crushing block on Seattle safety Earl Thomas.

“Jamaal has such a big-play potential and has the highlight plays,” Smith said, “but the thing that is so undervalued about him is the guy can run so tough. He’s so hard to hit, and he never seems to take a big shot.

“He’s always falling forward, glancing blows … you can do so much with him. We got a little option play down there near the goal line that was nice. Coaches put a really good plan together, the guys up front really started it off, and Jamall ran it, obviously pretty well.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2014 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Jamaal Charles beats the Seahawks’ ‘Beast’ at his own game."