We’ve seen Andy Reid’s Chiefs win in virtually every way possible. But never like THIS

The Chiefs are neither perfect nor unbeatable, and we know that because they are both human and got worked by the Raiders last week, but realistically here is an incomplete list of what we know about them now.

They are Super Bowl champions, and retained virtually everyone who matters most, the vast majority of whom are still relatively young.

They are the only team to beat the Ravens this season, and did so the way a windshield beats a bug.

They employ a defense that has surrendered 20 points or fewer in all but one game of the wildest-scoring season in NFL history.

And now, notably and all of a sudden, the team that has already proved a gajillion ways to win now just found another in a 26-17 win over the — are we still calling them this? — Super Bowl-contending Bills.

“The O-line was hyped up,” said rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who finished with 161 yards on 26 carries. “And as long as they’re hyped up, we’re going to keep rolling.”

Oh, shoot, almost forgot: They’re also adding Le’Veon Bell now.

The Chiefs have won games under Andy Reid in virtually every way imaginable. From behind, in the last minute, on defense, on turnovers, after a cornerback punted the ball into the stands, after Steve Bono ran the slowest 76 yards in NFL history, after John Tait ran the wildest 28, and once on a field goal that the holder was mourning as a miss.

But they’ve never done it quite like this: with 46 rushes (tied for the most of any Andy Reid team in 21 years) for 245 yards (the most for any Reid team since 2000).

The Chiefs won because they bossed around the Bills at the line of scrimmage. The Chiefs will always be faster than their opponent, which is nice, but when they’re also stronger like this they are virtually unbeatable.

“The O-line and those guys really took it personally,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “The light boxes that we’ve been facing, and the pressure that was given up last week. They took it personally this week and you saw it today.”

Stick with us here, because this paragraph is a winding road:

They replaced their starting center and starting left guard, then lost their starting right tackle a few snaps in, so they turned their replacement left guard into the replacement right tackle and turned last year’s seventh-round pick into the replacement left guard who, as it turned out, began mauling folks immediately.

And they dominated.

It was quite the plot twist.

You deserve the full story here. The Bills’ defensive front has been less than awesome. They entered with the No. 22 rush defense, according to Football Outsiders, and gave two rotational lineman a healthy scratch. So, the Chiefs were not going against the Steel Curtain here, and will face stiffer challenges at the line of scrimmage from the Bucs, Saints and even the Broncos this weekend.

That’s worth understanding, but for now the run game’s performance is worth celebrating.

The Chiefs have been held back by their inability to run the ball all season. They have morphed into one of the pass-heaviest offenses in a pass-heavy league, and most of the time it’s a gorgeous thing to watch, but sometimes it’s like trying to kill a mosquito with a paint brush.

All season — starting with the Chiefs’ opener against the Texans, and peaking with the Cam-away-from-a-loss game against the Patriots — opponents have flooded the field with defensive backs and essentially called the Chiefs too chicken to run the ball.

They’ve been right, too, with even the pass-first, watch-film-later Reid admitting he didn’t give the run game “enough of a chance” against the Raiders.

Doing that against the Bills should have been more difficult with the shifting line, but what we saw was something like an updated version of MartyBall. It was the Chiefs’ most rushing yards since before Jamaal Charles’ second ACL tear, and the first time in more than three years — 55 games ago! — that they rushed for more yards than they passed.

“That was definitely different,” Mahomes said. “I mean, I had a few of those (run-pass options) called and I had to tell myself not to throw it. Just keep handing that thing off. ... I mean, I just want to win. I don’t care how that’s done. Pass, run, defense, whatever that is.”

This is all more than a statistical freakshow, or a chance to scroll through Pro-Football-Reference.com on deadline. It could be a season changer, if the Chiefs can prove it’s not a one-off.

Because opposing defenses have found a workable way to drag the Chiefs’ offense into normalcy. They use dime packages, rush three or four and cover the bejeezus out of the Chiefs’ receivers. They’d be wise to also deploy a spy on Mahomes, who often scrambles for what he needs when he needs it, but that’s a conversation for another day.

The strategy has frustrated the Chiefs’ players and coaches, with everyone from Reid to Mahomes to Kelce to the line elbowing each other out for their share of the blame. To be sure, the Chiefs can get into the playoffs without ever fixing this problem.

But it’s hard to imagine them doing much once there.

“It takes me back to my college days at Texas Tech,” Mahomes said. “Where we’re getting (defenses dropping eight into coverage) and linebackers six or seven yards deep. But if teams are going to do that we’ve got to run the football until they come up and when they come up we’ll throw the football again.”

The fix has always been the run game, but with a line built more for pass protection the solution was slippery.

Only thorough film analyses by offensive line experts and (more importantly) time will prove if the Chiefs just took a significant step, but in the moment it sure feels like it. Edwards-Helaire saw the biggest holes since college, and once through made defenders miss. Darrel Williams and Darwin Thompson added 44 yards on nine carries, including Williams’ fourth quarter touchdown on 4th and inches.

Like Mahomes said, the Chiefs have faced a lot of light boxes this year. Until now, they have essentially been screaming into the wind about it, unable to convince defenses to change.

The rest of the league knows what Mahomes can do, so defenses will want the Chiefs to prove this wasn’t a fluke, and toward that end the Broncos present an interesting challenge.

But if the Chiefs can meet that obstacle, and do it consistently — and remember, with the help of Bell — then the league might just be out of ideas.

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 9:05 PM.

Sam Mellinger

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4365

Sam Mellinger was a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star. He held various roles from 2000-2022. He has won numerous national and regional awards for coverage of the Chiefs, Royals, colleges, and other sports both national and local.