The Kansas City Chiefs‘ offense through three weeks has been a tough watch, mainly because the unit has struggled to run the football with Patrick Mahomes as the leading rusher heading into Week 3.
Sitting at 1-2 with the Baltimore Ravens coming to town, this feels like the very definition of a “gotta have it” game for the Chiefs, and the second half of the 22-9 win over the New York Giants will give confidence that things might be starting to turn.
As far as Mahomes goes, in Nick Shook’s latest quarterback rankings, Mahomes slipped down to No. 4, but there was a positive element to come out of the Giants’ win.
“Patrick Mahomes continues to carry Kansas City’s offense and falls a couple spots here solely because Herbert deserved to climb,” Shook wrote. “Also, for those keeping track of these kinds of things, the Chiefs finally found someone else to lead them in rushing in Week 3, an encouraging sign for their offense.”
MORE: Is Chiefs’ offensive ‘vibe’ slowly returning?
Run game key to Chiefs slaying Ravens?
Baltimore has given up over 100 rushing yards in its first three games, while the Chiefs have surpassed that mark on offense twice in their three games, but it is worth noting that a lot of those yards were from Mahomes.
With Isiah Pacheco (92 yards) and Kareem Hunt (81 yards) struggling to get anything meaningful happening through three weeks, is this the game where things finally get rolling? After all, the Ravens are fresh off giving up over 200 yards on the ground to the Detroit Lions.
This will be an interesting watch, and considering that neither Pacheco nor Hunt is averaging more than eight rushing attempts per game, that is a problem that needs to be solved sooner rather than later.
Mahomes can only do so much, and having a stable run game to fall back on is a quarterback’s best friend, but through three weeks, Patrick hasn’t gotten it.
Will the “encouraging sign” from last week filter into Week 4? The Chiefs sure hope so.
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