Kansas City Chiefs Run Over Buffalo Bills Despite Reshuffled Offensive Line

Before Monday’s game against the Buffalo Bills even kicked off, the Kansas City Chiefs already had replaced center Austin Reiter with Daniel Kilgore.

Their offensive line, which lost veteran right guard Kelechi Osemele to potential career-ending knee injuries last week, would get reshuffled further.

“We had a lot of moving pieces there,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said.

Their best and highest-paid offensive lineman, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who is on a three-year, $24.455 million contract, left in the first quarter with a back injury.

As a result Mike Remmers, who had replaced Osemele, moved from right guard to right tackle to replace Schwartz, and second-year guard Nick Allegretti entered the lineup at right guard.

One could say the rejiggered offensive more than held up.

In the Chiefs’ 26-17 win, they ran for 245 rushing yards on 46 carries — the most ever attempted by a Chiefs team coached by Andy Reid. 

“Things just seemed to part like the Red Sea,” running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire said. “It came easy.”

The rookie back did most of the damage with a career-high 161 rushing yards on 26 carries.

There was not a better time for the Chiefs running game to have its best performance of the season as the downpour at Bills Stadium made it difficult for either team’s passing game — in what had been billed as a match between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, the NFL quarterbacks with the two strongest arms — to find much rhythm. 

“Weather conditions were a bit ugly,” Reid said.

In his first start for Kansas City, Kilgore, who was signed to a one-year, $1.05 million contract just before the season, helped bludgeon the Bills’ defense while spelling Reiter, whose knee injury had flared up.

Weirdly enough, the center who Reiter replaced, Mitch Morse, was on the opposing team. After spending 2015-18 with the Chiefs, the former Missouri Tigers lineman signed a four-year, $44.5 million deal with the Bills.

Kilgore started 13 games for the Miami Dolphins last season and 39 games in seven years with the San Francisco 49ers.

“He did a nice job,” Reid said. “He’s played a lot of football.”

Maybe Chiefs general manager Brett Veach, who is known for his deft free-agent signings, found the next Stefen Wisniewski, the interior lineman who solidified the Chiefs’ offensive line during their playoff run last season before signing a two-year, $2.85 million deal with Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason.

Not everything was rosy from the offensive line, but that’s to be expected, especially considering the mid-game reshuffling. 

In the second quarter, Allegretti held Bills defensive back Taron Johnson, forcing a 3rd and 11. But the Chiefs run some of their best offense on third and long, and Travis Kelce, who had two touchdown receptions, caught a touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone on the next play.

On the Chiefs’ second drive of the second half, Remmers had a false start. And once again on the very next play, Edwards-Helaire had another spectacular run for 17 yards.

Edwards-Helaire was sensational all game, and other Chiefs backs got in on the action too.

On the Chiefs’ last drive of the third quarter, Darwin Thompson ran for 11 yards. Seven plays later, Darrel Williams knifed through the left side for a 13-yard touchdown on 4th and inches to put the Chiefs up 20-10.

The way the Chiefs dominated the game by running it makes you wonder where recently-signed Le’Veon Bell, who was commenting on the action via social media, fits in.

But it’s a good problem to have for a team that now has an embarrassment of riches at running back, and the arrow is again pointing the right way following the previous week’s loss.

“We can only go up,” Edwards-Helaire said.