Late night bullshit: analyzing almost every CEH carry vs. Ravens.

[Direckshun]

The stats were not impressive.

20 carries for 64 yards. A 3.2 clip. The run game wasn't great against the Chargers either, after shredding a good Texans defense week 1.

What is to blame? I took an hour to myself to look at every CEH carry and identifying what happened on each snap.

We begin.

CARRY #1: 8:35 1st Q, 3-0 Ravens, 1st and 10 on Ravens 48 yard line.
Shotgun handoff, up the gut for a 3 yard gain.

Remmers struggles to move the massive Brandon Williams, who clogs up CEH's lane. It's not even clear what this play was trying to do, as Reiter and Osemele barely put a hand on Calais Campbell and Pernell McPhee, who slip through barely touched and bring down CEH as Williams clogged up his lane.

My best guess is that the play was designed to go off tackle behind Schwartz, who obliterated Matt Judon. However, the play depended on Kelce coming across in motion to block a blitzing safety, which he does enough of, but the blitzer may have spooked CEH and forced him upfield instead of off tackle.

CARRY #2: 4:12 1st Q, 6-3 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Chiefs 32 yard line.
Shotgun handoff, up the gut for a 4 yard gain.

Line is heavy, with Kelce off Schwartz and Keizer off Fisher. The play runs behind Osemele, who neutralizes Derek Wolfe. Reiter reaches to the 2nd level to put a hat on the linebacker. Remmers had perfect position to wall off Brandon Williams but Williams still bulldozes through him to clog up the play.

4 yard gain, though, thanks to the hole Osemele opened.

CARRY #3: 3:58 1st Q, 6-3 Chiefs, 2nd and 6 on Chiefs 36 yard line.
Mahomes twirls in the shotgun and hands off, off left tackle for a 5 yard gain.

This is essentially a downhill run behind Fisher and Kelce. Fisher erases Derek Wolfe from the history books and salts the earth so that nothing else may grow, Kelce reaches for the 2nd level to double team the safety with Watkins. CEH powers through tackles for an additional yard or two. Great hole opened.

This was a small defensive front, with only Wolfe as the lone defensive lineman. They had four other dudes on the LOS but they were all linebackers, three of them standing, and the entire OL rips them a new asshole.

CARRY #4: 13:57 2nd Q, 6-3 Chiefs, 2nd and goal on Ravens 6 yard line.
Shotgun handoff, up the gut for 1 yard.

The play is run to the A gap between Osemele and Reiter, and depends on Reiter erasing Brandon Williams -- it does not work, Williams is too massive and clogs up the lane, forcing CEH to just dart up into a pile of bodies. Osemele, meanwhile, reaches to the 2nd level and literally beats a linebacker into the ground.

Remmers whiffs on a linebacker, and Schwartz runs right past Wolfe, who slips past him and swallows up CEH to stuff the play. Fisher maybe holds McPhee who gets inside of him.

CARRY #5: 12:40 2nd Q, 13-10 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Chiefs 25 yard line.
Mahomes under center, hands off, runs off left tackle for 1 yard loss.

This may not have been a well designed play, as Brandon Williams embarrasses the Chiefs. He lines up in an A gap and Reiter ignores him and runs to the 2nd level, leaving Remmers to somehow get in front of him, which he does not. Williams gets a free path to bury CEH.

The play was being run behind Fisher and Keizer, who double teamed McPhee -- McPhee splits the double and forces CEH upfield, where Williams swallows him up. Both Reiter and Osemele were reaching to the 2nd level, leaving nobody behind to help CEH when Williams breaks through.

CARRY #6: 4:39 2nd Q, 20-10 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Chiefs 16 yard line.
Mahomes under center, handoff, up the gut for a 9 yard gain.

This is where Edwards-Helaire eats. Only five guys in the box, and the OL is doing their best zone blocking. Edwards pushes McPhee far, Osemele walls off Wolfe. Finally -- FINALLY -- the Chiefs double-team Brandon Williams with Reiter and Remmers, and Reiter eventually climbs to the linebacker. CEH runs right behind the double team and absolutely jukes the safety out of his jock for extra yards.

At this point, CEH has 6 carries for 21 yards, a 3.5 average.

CARRY #7: 3:04 2nd Q, 20-10 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Chiefs 35 yard line.
Mahomes under center, hands off, up the gut for a 20 yard gain.

This run is complete ownage by the OL. Once again, the Ravens go light in the box, with only two DL on the field, a couple LBs at the line of scrimmage, and a couple DBs at the 2nd level. Osemele and Fisher erase Derek Wolfe and put him on a milk carton, while Reiter walls off Patrick Queen. It's 12 yards before anybody lays a finger on CEH and he drags the DB an extra 8 yards once he does.

CARRY #8: 2:25 2nd Q, 20-10 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Ravens 45 yard line.
Mahomes under center, handoff, off right tackle for 1 yard.

This play is destroyed by Derek Wolfe, who splits Remmers and Reiter -- who gets absolutely no hand on him -- and beats the tar out of Remmers so bad he almost tanks CEH for a 5 yard loss.

The Ravens were in a base 3-4 look here, and Jaylon Ferguson, the rushbacker, is the clear target, but he stacks up Keizer and Sherman. Malik Harrison slips Schwartz to keep CEH pushing wide and Queen cleans up the play. Hell of an effort of CEH to even gain a yard here, as pretty much everybody failed.

HALFTIME: 8 carries, 42 yards, 5.25 yards/carry

CARRY #9: 5:21 3rd Q, 27-13 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Chiefs 40 yard line.
Shotgun handoff, up the gut for a 3 yard gain.

This play followed Remmers up the B gap on his side, but Remmers can't get Derek Wolfe to budge, and he helps swallow up the play. Reiter's initial assignment is the gargantuan 350 lbs Justin Ellis, but after just a moment, Osemele plows in and pancakes Ellis. Reiter bursts to the 2nd level but can't erase the LB, who teams up with Wolfe to shut down CEH.

CARRY #10: 14:39 4th Q, 27-20 Chiefs, 2nd and 4 on Chiefs 31 yard line.
Shotgun handoff, off the left tackle for a 1 yard loss.

This play was supposed to be off left tackle but neither Osemele or Fisher could move their guy. Jihad Ward got wide on Fisher who could never establish a corner, and Wolfe fought back a double team of Osemele and Reiter, a great effort by him. This forces CEH to turn in early and LJ Fort crashes down to end the party a yard early.

Remmers gets pushed back by Williams but manages to hold his own a bit as CEH zips by.

CARRY #11: 13:25 4th Q, 27-20 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Chiefs 48 yard line.
Shotgun handoff, off the left tackle for a 1 yard gain.

Kelce is in line with Fisher, where the play is directed, both of them instructed to block downward, which allows Fisher to mostly negate Calais Campbell. Kelce takes a beat to find the linebacker he needs to block and Fort just wrecks him, pushing him back and making a play.

The rushbacker that the play is targeting, Jaylon Ferguson, completely evades Mike Remmers, who is pulling to block him. Ferguson forces CEH to turn it in early rather than turning the corner, and Fort is there to fence him in after discarding Kelce. Ward pursues from the backside and makes the tackle.

CARRY #12: 10:40, 4th Q, 27-20 Chiefs, 2nd & 4 on Ravens 21 yard line.
Mahomes under center, handoff, up the gut for a 5 yard gain.

This is a pure cutback run, as the OL on the right side tries to steamroll the DL to provide a great cutback lane. They succeed: for the first time all game, Reiter manages to move Williams effectively (with an assist from Remmers), Schwartz plows Wolfe out of the play, Keizer motions to align with Kelce and leads the way by putting a hat on a linebacker.

CEH bursts through the cutback for a very fast 5 yard gain. This was part effective blocking, part great playcall by Andy Reid as the entire DL for the Ravens thought the play was being run to Fisher's side, perhaps because of the last couple runs. As a result, they were out of position and Reiter, Remmers, and Schwartz all did cleanup. First down.

CARRY #13: 10:05 4th Q, 27-20 Chiefs, 1st and 10 on Ravens 16 yard line.
Mahomes under center, handoff, up the gut for 3 yards.

This play is good ol' fashioned Clyde Edwards-Helaire "want to." This play is run right into the teeth of nose tackle Brandon Williams. Osemele guides Calais Campbell out of the way but Campbell still just about reaches out and grabs CEH. But Remmers and Reiter double team Williams to try and erase him from the play -- tall order. Williams, who is lined up as a zero tech, is in fact walled out of the play, though he ends up putting Remmers on his ass.

Kelce pulls across the line and puts a decent enough block on Judon. But since Williams is taking up all their manpower, the LBs are free to shoot their gaps, and Queen and McPhee manage to wrangle CEH down after a couple yards.

STATS FROM WHEN THE GAME WAS COMPETITIVE: 53 yards on 13 carres, 4.0 average. When you remove the 20 yard burst, that's 33 yards on 12 carries, or a 2.75 average.

At this point, CEH gets 7 more carries for 7 more yards, but it's hard to care about because the game was largely iced at this point.

Things that are clear:

1. Fisher and Schwartz are not a problem.
2. Osemele brings more juice than any other dude on the roster but his snap-by-snap consistency isn't the greatest.
3. Kelce's runblocking is a somewhat minor problem.
4. Reiter is probably the biggest problem, as is Remmers, though you hate to fault a dude who's a backup just trying to stem the bleeding.

Part of that you can put on the Ravens, who have an elite run stuffer in Brandon Williams, other strong DTs in Derek Wolfe and Calais Campbell, and fundamentally sound edge rushers against the run. The Chiefs linemen simply weren't able to effectively get to the 2nd level as much as they wanted, as they were burning all their resources on attempting to plow holes through a very good DL.

It's clear that CEH excels when there are clean cutback lanes and he can make a cut and go, but as much as the Chiefs run between the tackles, it would really benefit them to have a bruiser who can punish defenses. CEH can bounce off hits, but he doesn't have the power to plow through dudes. But you can mitigate most of that by having brought in a RB who can do that. At this time, Darrel the Barrel is the closest we've got.

Draw your own conclusions on this puppy, but those are some of the early returns on mine.