Chiefs dominate Broncos behind big night from Kenneth Walker
episode
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
31 min
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 7 days ago
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What made the Chiefs’ running game dominate the Broncos in Week 1?
Welcome to the Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Week one, all of week one is in the books after a dominant Kansas City Chiefs win over the Denver Broncos. We dove into all of it. The Kenneth Walker of It All, Chiefs leaning into the ground game, Spags back in a big way, really fun game from the Chiefs defense, a lot of their new pieces. a vision of the Chiefs that if you were excited about this team, a lot of it came to fruition. Not all perfect. We'll talk about the passing game lagging behind a little bit, but not lagging nearly as much as the Denver Broncos in this game who Late an egg in a big way, per tap potentially the most disappointing performance of week one.
We dug into all of it with me, Dave, and Derek. Let's get to that conversation right now. Got a lot to dig into uh as it relates to that game. I don't even know where to start. I think I think we have to start with the new look and new feel Kansas City Chiefs. And it was apparent immediately. Them coming out on the first drive and having a fourth and one, and they did it multiple times. Not only was Kyras Tonga in the backfield, they also had a sixth offensive lineman in the game. I don't even know what you would call that a personnel grouping. The biggest one I could possibly imagine. Well I couldn't. And the fact that that's what they were doing on the first drive really set the tone for what we should come to expect from the Kansas City Chiefs in this game.
four straight Kenneth Walker runs to open their season, one of them being on first down. I think Mahomes threw twice on the entire drive, something like that. And it was the ultimate F you, this is what we're gonna do, start to the season. And we're a little more familiar with it on the other side of the ball, but starting with a double cornerback blitz on the first play of the game to sack Bo Nicks, and then Monsour Delane basically running Cortland Sutton's route for him at the start of this thing, it was suffocating on defense. The statement was very clearly made on offense. It it was really impressive.
Is and we can talk about the Kenneth Walker game as a whole. That is, and it's only week one, that is the most immediate and best return on investment that like anybody made this offseason. For them to like immediate they ran for 220 yards. That's the third most in the Andy Reid era with the Kansas City Chiefs. They were immediately the football team they wanted to be.
Twelve point six total rushing EPA on the day for the Broncos, which is the single most in a game during the next gen era, which goes back to 2015. They averaged point three three EPA per rush. Holy sh is just for context, that's Better than like Blomar Jackson in twenty four throwing the ball. It was at like 0.27. Yeah. So that's the value we were getting. That's a it's MVP level plus dropback efficiency in what they did on the ground tonight.
So this, if I'm hearing you correctly, what the Chiefs did to Denver tonight is worse than what Miami did to Denver in twenty twenty three? No, no, no. This is just for the Chiefs.
Oh, Chiefs running game. Okay. Going back to twenty fifteen. And I I looked up totally PA because it's not epaper carry they've had better games just because they don't run the ball that often. And so if you have a game where you carry the ball fifteen times, you get 14 first downs because every run is on second and two. We got plenty of those Chiefs games. But the volume combined with the efficiency truly stands alone in anything we have seen from the Kansas City Chiefs offense in the past decade.
I mean Kenneth Walker b matched the Chiefs' explosive play production, not not exactly, but like he flirted with matching what they did last year for running backs.
More twenty yards. Four
twenty-yard runs and Chiefs running backs only had like ten designed runs of twelve plus yards all last year. I don't know what he finished with, but pretty damn close to their season tally from the entire year. And it was
In the way that, like, you were told that Kenneth Walker would get them.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What made the Chiefs’ running game dominate the Broncos in Week 1?
0:00–4:20
2
How did Kenneth Walker’s early runs set the tone for Kansas City’s offense?
4:20–8:50
3
Why was the Broncos’ passing attack considered the worst in the league?
8:50–12:21
4
What defensive strategies did the Chiefs use to stifle Denver’s offense?
12:21–16:13
5
How did the Chiefs’ blitz rate and pressure affect Bo Nix’s performance?
16:13–19:30
6
What impact did the Broncos’ offensive line and ball‑handling issues have on the game?
19:30–22:54
7
How might coaching changes and play‑calling affect the Broncos moving forward?
22:54–27:10
8
What are the key takeaways and outlook for both teams after this opening matchup?
27:10–31:18
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
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