In just one of his few career starts Darrel Williams stepped up and provided the Chiefs with a big boost.
Playoff football is a time when every player gets a chance to put their best game on the national stage and on Sunday, Chiefs backup running back Darrel Williams had the best game of his career. Since he arrived in Kansas City in 2018 Williams has been a career backup, and injury has also cost him time.
Being behind Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Leveon Bell this year, as well as Kareem Hunt and Damien Williams in the past, but in the Divisional Round vs the Cleveland Browns, it was his time to shine.
Williams has a lot of similarities to the Chiefs’ other backs, and one of those is his contact balance and tackle-breaking ability. He was running with his pads down all day and hitting the first gap he could. It oftentimes lead to positive plays and kept the Browns on their feet.
With the Chiefs vaunted passing attack, the Browns paid little attention to Williams out of the backfield, but it lead to some nice chunk plays for KC.
Williams is a strong runner, and while the Chiefs run more zone than anything they did go with a double G run for the first time all season, where both guards pull around, one kicking out the EMOLS while the other pulls through for a linebacker.
While Williams had a good game Andy Reid also put him in a good situation, and made an excellent call on the Chiefs first big fourth down, right after the head injury suffered by Patrick Mahomes.
After Mahomes went out it was even more important that the Chiefs be able to run the football, and Williams was able to help out backup Chad Henne not only by moving the ball with his legs, but also by being the man the Browns defense deemed worthy of not covering.
The third down conversion to Williams would eventually set up the epic fourth down and one play that will live in Chiefs history forever, but the Browns had not been willing to cover the swing pass out of the backfield, and it was a good pass for backup Chad Henne to throw.
Williams finished with a productive 78 yards on just 13 carries for a whopping 6.0 yards per carry, as well as having four receptions for 16 yards. He hasn’t seen much this year but he stepped up when it mattered the most, but now with his production, the Chiefs could potentially have a three-headed monster of CEH, Williams, and Bell headed into the AFCCG, against a team who they have been proven to be able to run on.
Williams has been the Chiefs’ dirty work back all season, playing in obvious passing downs to keep Patrick Mahomes protected, and he has earned the right to be on the field this late in the season. He’s a tough runner and a hard worker, but every championship team needs guys like that.
He brings his lunch pail to play every day, fights every time he is in the game, and the only stat he cares about is what is how many W’s his team has at the end of the day. I doubt this will be the last we see of Darrel Williams this postseason.
