Kenneth Walker III didn’t just carry the Kansas City Chiefs past the Chargers on Sunday. He turned Patrick Mahomes into an extra body in the run game.
That’s where the night went from impressive to strange in Kansas City’s 22-6 win. In the second quarter, Walker bounced a run to the right side and briefly looked bottled up when defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson got a hold of him. But Mahomes knew the play still had life, and after the game he said that “the first guy never tackles him.”
So Mahomes kept moving. He shuffled over to cut off Chargers linebacker Tuli Tuipulotu, the first defender arriving from the backside, and that little bit of interference mattered. Walker had the lane he needed to keep going, and he finished the play by diving into the end zone for a touchdown.
That was just one piece of a huge day for Walker, who continued to pile up eye-popping numbers against Los Angeles. He ran for 128 yards and two touchdowns, giving him another multi-score outing in a stretch that’s starting to look historic.
According to Jesse Newell of The Athletic, Walker became only the sixth player in NFL history to reach at least 750 scrimmage yards and eight touchdowns over his first five games. The others in that club are Jim Brown, Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, Emmitt Smith and former Chiefs back Priest Holmes.
He also picked up his fourth multi-touchdown game in five contests. The only other player to do that is Hall of Fame wideout Calvin Johnson Jr. with the Detroit Lions.
And while the numbers are outrageous, they fit the way Kansas City is leaning on him. Newell noted the Chiefs were already dealing with serious problems up front and at receiver on Sunday, and tight end Travis Kelce tweaked his ankle in the first quarter. None of it slowed the offense much, because Walker kept the pressure off Mahomes and helped steady the attack until the quarterback could work to his secondary targets.
The result was a balanced showing against a Chargers team that keeps finding ways to give games away.
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