Chiefs, Steelers and Texans are leaning on running backs you’ve probably never heard of

Danny Kelly: The NFL saw more passing touchdowns this year than in any previous season and there were a record 11 quarterbacks that thew 30 or more touchdowns this season. There’s no question it’s a passing league, but even with the explosion of passing we’ve seen of late, the ground game will continue to be important for many teams as the playoffs kick off. A handful of teams in the dance this year still identify at least partly as “running teams,” and will lean heavily on their run games -- Kansas City, Houston, and Seattle come to mind ... and Pittsburgh, while they’re still a vertical passing offense, like to run the ball a lot as well.

But, there’s something all these teams have in common: major question marks at the running back position after losing key players along the way. For the Chiefs, the challenge this season has been playing without Jamaal Charles. For the Seahawks, it’s been trying to get by without Marshawn Lynch and Thomas Rawls. For the Texans, it’s playing without Arian Foster, and for the Steelers, the specter of playing without Le’Veon Bell and now DeAngelo Williams looms large.

Kansas City won ten games in a row without Charles in the mix. What have you seen from their ground game since they lost their most important player in Week 5? Can they ride Spencer Ware and Charcandrick West this weekend?

Stephen White: No offense to Charles, but the running back situation in Kansas City may actually be better now that he is out with injury. Charles was consistently awesome, no doubt, but for several years the Chiefs have tried and failed to find a backup running back to complement him. With West and Ware, you have the classic Thunder and Lightning scenario which gives the Chiefs the best of both worlds on offense.

Ware is, of course, the Thunder at 5’10 and close to 230 pounds. Not only does he routinely run through arm tackles, he also looks to hand out punishment in the open field. At the same time Ware has just enough wiggle that it’s not easy to get a good solid hit on him most of the time.

With West, you have your Lightning running back who can bounce the ball outside at will and a threat to take it to the house from almost anywhere on the field. Like Ware, West is a well-rounded back. His ability to get tough yards in between the tackles is probably a tad underrated. Of the two, West is definitely the back the Chiefs prefer to be a part of their passing game; he has 20 catches and a receiving touchdown on the season.

What is most interesting is that both guys tend to perform better the more you feed them the football. In some ways that can be concerning because there are only so many balls and carries to go around. What’s reassuring, however, is that if either one is struggling early on in any game, K.C. can still turn around and feed the other one. The Chiefs are almost guaranteed to still get good production from the position on any given Sunday.

If I were a betting man, I would bet that the Chiefs go over 100 yards rushing as a team on Sunday against the Texans. If they don’t, I’m not sure that Alex Smith will be able to rise to the occasion on the road against a defense that can really get after the quarterback when they know a pass is coming.

If there is a team whose running back situation I am concerned about heading into the playoffs, it’s the Steelers. For most teams, losing a running back the caliber of Bell would just about end their season. He had missed the first two games of the season due to suspension. Just when it looked like he was really hitting his groove, Bell suffered a season-ending knee injury in a Week 8 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Pittsburgh picked up Williams -- longtime running back for the Carolina Panthers -- in the offseason, so they were well-positioned to weather Bell’s absence.

Hell, as quiet as it’s kept, Williams had a career year in some aspects of his production with the Steelers at the ripe old age of 32 years old. His 907 rushing yards were the third-highest total for a season of his career. The 11 rushing touchdowns had Williams tied for the league lead and was also the second-highest total of his career. Then there were his 40 receptions which represented the highest total of Williams’ career. It also hinted at just how much Williams was in on passing plays.

It appeared that the Steelers eventually used Williams in just about all the ways that they normally would use Bell. That’s fine when you have someone behind your starting running back like Williams who can step in and take up the slack if the starter goes down, but it gets dubious once your backup becomes the starter. Now their third-team guy has to be ready to go in and try to duplicate that kind of production, or at least something close.

That is the predicament the Steelers find themselves in now. It looks like Fitzgerald Toussaint, who came in to relieve Williams last week after the foot injury, will be the guy the Steelers have to turn to against the Bengals. That would be the same second-year running back who only has 54 career yards, 24 of which he notched last week in the Steelers’ win over the Cleveland Browns.

I thought he showed some decent moves at times last week, but when you can only manage 24 yards on 12 carries with the longest run being 5 yards ... I’d say if you are pulling for Pittsburgh you have to be worried about this weekend. For context, Williams had 14 or more carries eight times this season and the Steelers won all but two of those games.

Toussaint is also going to have to be in there on passing downs. There were a few plays when he had blitz pickup responsibilities where he looked shaky. These two teams know each other well, and the Bengals have to believe the key to slowing down the Steelers’ offense is getting pressure on Ben Roethlisberger early and often. I’d expect them to test Toussaint’s blitz pickup skills when he is in there, especially since he isn’t the biggest back at 5’9 and around 210 pounds.

If anybody was wondering, Toussaint has three career receptions, by the way. None this season.

If Williams isn’t close to 100 percent how much do you think it will hurt the Steelers’ offense on Saturday? Can they win with Toussaint as the lead dog?

Danny: I think they still can win if Toussaint is the lead back, but I don’t think it’s going to be because Toussaint gives them a whole lot on the ground. They can hand it off to him 14-18 times and he may get you 3.0 yards per carry simply to keep some semblance of balance of the offense, but he didn’t look particularly exciting to me in the Browns game last week. He did a good job of grinding out yardage after hitting a pile or getting wrapped up. And, as you said, his receiving skills are still pretty much an unknown at this point.

The Steelers’ running back situation is a little precarious going into this Wild Card matchup, so Big Ben will have to be on his game in order for the Steelers to get by the Bengals on the road, even with AJ McCarron at quarterback.

Switching back to the Texans-Chiefs game, Houston is another team that will have to rely on a backup player -- in this case, Alfred Blue -- to carry the load on the ground. Brian Hoyer isn’t exactly a world-beater so I have to think that the Texans will look to control the ball a little bit and run it with Blue as much as they can. This will take some of the pressure off Hoyer and mitigate the excellent pass rush that Kansas City possesses, but unfortunately I don’t really see Blue as a game-changing back. I wasn’t particularly impressed with his juice or elusiveness last year, and he hasn’t really made a big jump this season either. His stats this year as compared to last are uncannily similar.

His YPC is up slightly but still below that 4.0 benchmark. He had the same amount of touchdowns this year as last (just two), and his reception totals are almost exactly the same. But, that said, he’s come on pretty strong of late, with 100+ rushing yard performances in two of the Texans’ final three games.

Can he carry that momentum forward or is he just a guy? Is he a potential difference maker in this matchup with the Chiefs, which we both believe favors Kansas City? Is he a guy that can put Houston over the hump?

Stephen: I do like Blue as a guy who can get tough yards between the tackles and also someone who fights for extra yardage, but I actually think the Texans are going to use all four of their backs in a variety of roles to give them the best chance to win the game. Blue and Chris Polk are both competent early-down “big backs” who can do a little bit of everything and don’t mind contact. Jonathan Grimes is more of the “scat” back type and he has a little more wiggle and burst to his game. Grimes is the back they use on passing downs -- he has the most catches out of all the running backs and it’s not really close.

Then there is the guy who I think could be the X factor, rookie running back Akeem Hunt. Hunt’s numbers on the year aren’t necessarily all that impressive, but he has flashed some big-play ability in the last seven weeks of the season. He has that peeeeewn about him; if he gets any daylight, he can turn a little gain into a big one. If you see Hunt in the game, rest assured they are going to try to get the ball to him in space so he can make something happen.

It will certainly be interesting to see who ends up getting the lion’s share of the touches at running back this weekend for Houston. I don’t necessarily think any of the four will have a huge game individually, but I do think collectively they can at the least keep the Kansas City defense honest. That’s crucial if the Texans want to be able to push the ball downfield to DeAndre Hopkins off play action.

One thing for sure is that is the Texans cannot allow themselves to become one-dimensional. If they end up having to pass all the time -- either because the running game isn’t working or because they fall too far behind -- the Chiefs pass rush is going to feast on a Houston offensive line that will be missing veteran left tackle Duane Brown for the rest of the playoffs. A solid running game is the best way in the world to wear pass rushers down over the course of a game. If the Texans want to have any chance of winning, their collection of Blue, Polk, Grimes and Hunt will have to have a big day.