Chiefs’ Isiah Pacheco on viral running style: ‘I ain’t no zombie’

National Football League

Published Jan. 25, 2024 4:26 p.m. ET

Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco has a unique running style, which leads to NFL fans joking about him being an angry runner.

Pacheco finds humor in that narrative.

“The funniest one that I thought was they said that I run like I bite people,” Pacheco said Wednesday at his media availability. “I ain’t no zombie. … That was one of the funniest ones. You said, ‘I run like I bite the ground/grass.’ … It’s a great opinion. For me, it’s just being determined and that I have a goal to achieve, and we want to get the job done.”

In the 14 regular-season games that Pacheco appeared in this season (he missed two games due to a shoulder injury and another due to rest), he totaled 935 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns on 4.6 yards per carry. He also racked up 44 receptions for 244 yards and two touchdowns.

Pacheco has played a vital role in Kansas City’s first two playoff games, rushing for 89 yards and one score against Miami in the AFC wild-card round and 97 yards and one touchdown against Buffalo in the divisional round.

Last season, Pacheco’s rookie campaign, the Rutgers product ran for 830 yards and five touchdowns. He picked up 76 yards and one score on the ground en route to the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LVII win over Philadelphia.

That said, Pacheco and Kansas City’s running game now face a Baltimore defense that surrendered just 301.4 total yards (sixth in the NFL) and 16.5 points (first) per game in the regular season in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game (3 p.m. ET). It also surrendered merely three points and 2.7 yards per carry against Houston in a convincing 34-10 divisional-round victory last week (Houston’s lone touchdown came on a punt return).

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