It was an opportunity so many other teams have also had this season … 10 to be exact. The Kansas City Chiefs are now a shocking 10-0 in one-score games this season after beating the Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

L.A. was without a couple of key offensive starters to begin the game as wide receiver Ladd McConkey was ruled out and running back J.K. Dobbins is, of course, on injured reserve a few more weeks. Tight end Will Dissly also went down with an injury, furthering this week’s worries.

Back to Dobbins, though, and the running back room. In Dobbins’ place has mostly been veteran Gus Edwards accompanied by rookie Kimani Vidal. Without Dobbins, this offense has struggled to get much going on the ground.

Against the Chiefs on Sunday night, Edwards went for a measly 36 yards on 10 carries. Vidal, though, showed a little bit of a burst in his limited action and finished with 34 yards on just eight carries. It might be a minor difference, but digging in a little deeper, Vidal proved that he should be getting the bulk of the carries after this performance.

The Chargers need to ride Kimani Vidal until J.K. Dobbins is healthy

While Edwards got the score in this one, it was Vidal who provided a kickstart to the Chargers’ best drive of the game with a pair of 8-yard runs. In a game where the Chargers only scored 17 points, some of the takeaways had to be garnered by looking much longer, like this one.

Vidal has been just a bit more explosive than Edwards, this year, too. He’s clearly had more juice on the majority of his carries as opposed to Edwards. Only seeing 30 carries on the year, Vidal has a long run of 16 yards. On the flip side, Edwards has tallied 79 carries and his long of 12 yards came last night against the Chiefs.

Another close, but true figure: 16.4 percent of Edwards’ runs have resulted in first downs, meanwhile Vidal’s percentage sits just a bit higher at 16.7 percent.

This is an offense that was already short on playmakers coming into the year, but with the injuries as of late, the Chargers must make the decision of giving Vidal more touches in the coming weeks. L.A. is going to be making a postseason run in a tight AFC Wild Card race, with plenty of suitors still looking to secure a spot.

If they’re going to be put in the best position to score as many points as possible, it’s time to unleash the youngster. Vidal deserves the chance.