New Jersey’s own Isiah Pacheco made a triumphant debut at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford Sunday night, rushing for a career-high 115 yards and totaling 158 yards from scrimmage as the Chiefs held off the New York Jets 23-20.
“I’ve never been in this stadium before,” said Pacheco, who grew up some two hours away from the home of the Jets and Giants and played collegiately at Rutgers. “Been in the Philly stadium. First professional, real football game inside the stadium. It was a great feeling and blessed seeing my family here supporting me. Not only that, get a victory.”
Pacheco proved instrumental in Kansas City’s win, especially in helping the Chiefs burst out of the gate to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. Pacheco broke off a 48-yard run to a touchdown midway through the quarter to put the Chiefs on top 10-0. He finished the first quarter with 59 yards rushing on five carries and also caught a 33-yard pass that helped set up a 34-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to tight end Noah Gray.
Pacheco said he never got caught up in dreaming about how he might perform back home in front of his friends and family.
“I didn’t really picture it, but you know, focusing and staying patient and just listening and doing my job allowed me to get in the end zone and finishing with the guys up front,” he explained.
Even on his touchdown run, Pacheco didn’t get caught up in the emotion of the night by worrying about his touchdown celebration.
“When I was running it on that one, that was a long so I wasn’t thinking about nothing,” he said while smiling. “I’m like sheesh, just let me get in there.”
Mahomes said he knew how important it was for Pacheco to return to New Jersey. Last year his hometown proclaimed June 18 as “Isiah Pacheco Day,” and in April Vineland held a parade in his honor celebrating his rookie season and Super Bowl championship.
“He loves it, kind of how I am with Texas,” Mahomes said. “He has a lot of pride in it. And so I can see it from the first snap. You can see it in his eyes like this meant more to him. And he did a great job catching the ball, running the ball.”
Head coach Andy Reid saw the gleam in his running back’s eyes as well.
“Yeah, he was excited to come back,” Reid said. “He was very excited to come back. He’s Jersey proud, man. Having gone to Rutgers, grew up here. He had quite a night.”
“Pacheco indeed felt energized playing back near his old stomping grounds.
“I felt good and I ain’t going to lie to you I felt light on my feet back to the process rolling,” he said.
After Sunday night’s win, Pacheco was the first player named by Reid for his performance and how hard he ran the football.
“There were some changes in momentum there,” Reid said. “We were able to get it back and did a nice job of swinging things back the right way, and if I had to pick somebody out there, I’d pick Pacheco out for the nice job that he had tonight.
It wasn’t all perfect, however, for Pacheco, who averaged 5.8 yards per carry on 20 attempts, the second most of his career for a game. Pacheco was stopped for a loss or no gain on five of his rushes, approximately twice his normal stuff rate.
“It was a lot of hard to grind,” Pacheco said. “Every time I got in the huddle I was telling the O-line, ‘Let’s strain, let’s finish,’ that was the mindset you got.”
