He was fine in that we still won the Super Bowl, but the edge of dominance Donaldson helped provide up front clearing the way for Emmitt time and again and creating extra space for Troy— disappeared.
It most evident in key division games down the stretch and of course also in the KC game itself.
Watch how even in these few highlights 53 takes his man out of the picture or doubles a guy and erases him.
Emmitt’s run average dropped correspondingly. Go ahead, look it up. But it stood out most awfully on 4th and a foot from our own 29 vs Philadelphia two games later.