The Kansas City Chiefs Aren't as Bad as you Think

The Chiefs' performance against the Ravens was a pleasant surprise. I don't know if I have ever been less excited about watching a Chiefs' game than I was going into Sunday. I thought the Ravens were going to wax the Chiefs. When I heard that Matt Cassel was inactive for the game, I almost couldn't bring myself to watch the game. As the game started, I remember turning to my friend and saying "here we go again," as I buried my head in my hands. The Chiefs' offense was insufferable to watch and Flacco was having his way with the Chiefs on pass defense. Things didn't look so good. Then a funny thing happened in the second half. The Chiefs, for the first time in a while, looked like an NFL football team. I am by no means a Herm Edwards critic, but you can see that the Chiefs are competing in very different ways under Haley. In Herm's first season and a half, when the Chiefs were winning games, the Chiefs relied on big defensive plays and turnovers to win games. When they didn't get those breaks, they didn't fare so well. Last season, the Chiefs relied on an innovative offense with wrinkles to trick the other team just enough to pull off a win. What impressed me most about Haley's approach to the Vikings' game is that the Chiefs stayed in the game because the team played football and they treated it like it was their job. They stayed focused, they played hard, they didn't make mistakes, and they executed to the best of their ability. As should be expected, the Chiefs eventually lost because the Chiefs don't have nearly the kind of talent that Baltimore does. Call me crazy, but I would much rather lose in this fashion than to win a game the way Denver did--sloppily and with a major lucky break falling their way. What this means is that Kansas City could pull off an upset or two against teams that play half-motivated or make some mistakes. And they can certainly play toe-to-toe with lesser talented teams. Most importantly, in terms of building for the future, if Pioli and Haley can continue to accumulate talent, the upside to the Chiefs is that they could one day become a team with talent that really knows how to play football down to every last detail--from not making to mistakes to executing flawlessly. That upside is pretty exciting. I've gone through a lot of the "good" already, so let's start by talking about some of the things that might be a little more painful to deal with. Let's face it: the Chiefs are putting lipstick on a pig here. They're going to have to play flawless football to win many of their games, and even if they do, they might still lose a few games. Most notably, the Chiefs looked horrendous on both lines. The good news is that the offensive line gave a reasonable amount of protection to allow Croyle at least some time to throw out of a pro set. In other words, the Chiefs aren't as bad as you might think, but that's probably because we didn't have overly high expectations in the first place.