If somebody had said that after five games the Chiefs would
find themselves at 2-3, most fans probably would have said that that sounded
about right. Just by looking at the scores
of the last three games it would seem normal for this Chiefs team. A 20-17 defeat in San Diego, a 22-17 victory
against Adrian Peterson and the Vikings at home, and a 28-24 victory over the
Colts on the road make everything look good.
What sours the record is the atrocious first two games of the
season. Getting outscored 89-10 is not
good for business. Does it change things
that the Lions are still undefeated and may be one of the best teams in the
league or that the Bills may just end up winning the AFC East?
None of that matters now as the Chiefs have put together 10
solid quarters of football and are 2-3 going in to their bye week. Most importantly this team showed me
something that they haven’t shown since Todd Haley and Matt Cassel have arrived
here in KC, they cam from behind and won.
There have been a few games where they have played tight and
hung with teams to either win in the 4th quarter or overtime
(Steelers in 2009, Buffalo in 2010) but I don’t remember seeing this team ever
come from behind, let alone 17 points down.
Normally after getting behind 17 this team would lay down and roll over,
but not today.
Led by Matt Cassel playing his best game as a Chief (21/29,
257 yds, 4 TDs, 0 INTs) and a surprise performance by Jackie Battle (19 car,
119 yds), this team didn’t give up on themselves, and just like their coach
they kept fighting and got themselves back into the game and ended up winning
in the 4th quarter on a touchdown pass to emergent Steve Breaston
who combined with Dwayne Bowe to have 11 receptions, 178 yds, and 4 TDs.
While lots of people have given up on this team and written
off the Todd Haley era, Coach Haley hasn’t given up on his players and they
haven’t given up on their coach. After
the horrific start they got off to, this team could have easily packed it in,
blamed their coach, and raced to the offseason.
They didn’t.
Without being too optimistic, this team has a legitimate
shot to make some noise going forward.
Nobody here is talking playoffs, that would be getting way too ahead of
ourselves, but the fact remains that the schedule looks better now than it did
going in to 2011.
After next week’s bye week, the Chiefs travel to Oakland to
play the hated Raiders. With their
strong offensive line, running game, and stout defensive line they present a
very poor matchup for this team.
However, how many times has there been a poor matchup the other way and
the Raiders have found a way to come out with a victory? In a rivalry as long and as deep as this one just
about anything can happen, and that includes the Chiefs finding a way to win in
Oakland, despite the mismatches.
Win that game and then the Chiefs have their most favorable
3 game stretch of the season. This
stretch starts with a Monday Night home game on Halloween against the
Chargers. The Charges are obviously a
better team, but they were last year and on Monday night the Chiefs took the
victory thanks to a geeked up team and a raucous crowd. It’s fair to say that the Halloween Monday
night game will be pretty unruly this year and if the Chiefs come in riding a 3
game winnings streak it will be rocking again.
This is all coming on the heels of playing the Chargers to a 3-point
loss in San Diego. This game looks much
more winnable than it did 3 weeks ago.
Following that the Dolphins come to town and if anybody is
currently a front-runner for the ‘Suck 4 Luck’ campaign, it’s the
Dolphins. It’s hard to say the Chiefs should beat anybody this year, but if
you can say it for any opponent, the Dolphins are the one. They have issues at QB, they can’t run the
ball, can’t pass, can’t defend the run or the pass. This is the only team on the schedule that is
possibly worse than the Chiefs.
The Broncos find their way to Arrowhead after that and
Denver is playing a brand of football that a very poor product right now and
Tim Tebow may be the starter at that time.
This is a very winnable game. If
the Chiefs get a bunch of luck and things bounce their way, this could be 4
more wins and they would find themselves at 6-3 and at worst, one game out of
the division.
Realistically, this is not likely, but even if they can’t
beat the Raiders on the road that still puts the team at 5-4. Following that is the 5 game ‘murderer’s
row’ stretch that could derail this season.
Although, I contend that this doesn’t seem as daunting as it once did.
The Patriots in Foxboro is most likely going to be a loss
but if there is any team that has a worse pass defense than the Chiefs, it
might be the Pats. This could play in to
the Chiefs hands with the continued high-level play of Dwayne Bowe and the
emergence of Steve Breaston.
The Steelers come to KC after that and they aren’t the team
that went to the Super Bowl last year, the Bears are looking more and more like
an average team that just got a lot of luck last year, the Jets are struggling
and looking like they might mutiny on their coach if things continue to go
wrong, and the Packers might just cruise right on past the Chiefs on their way
to a perfect season.
The final two games are the Broncos on the road and the
Raiders at home, 2 very winnable games as well.
Say they split them, and things go as I have mentioned, a 7-9 record is
not out of the question. While nothing
to write home about, with this team and after this start it is impressive.
After missing the best defensive player, best offensive
player, another dynamic offensive player, and your starting inside linebacker
all for the season, seven wins becomes very impressive. This team has to feel incredibly good about
themselves going in to 2012 if they can get seven wins with this team. This is why it is a good thing to finally lay
‘Suck for Luck’ to rest. If the Chiefs
actually did go 2-14 and drafted #1, that will mean there are many, many other
problems besides QB. One player wouldn’t
help and next year would be another long season.
However, taking 7 wins into next season with your two best
players returning and possibly some other free agent acquisitions and draft
picks and this team could be in a good position not only to make a run, but to
find themselves opening a window where they could be making a run for the
foreseeable future. While this is
getting very ahead of ourselves and it might be drinking a little too much
kool-aid, the fact remains that this team is not as bad as we thought and there
is a possibility that there could actually be a lot more to cheer for this
season than originally thought.
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