Are the Chiefs Who We Thought They Were?

     All before Sunday Night’s showdown against the Broncos, the Kansas City Chiefs had played a grand total of…ZERO games against teams currently with a winning record. And they were undefeated. Then came the big bad Peyton Manning to give the Chiefs a little taste of losing. So are the Chiefs exposed?

     The simple answer is no. First of all, if you thought that Kansas City was truly better than Denver before Sunday night’s game, then that wasn’t very smart. Alex Smith a good, solid quarterback. He is probably one of the best pure game managers to ever play, though that may be a stretch. By game managers, I’m referring to the Trent Dilfers of the world. However, Dilfer had one of the best defenses ever. Kansas City has a remarkable defense of its own but Alex Smith does make plays to help his team win, as he also did in San Francisco by leading them to the NFC Championship game a couple years ago before falling to the eventual champs, New York Giants. The Chiefs are not winning in spite of Smith, they are winning with him although the carrying force is clearly the defense. Smith is probably the 2^nd best offensive weapon on the team after Jamal Charles but this Kansas City team is the real deal. They lost to Peyton Manning in Denver by just 10 points. They also had an early fumble in the red zone and a near pick 6 where the defense actually fooled Manning, so a couple missed opportunities. The receivers were not catching all the passes that Smith was putting on target. Yet they still came up short by 10 points to Manning in Denver. In a couple of weeks we will see these teams face off in Kansas City which may be a game they could win. As far as I’m concerned, I would not be betting against these Chiefs on a neutral field against anybody but the Broncos and maybe the Saints and Patriots. That includes the Seahwaks, Colts, Bengals and every other team.

     In Jerry Jones’ words, maybe Sunday night was a moral victory. Thankfully, the Chiefs owner didn’t come out and say it. With a running game and strong defense, this is a team that nobody wants to see as the temperature drops.