KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -To a franchise that’s lost 35 of 40 games, dropping a 17-10 decision on the road to a playoff team is not half bad.
In fact, it’s even better than that. The Kansas City Chiefs and their hotheaded rookie head coach were feeling much better after Sunday’s close loss to playoff-bound Cincinnati than they were the week before following a clobbering at the hands of lowly Cleveland.
The run defense showed huge improvements in Cincinnati. For the second week in a row, the offensive line gave up only one sack. And Jamaal Charles went over 100 yards rushing for the third week in a row, furthering his claim to membership among the league’s elite running backs.
The Chiefs still have a mountain to climb, but for one day at least, they felt they’d reached base camp.
“There were a lot of positives in the game,” coach Todd Haley said Monday. “Against a playoff-caliber team, we played hard and did positive things on both sides of the ball.
us plays, some of the things that have been costly to us as the year has gone on.”
But it was still a loss, and they’re still going into the regular-season finale at Denver on Sunday with a 3-12 record that guarantees a third consecutive season of failure.
“It hits you both ways,” said nose tackle Ron Edwards. “You’re happy at some point and at another point you’re sad. We just can’t get that win. We’ve got to get that ‘W’ in our column.”
After giving up a team-record 351 yards rushing to the Browns, the Chiefs rebounded against a good rushing team. Cedric Benson, one of the league’s top runners, ended up with 133 yards on 29 carries in the victory that gave the Bengals the AFC North title.
But altogether, the Bengals rushed for only 144 net yards against a defense that had been gouged for almost 800 yards on the ground the three previous weeks.
“We just had to go out there and prove we could stop the run,” said Edwards. “We’d had a few bad weeks and that was something we had to prove we could do.”
They will conclude their season with another opportunity to redeem themselves. The Broncos humiliated them 44-13 on Dec. 6.
“They came in here and embarrassed us,” said linebacker Demorrio Williams. “Now our team’s a lot better. I think our team’s going to pick it up and go out and take care of business.”
is the subject of Charles. With 102 yards on 24 carries in Cincinnati, the lightning-quick back raised his season total to 861 yards, within striking distance of 1,000. Since Larry Johnson was benched on Nov. 8 and then traded, boosting Charles from second team to starter, he has rushed for 745 yards.
Only one player in that span – Tennessee’s Chris Johnson – has rushed for more.
It’s a sign that bodes well for 2010. Kansas City has discovered a bona fide game-changer it didn’t even know it had.
“We all stood in there and fought,” Charles said. “That’s the great thing about this team. We stuck together.”
Charles’ emergence as a home run threat is also one reason the sack totals are down.
“Jamaal’s been a big part of that,” said Haley, “but I think each guy on the offense has got more and more comfortable.”
Through 12 losses in 15 games, it’s been a yearlong process of a new regime getting to know a team, and vice versa.
“This was a very difficult transition, and it has not been easy in any way, shape or form,” Haley said. “We’re finding a little bit of an identity, and I think that’s very important for players. … We’ve got a long ways to go, but I think there has been progress. And I think the guys feel that and they’re feeling better about themselves each and every week.”
Add A Comment