Monday morning Chiefs commentary

October 19, 5:52 PMKansas City Sports ExaminerCharles F. Rouse III

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Chiefs' Todd Haley gets his first head-coaching win in 14-6 victory over Washington.

Photo/Courtesy of KC Chiefs

Yesterday was V-Day for the Kansas City Chiefs. After almost a year’s absence from the win column, the Chiefs rediscovered what it’s like to celebrate a victory, kicking their way by a team that appears to be struggling even more than Kansas City is right now.

In a battle of field goals, it was the Chiefs’ Ryan Succop 12 and Shaun Suisham of the Washington Redskins 6. And, oh yeah, a safety-causing defensive sack by the Chiefs’ Tamba Hali, with the Redskins backed up against their own goal line and under a half-minute to play, added to Kansas City’s scoring margin and a not-so-pretty 14-6 triumph on the road at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

With the win, the Chiefs awarded head coach Todd Haley his first NFL victory, topped off by a celebratory, wet and ice-cold liquid bath by which to relish the moment –something that Haley would certainly welcome more of. For the Chiefs, it meant the end of a 12-game losing skid, including preseason games, that extended back to November 30 of last year, when Kansas City defeated the Oakland Raiders 20-13 for its second and final win in a dismal 2008 season. The victory also marked the Chiefs first win over a National Football Conference East opponent since defeating these same Redskins, 28-21, in Kansas City in the fifth game of the 2005 season.

Even though Washington came into the game with a better 2009 record (2-3) than the winless Chiefs, the two teams are fairly evenly matched, and Sunday’s game statistics bear out that fact. While first downs and time of possession heavily favored Kansas City, the key offensive numbers – yards rushing, passing and total net yards – were virtually equal, with neither team mounting much in the way of offensive consistency. Each team generated only 265 yards of total offense for the game.

Kansas City fared slightly better in third-down conversions, moving the chains in 4 of 16 attempts while Washington was successful only 2 of 14 times on third down. The stat alone speaks heavily as to why this game was such a low-scoring affair with no touchdowns scored by either side.

It is obvious that the Chiefs offense still needs a lot of work to successfully move the ball, sustain scoring drives and put enough points on the board, week in and week out, to be competitive and win with any consistency in this league. Sunday’s performance did nothing to disprove that. While Kansas City continues to struggle as a team on the offensive side of the ball, two much-maligned offensive performers had breakout games against the Redskins.

Running back Larry Johnson gained 83 hard-earned yards on 23 carries against a battered Washington defense, a single-game season high for LJ through the first six games of the season. Meanwhile, wide-receiver Dwayne Bowe, whose case Haley has been on since the beginning of training camp in July, hauled in six receptions for a season-high 100-plus yards on the day, the longest a 32-yard catch and run on a slant pattern late in the fourth quarter to help set up Succop’s fourth field goal and seal the win for the Chiefs.

Ironically, placekicking has been an issue for the Chiefs in recent years.  Succop was Kansas City's last draft pick in the NFL amateur draft earlier this year and the final player selected overall.  After Sunday's pressure performance, it looks like Succop may have been one of the team's better draft selections and best investment overall.

Kansas City’s franchise-tying 0-5 start to the season prior to the Washington game brought widespread criticism from fans and football experts alike who felt that Todd Haley’s fiery, micro-managing style of coaching and intensive pursuit of perfection was too demotivating and not the right approach for building team chemistry and getting the talent you have to play to their capability and potential, including the personal commitment and sacrifice to do what is necessary to perform better and become a better team.

“Each week, I’ve felt like we were going to win the game,” Haley told The Kansas City Star. “We were ready to play and ready to win,” he said, but the team just hasn’t been able to get the job done. Asked what changed this week, Haley slipped a quick smile and said, “This week we were right.”

Does the win at Washington mean that Chiefs players are now buying in to Haley’s leadership and what he is telling them and expects from them? Could this be the beginning of the Chiefs’ long-awaited turnaround and validation of why General Manager Scott Pioli and Haley were brought here to lead this team out of purgatory and back on the road to the promised land?

While not pretty, the victory over Washington definitely counts as a Chiefs win and signals good progress – an attribute that hasn’t been associated with the Kansas City football franchise since the Dick Vermeil days earlier this decade.

How did the players feel about getting this big win? “We took a breath of fresh air.” Chiefs quarterback and team leader Matt Cassel told reporters after the game. “This was a special day. Anytime you win, the bumps and bruises don’t hurt as much.”

It was definitely cause for a celebration, but only a short one. Now the Chiefs must put Sunday’s game behind them and get ready for the next opponent. Sunday’s win, after all, is only one in a row. If the Chiefs want to continue to make solid, sustained progress and show that they can win more than they lose and are worthy of the fear and respect they so desperately seek from their opponents, they are going to have to get a lot better in a lot of areas, and with a greater sense of urgency than they have shown thus far.

In other words, hold off on ordering your Chiefs’ playoff tickets just yet. With games coming up the next three weeks, though, against San Diego, Jacksonville and another crack at Oakland, Kansas City has a good opportunity to keep things going in the right direction and solidify the Chiefs’ claim of being in a much better place, with better leadership and strategic direction, than the team has known and demonstrated on the field the past several years.

Let’s hope the Chiefs can maintain the momentum. I want to think they can. If not this week, next week or the week after that - sometime very soon, and probably much sooner than you think.

For more information:

Kansas City Chiefs 2009 season and game statistics