Broncos at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 6-2

Yes we are 6-2 here at the halfway point in the season, record-wise dominating the AFC West. There are several key facets of the Chiefs game that every fan should be enjoying right now.

But I can't deny that I have very mixed feelings about this team. I do confess that I still feel the way I did at the beginning of the year, that this team is just not ready for rich meaningful sustained playoff success -- which really means playing so well that we'll make it to the Super Bowl. Really, do you think this team will get past a playoff-tuned Tom Brady? A Steelers' Ben, Brown, and Bell combination that destroys us every time we take the field against them? An officiating crew who has deep in their psyches -- whether deliberately put there or not -- the idea that a piddle Kansas City team simply cannot appear in a game that means so much revenue to the NFL world?

The Chiefs must reach the threshold of such a phenomenally exceptional team to actually overcome these typical impediments so we finally throughly summarily win crucial playoff games.

And I just don't see that we do.

Last night I watched a run defense that was absolutely pathetic. I thought from what I heard that the Denver offensive line had issues. Not with our defensive front. They pushed our guys anywhere they wanted and ran all over us. We won this game in part because they allowed their struggling quarterback Trevor Siemian to pass the ball.

They should've just run the ball all night.

In fact I don't know why the Denver coach didn't use former beloved Chiefs great Jamaal Charles more. Sure he allowed Marcus Peters to strip him for the big touchdown play early, but when Charles was in there running he got good yardage. He looked really good. It's a good thing they didn't use him more, actually. We lucked out again because too many times Siemian threw the ball, often enough to our guys.

We won with the help of some key big plays, but I am always nervous about relying on a handful of big plays on offense, really. Here were some of them.

Smith's nice touchdown pass to Kelce.

Smith's bullet pass to Hill to get a key first down when Hill was blanketed by Aqib Talib.

A couple of solid Smith passes to Kelce, one of which was a marvelously designed bubble screen that forced the Bronco defenders to respect Smith's running ability (Yay!)

Smith scrambling for a first down on a couple of occasions, one of which was a certain sack that Smith this time just managed to squeak from and jet straight up field.

Thing is we only scored one touchdown on offense, and relied on five Harrison Butker field goals. (And again it can't be said enough -- what a find this kid has been.)

The thing about all this is, are we good enough to rely on these big plays merely because we have the personnel to make them happen more often? Isn't that a good thing? Isn't the NFL just that anyway -- you win with big plays because you're lucky enough have the personnel to make them happen?

The Chiefs certainly have the playcalling and playmaking ability. It is a wonderful thing to watch this team sometimes, just marveling at how well Reid puts plays together and the team executes them. A number of times Reid runs the option -- the option -- and it works. I mean you can't deny that the Chiefs still got the ball into positions to score something seven times, against this Denver defense. Give some credit to the Chiefs pass protection, which was actually pretty good. How about the job right tackle Mitchell Schwartz did on Von Miller. That was major.

Some of that was set up by the Chiefs big play defense. I really believe our D-backs are not given enough credit -- over the season they've barely missed some fine defenses on passes. The television announcers were lobbying for Siemian to throw more "50/50" balls, implying that the Chiefs simply can't defend those lobbed up-for-grabs balls that their 6' 5"receivers will surely get -- and sure enough when he tried one of those Ron Parker picked it. It was significant too that we got Steven Nelson back in there, I think he was a factor in this win.

Then there was the monster game Justin Houston had, two big sacks and a number of other quarterback-pressuring, runner-tackling kinds of things he did.

So that's this game -- the good, the very good, and the ugly.

As I've said I've committed to doing, just going to enjoy it now. I know I sometimes devolve back into the whole "Are we really going to make it to the Super Bowl or what?" attitude, and there's nothing wrong with the conversation, I know.

But for now I confess it's just good to enjoy these Chiefs.
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