Chiefs at Broncos - Week 10 - Record: 4-5

How crazy is that.

Peyton Manning gets benched deep into the 3rd quarter, and the first commercial into the break features Papa John and his pizza and -- yes -- Peyton Manning. The irony is too insane. Manning gets the record for most total passing yards ever in all NFL anything (he only needed a 3-yard pass completion and he got a 4-yard one right at the beginning of the game), then proceeded to finish his game effort with four interceptions against a young, eager Chiefs defensive backfield.

Think about how talented this Chiefs team has been over the past two years. Last year they obliterated a good New England Patriots team, forcing them to bench Tom Brady. When has that ever happened.

Then there's today. The Chiefs defense played so well today that, yes, Peyton Manning was forced off the field.

Know what drives me crazy? Know what drives me crazy???

How many teams could claim to have forced the benching of two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, and still have nothing post-season-wise to show for their efforts?

How does that happen?

Here're the bountiful glorifications of the Chiefs defense today.

The pass rush did exactly what it was supposed to do. In my preview of this game I said we should regularly rush three, well, we didn't, we rushed four -- thing is, the result was still the same. No time for either Manning or his replacement to really get untracked. Justin Houston led the attack on whichever QB was out there. Our D-Backs smothered their receivers frustrating the Denver passing game.

Our quickness, physicality, and raw skill ruled the day, but the thing that is still aggravating as all get-out is these Chiefs still get waaay too many penalties, and those fine D-backs still had too many dropped interceptions. Yes, I know they had five (the fifth was by virtue of Manning's replacement Brock Osweiler). That's nice.

But still.

On offense we were adequate, but erngghngmnmph... Alex Smith. He can run like a hurricane, but dang it why can't he throw that nice laser-strike pass right into the receiver's hands when he needs to. Yes,  as I wrote about in my preview of this game, the Chiefs did utilize Smith's running ability, and more than a few times it got us into Denver territory. But they did not do it nearly enough to open up the passing game.

Smith was still taking those silly three-step drops, looking around, and failing more times than not. This game was identical to the Cincinnati game when we kicked a lot of field goals, the difference was our defense actually stopped the opponent in this game.

Except look at that. Lots of field goals. Sure all those points helped us win, but come on.

Field goals and not touchdowns. We get into the opponent's territory and our offense just starts to get stiff and awkward, Alex Smithhh... Andy Reeeid...

Now yes we did get that very fun long touchdown pass from Smith to Charcandrick West to pretty much put this out of reach for good. That was a nice read by Smith and a nice route and run by West.

But we still need to score touchdowns when we're primed to score touchdowns.

On the other hand, we played one of the best defenses in the NFL. This showing was pretty good in that sense. On the other other hand, the Broncos were without superstar defenders DeMarcus Ware and Aqib Talib. So, I still think we have a lot to prove.

And after all the crowing about forcing Peyton Manning to the bench, I really don't think there is anyone who believes Manning is nearly the quarterback he once was. Everyone's been talking about how his passes lack that zip, how inconsistent he has been, how much his nagging injuries are affecting him, all that stuff that will inevitably affect aging football players.

I mean, at the end of the game they said Manning had a 0.0 passer rating, is that for real? How much of that was an aging QB having a bad day and how much was the Chiefs D? I'd say it had to be some of each because Manning had been playing well enough this year against all the other NFL teams...

In light of this, I think that the fact we feel we still have a lot to prove is a very good thing. This teams knows they still have a long way to go, and they still have a lot of work to do. But hey, as we all know -- this game after the bye week is the first game of a brand new season, and this new season is off to a very good start.

Every Chiefs fan could not be anything but wildly thrilled with this game. Whatever there is with this Chiefs thing or that Broncos thing, it was quite clear.

The Chiefs utterly dominated today.

And especially after that first game against the Broncos this year, this was very, very sweet.
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