It’s 7:45 p.m. Monday night, as I prepared a sandwich and a drink and sat down right in front of my TV getting ready to watch our Chiefs play with their season on the line. I had my Chiefs hat on, with my Chiefs shorts, Chiefs jersey (with my name on it), and even my Chiefs boxers under the shorts, all of the things that get me ready for the game. It’s kickoff time and the Ravens go down the field and are held to a field goal, a moral victory for our defense, little did I know that it was a small picture of things to come from the Chiefs inspired D!

When the Chiefs got the ball back I was just hoping for at least a field goal right back at the Ravens to show we were there to play, but Trent, Priest, and even Jason Dunn had a little more to say than that. Touchdown! I was all of the sudden thinking in my head, although not out loud, mainly because I am scared of jinxing anything during the game while it was going good, but I was thinking that we might be OK during this game. It’s nice to be right sometimes. The Chiefs came out in a very hostile environment and took it to the Ravens, all over the field and on both sides of the ball. I have never been so happy to lose the battle of special teams, which we did by a lot, but the Chiefs showed a very good Raven defense why we were, and still are a very good offensive team, and an improving defensive team.

I think we all knew the usual suspects would come to play and play well, and we were right. Trent had another and usual good night, hitting his receivers right on time and even showing enough agility to escape from defensive linemen who had him in their grasps. Tony Gonzalez made his usual catches for first downs, big as ever. Priest Holmes was the same guy we have known since he stepped into Kansas City, he was a dominator, and a finisher! Is there a more gorgeous site than seeing the Chiefs all-time leading rusher flying through the air over the Ravens defenders and landing in the end zone? Simple answer there, NO! Yes we knew all of our stars would show up, but what we did not know was that their would be some players come up big time on primetime who don’t always get noticed in other games.

On the offensive side of the ball there was Jason Dunn. Big Jason came up big time in our first drive with a couple huge catches, and a ruthless stiff arm on a Raven defensive back, then topped it off with a touchdown reception. Then there was Chris Horn, what a game for the newbie to the team. Chris made some monster catches, and provided another weapon for the Ravens to think about. Horn’s biggest catch did not even count, a beautiful pass and catch from Green to Horn was wiped out on a penalty, but it was great enough to mention anyway. The last surprise on offense was Derrick Blaylock, not because he has not done it before, but because Priest was running like crazy all night, then all of the sudden he comes out for a long stretch of plays and Blaylock steps in and the offense does not miss a beat in the rushing game, still running it right at the Raven defense.

The other monster surprise of this victory was the whole defense. I would like to give the defense a great big “WELCOME” to the season. Maybe the most beautiful sight of the game was the very obvious patch of red in the Ravens backfield all night long. The Chiefs were in the lap of Kyle Boller all night to the tune of four sacks and many, many quarterback pressures. I think everyone knew that Boller would not be able to pass at all, but what nobody knew was how affective the Chiefs defense would be against the league’s best rushing team up to this point. Jamal Lewis was supposed to run up and down on the Chiefs all night long, but because of the Chiefs being ahead most of the night the Ravens were not able to get into much of an offensive rhythm. Jamal Lewis was held to 73 yards on just 15 carries, a stat any team in the league would take against the Ravens. I think the biggest contribution on defense came from Lional Dalton. Lional was a beast in the middle of the defensive line, blowing up plays and getting to know Kyle Boller up close and personal all night. Actually as I think about it, I am going to give a game ball to the whole defensive line, they were the game breakers for the Chiefs. Sacks by Vonnie Holliday, Lional Dalton, and Eric Hicks, and great pressure from John Browning, rattled Kyle Boller and stuffed Jamal Lewis all night. Even a no name, Benny Sapp, got in on the fun and recorded a sack on Boller on a corner blitz.

Was it a perfect game? No. Was it a win? Yes! That’s the only thing that mattered. I thought the defense played as well as they are capable of up to this point, and gave me hope for the upcoming games. The offense finally showed why we expect so much of them every week, they went up and down the field on a very good defense and gave our own defense some time to rest. I think we just found the way that the Chiefs are going to get back into the playoff picture. We need to play solid defense, not even great, just solid defense. We need to play ball control on offense, keeping the ball for 40 minutes will usually get you a win. If only our special teams, other than Lawrence Tynes, can show up every week, we will have a total loaded gun for every game. Speaking of special teams, someone please check on Steve Cheek and see when he will be back. Jason Baker’s booming 34-yard average on punts is not going to get it done.

Other than the special teams, right now the chiefs just might be ready to start the long climb out of the hole they dug for themselves. The Chiefs have a lot of work to do, but it has to be done in stages, and the next stage comes in Jacksonville on October 17th. Let’s all hope that this is our first of two trips to Jacksonville this year.

GO CHIEFS!