Best Case Scenario

Yesterday I bowed down to pessimists all over Chiefs Nation and gave you what I thought was the absolute, worst case scenario for the Chiefs 2010 season. It wasn’t pretty. I ruined the day for at least 15 people, made Randy cry and now I hear KC Wolf wants to meet me behind the jungle gym after work.

Yes, it could get bad people. Then again, being the giant Chiefs homer that I am, it could get good. In fact, the more I think about it, the Chiefs could do very, very well this season.

Especially when you consider the best-case scenario.

That and a giant glass of red and gold flavored Kool-aid after the jump.

I want you to think about one thing heading in to this season.

The 2001 New England Patriots.

First, however, lets talk a bit about the 2000 Patriots team. This was “The Hoodie’s” first season as the team’s coach. He had come in and totally reorganized the teams personnel department. At the start of training camp, a number of players came in out of shape.

Sound familiar?

Belichick went on to proclaim the team “could not win with 40 good players while the other team has 53.”

Sound kind of familiar?

The Patriots lost their first 4 games, won 2, lost 4 more and alternated wins and losses for the rest of the season on their way to a 5-11 record.

The 2001 Patriots were not expected to fair much better. They started the season 2-3 and looked to be in for another long season.

Then, on October 14th, 2001, something happened. The Patriots played a tight game against the San Diego Charges and pulled off an exciting overtime win 29 to 26. After that, the Patriots kept winning. Just like that. It was like somebody finally flipped off the crappy team button and flipped on the really good team button. It happens like that some times. A team will get slowly better over the course of time but not so good that it shows on the score board. Then, suddenly, the team gets over the hump, enough of the payers finally get it and the team is a winner.

The 2001 Patriots only lost 2 more games following their overtime win against the Chargers and they went on to win the Super Bowl.
Why can’t that happen to the 2010 Chiefs? They’ve gone through similar transition to that of the 2000-2001 Patriots.  Is it too crazy to believe that  the Chiefs aren’t that far away from getting over the hump?

The Chiefs only won 4 games last season. They beat the Raiders, Steelers, Redskins and Broncos. Not so great, right?

The funny thing is, the Chiefs weren’t all that far away from being in the playoff race last season.

There were a few games that had a couple of things gone the Chiefs way, they would have finished with a winning record.

Try this on for size.

The Chiefs lost to the Raiders in week 2 by a score of 13-10. I am still not sure how they managed to lose that game but it was very winnable. What if they had?

Chalk up win 5.

Had someone, anyone, been able to tackle Miles Austin, the Chiefs very well could have defeated the Dallas Cowboys in over time.

Chalk up win 6.

After winning 2 straight over the Steelers and Raiders, the Chiefs were clobbered in consecutive weeks by the Chargers and Broncos. Then there was “the stretch.” The Chiefs played the Bills, losing by 6, the Browns losing by 7 and the Bengals losing by 7 before destroying the Broncos in the season finally. They were a few lucky bounces away from ending the season on a 4 game winning streak.

The Chiefs easily could have won the Buffalo, Cleveland and Cincinnati games. If they had…you guessed it.

Chalk up wins 7, 8 and 9.

Now ask yourself this.

If the Chiefs had Charlie Weis, Rome Crennel, Javier Arenas, Dexter McCluster, Thomas Jones, Tony Moeaki, Jon Asomoah, Ryan Lilja, Casey Weigmann and Eric Berry for those 5 critical games last season, do you think they still would have lost?

Exactly.

I think there is a chance that if those players were on the roster, the Chiefs would have won every single one of those games last season and quite possibly the Ravens game to boot.

If that is the case, then how will the Chiefs perform this year?

Here is your Best Case Scenario:

KC opens up the season on Monday Night Football and the new Arrowhead Stadium is filled to capacity. The Chiefs are more prepared and have more offensive firepower than they have had in 3 years. The Chargers aren’t ready for them. Kansas City uses a ground attack of Thomas Jones, Jamaal Charles and Deter McCluster to losen up the Charger D before Matt Cassel unloads some bombs to Bowe, Chambers and again, McCluster.

The Chiefs prove to be too fast for the aging Chargers and Eric Berry has quite the debut, picking off Rivers twice. The Chiefs shock the world (and Vegas) and win going away. Philip Rivers gets so mad he slaps Norv Turner in the face and is suspended for the rest of the season. Norv cries and somewhere, Marty Shottenheimer laughs.

Unfortunately for the rest of the AFC West, the Chiefs don’t stop there. They exact revenge on the Browns and run all over the 49ers to hit their Bye week at a stunning 3-0.

It won’t be all daisies and sunshine though. The Chiefs come back from the Bye and take a couple of losses. Their young secondary is going to be good but they are still inexperienced and the Chiefs lose a couple of tough ones to Peyton Manning and Matt Shaub.

Todd Haley gets his team back on track the following week and the Chiefs begin a little winning streak, defeating the Jags, Bills and Raiders all in a row.

The Chiefs are now 6-2.

Jason Whitlock declares the solid start a fluke and bets his career that the Chiefs will not make the playoffs.

The following week the team loses a tough divisional battle in overtime to the Broncos at Mile High.

Whitlock gloats, writes an article about how Scott Pioli bites the heads off kittens.

The next week, Haley has his team jacked and they pull off another upset by beating their coach’s old team, the Arizona Cardinals. The teams play in this game is a sign that the players really do like Haley, despite his tough demeanor. TV station stop only showing shots of Haley swearing and screaming and start showing clips of him hugging Dwayne Bowe (who matures and solves his drops problem) on the sideline.

Whitlock goes on anti-depressants, maintains the Chiefs will choke down the stretch.

The Chiefs them win back-to-back games against the Seahwaks and Broncos before falling to the Chargers in San Diego.

The Chiefs are now 9-4.

The team can sniff the playoffs and they respond strong by winning their 2 of their final 3 games. They beat the Rams, fall to a surging Titans team and slaughter the Faiders…err….Raiders…ah who am I kidding…FAIDERS!

The Chiefs finish the season 11-5.

I always say, the more times you get a date to the dance the better your chances  of getting lucky.

Well, the Chiefs get lucky. The pull a rabbit out of their helmets and make it all the way to the Super Bowl. The night before the big game, Jason Whitlock is seen leaving the Kansas City Star Offices with a suitcase and a couple of boxes of crispy creams. He is never heard from again.

The following day, the Chiefs complete one of the greatest Cinderella stories of all-time and defeat the defending champion New Orleans Saints behind their steadily improving defense and dynamic rushing attack.

Clark Hunt, emboldened by his team’s success, buys the Kansas City Royals and with the extra money he obtains from dumping his interests in soccer, spends it on players and turns the Rolays into a perennial contender in the American League Central. Hunt has to buy more land to expand the parking lots for both Arrowhead and Kaufman.

Well. there you have it, Addicts. Take a nice long sip of Kool-Aid because as bad as things could get, they could also be oh, so good!

GO CHIEFS