The Morning Fix: Victory Edition

“Matt is the leader of this team and everybody follows him,” FB Le’Ron McClain said. “He came in and gave us a good speech. He said to finish, have your brother’s back, finish and play ball.”

“He was fired up,” WR Dwayne Bowe added. “He was screaming and was like come on guys, and it (pumped us up).”

Cassel’s halftime speech followed a sideline interaction with head coach Todd Haley late in the second quarter.

“We talked about being 1-3 all game and all week and that’s what was on our mind,” WR Dwayne Bowe said. “That was the motivation to come out 1-3 no matter what, having no doubts.”

A one-win first quarter was far from what the Chiefs had in mind coming off a division championship season, but the difference between 1-3 and 0-4 is more than significant. Sunday’s 22-17 victory makes next weekend’s visit to Indianapolis much bigger.

“It was a simple play, a simple hitch-and-go route,” he said. “Coach told me, ‘If I call this, will you score?’ And I told him, ‘Coach, all you have to do is put it in my hands and I’ll do my best to come down with the touchdown.’ He believed in me. Matt made a perfect throw; the offensive line held up and voila — there you have it.”

Voila, indeed.

“The good news is that we didn’t give a game away this time. We just got beat,” Jared Allen said. “Congrats to them. They played tough.”

The Chiefs? With Matt Cassel at quarterback? They are terrible, but apparently not as terrible as the underachieving Vikings. Having to sit through that game made me wish I had gone to dental school way back when.

Television cameras caught most of it, including the part where Le’Ron McClain rushed over to separate teammate and coach. In that moment, this whole Chiefs season could’ve gone from worse to worst, but instead we saw something much more surprising than Haley screaming at a player.

The Chiefs won.