The Morning Fix

For now Cassel deserves all the credit in the world. With his back against the wall and the Kansas City fans ready to punch his ticket out of town, it would have been easy for him to pack it in. But he stepped up his game and has the Chiefs in position to get right back into the thick of the AFC West race going into the bye.

Despite the frivolity, the Chiefs still have their priorities straight and will spend today and Wednesday practicing and watching tape of the Oakland Raiders before getting the rest of the week off.

“The bye is good, but we have Oakland,” defensive end Wallace Gilberry said of the next game, on Oct. 23 at Oakland. “This is Oakland week. It just so happens we get a couple extra days to look at them. It’s already Oakland week.”

“Defensively, it’s the reverse. It’s almosts a mirror image. We’re not very good on third-and-longs, we’re allowing too many conversons, yet on the mediums, we’re pretty good and on the third and shorts, we’ve struggled defensively.

“It may be the makeup of our team. We practice against each other a bunch, and sometimes those things happen. But third down is an area we have to get a lot better.