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“Probably half of my tackles come from Jovan blowing somebody up and I’m scraping over the top,” Johnson said. “He’s not a selfish guy. He knows what he has to do in this defense to allow certain people to scrape over the top for tackles. Sometimes in the 3-4 defense you have to be a sacrifice guy.”

Belcher is that guys. He’s the Chiefs “Thumper” – an unheralded member of the Chiefs linebacking core, but one whose role is vital to the overall success of the group.

“I’ll be the first person to tell you that I’m not going to sit back and make excuses for interceptions or turnovers,” Palko said. “I mean that’s just inexcusable regardless of the fact, you still have to understand that those things gets you beat.”

After seven giveaways plagued his first two starts, Palko took a step in the right direction with a turnover-free performance in Chicago last Sunday.

“You’ve got to understand something,” Palko said. “I’ve been the practice-squad quarterback, I’ve been the No. 3, I’ve been the No. 2 and the starter last week. I think one thing that’s helped me prepare for this whole thing is whether I was a practice-squad guy and had no chance of playing on Sunday or I was the 3, the 2, or the 1, I prepared the same way, with the same intensity, with the same amount of time that I put in, and that’s not going to change.”

e Jets are no doubt counting on beating the visiting Chiefs (5-7) on Sunday, because Kansas City has quarterback troubles. But that’s probably what Chicago was thinking last week, too, and we know how that turned out. New York is just 1-2 against the AFC West this season, and needed a pretty good comeback at home against the Chargers just to get the one win. A New York loss would really aid the likes of Cincinnati and Tennessee in the wild-card chase, and it’s not as if the Jets are beyond making things harder on themselves than necessary (see last-minute Week 11 loss at Denver).