Kansas City Chiefs: Ugly wins still count!

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Oakland Raiders 34-20 on Sunday. Let’s be honest, it was an ugly win. How ugly, you ask? As ugly as the average Raiders fan in the Black Hole. As ugly as the field conditions at the O.co Coliseum (what a dumb name). As ugly as the quality of the officiating in the NFL these days. As ugly as the missed extra point where Dustin Colquitt bumbled the snap and then Cairo Santos just kind of stared at the ball dumbfounded.

You get the point.

It was U.G.L.Y.(and you ain’t got no alibi, it’s ugly, yeah yeah, it’s ugly). After the came was over I almost felt more exhausted than I did happy. Don’t get me wrong, I was THRILLED the Chiefs won that game, but it was such an emotional rollercoaster that I was almost too worn out to celebrate it. The good news is….

Ugly wins count just as much as the pretty ones do.

Was it great when the Chiefs steamrolled the Lions in London? You bet it was. Was it a blast to watch KC dominate Philip Rivers and the Chargers in San Diego? Absolutely, but in the end the tally in the win column for those games and the ones from games like this one and the Buffalo game last week count just the same. While we like to think that good teams don’t play sloppy, it just isn’t true.

Every team, no matter how good, is off sometimes (just ask the Patriots who got smacked at home by a 4-7 Eagles team). What good teams usually do is find ways to pull games out even when they aren’t at their best and that is exactly what KC has done the past two weeks.

The Chiefs had fumbles. The Chiefs had penalties. The Chiefs missed tackles. The Chiefs missed TWO extra points. The Chiefs still beat a Raiders team that everyone was saying was much improved on their own field by two touchdowns. That’s the mark of a good team.

Next: Has Alex Smith been winning ugly?