The Kansas City Chiefs came into Indianapolis already without two of their most talented and dynamic players in running back Jamaal Charles and pass rusher Justin Houston. As the game progressed the Chiefs also lost their starting quarterback Alex Smith and their emerging star (and Jamaal Charles replacement) Spencer Ware.
When you add starting guard Parker Ehinger to that injury list it would be easy to justify the Chiefs being outmanned and outgunned against any team in the NFL. In a league known for parity (I got it right this week!) if you lose that many key players to injury it should be hard to compete from a talent standpoint.
Here’s where John Dorsey deserves all the credit in the world. The Chiefs were without their starting quarterback, their top two running backs, a starting offensive lineman, and their best defensive player and they still had an all around more talented team on the field than the Indianapolis Colts. That is impressive roster building and I don’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.
While I hope Alex Smith is back in action next week we’ve seen concussions derail entire seasons and taking two head shots in one game like that makes me nervous about Smith’s status going forward. However, thanks to the signing of Nick Foles the Chiefs are poised to survive the loss of their starting quarterback better than 90 percent (or more) of other NFL teams would be able to. That’s huge.