The Morning After: The winning while awful paradox

The Chiefs won't go winless, but does this win damage their future?

The Morning After | Sifting through the upside down world of football

I'm going to start sounding like a broken record: The only way the Chiefs win this season is to start Damon Huard.

He gives the offense hope.

More importantly, Huard gives the defense hope. Hope that they won't have to carry the whole load. Force turnovers at every attempt. He gives them reason to relax and just make plays.

Which is exactly what happened yesterday.

And you're probably happy. You should be.

Is that a good thing though?

Teams that win while being awful ruin their chances of having a top draft pick. And, by proxy, tend to keep their coach hanging around.

(Now, you can argue that a top draft pick won't fix all their problems. Ask the Detroit Lions. And, you could also argue that Carl Peterson can't be trusted with that kind of top pick. And that Free Money might do the same thing next year — pick quarterbacks like he was trying to decide which sweater vest to wear to the Plaza.)

The Chiefs that showed up against the Broncos showed signs that they aren't as bad as we may have thought. They should have scored more than 33 points, as three drives were "settled" with a figgie.

Of course, yesterday's game could have been more about how bad the Broncos actually are and was only a mirage. The Chiefs may only win two games from here on out.

The point is: When an awful team (especially an awful young team) wins a game as convincingly as the Chiefs did yesterday, it's bound to mask some weaknesses and provide the players and fans with false hope.

Though, Brodie Croyle is back in three weeks. That should kill whatever shards of false hope are still lingering.

Other things that I thought while avoiding actual work yesterday

1. Why were Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf constantly referring to him as "Herman" Edwards? It sounded so formal, so weird. It was like they were being a little insulting and passive aggressive.

2. I've seen pee-wee football teams tackle better than the Denver Broncos.

3. Brett Favre had never thrown 6 touchdowns in one game. How? He used to play the Detroit Lions two times a year.

4. Reason No. 3,493 why fantasy football is more frustrating than shopping at Wal-Mart on a Sunday afternoon: Who in their right mind started Kevin Walter this week? Or Matt Schaub? Who thought the Jaguars defense was that awful? Answers: No one, people who had Peyton Manning on a bye and obviously not me and I will be dropping them ASAP.

5. Player That I Love in a Purely Platonic (and Fantasy-related) Way: Hey, the real Ladanian Tomlinson showed up this week! And he scored. That's why I drafted him number 1. I almost forgot.

6. Look out Cowpokes fans, TO doesn't feel like he's being involved enough. In yesterday's loss to Washington, he was involved in more than 1/3 of their plays and was thrown to 17 times. Not enough? Oh-uh.

Non-Throwball News

The Kansas City Wizard's suffered a setback to their playoff hopes as the player they traded last month, Sasha Victorine, assisted and then scored in a 2-1 win for Chivas USA. The Wiz are back in KC this Sunday to take on division-rival the Chicago Fire.

So, What Have We Learned?

The Chiefs can score 33 points. Not just for the whole season, but in one game! They also have a chance of winning a few more games that 0.

The Titans and Bills are 4-0 and are the class of the AFC.

The four NFC East teams might only lose to each other.

Braylon Edwards still sucks.

And if you have any Jets receivers, you should always start them from this point forward.

Note: The search for the "perfect" sports bar in KC will return on Oct. 19. We had to shut down the project for a few reasons. The first of which involved the phrase "broken refrigerator."

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RIP Paul Newman. One of the finest actors there ever was.