Chiefs Fall to Chargers 43 - 14
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RETURN FACTORS
November 28th – 12:53 PM (PST)

Chiefs head coach Todd Haley has talked about keeping a monitor on RB Jamaal Charles’ overall touches. Part of that could be a shift in return duties like we saw last week when RB Kolby Smith went down to injury. WR Lance Long replaced Charles as a returner late in that game.

Those logging kickoff and punt returns during pregame were Charles, Long, WR Quinten Lawrence and WR Bobby Wade.

INACTIVES
November 28th – 11:42 AM (PST)

CHIEFS

15           QB Matt Gutierrez (3rd)
29           RB Dantrell Savage
50           LB Mike Vrabel
52           LB David Herron
55           LB Justin Rogers
62           G/C Andy Alleman
85           TE Jake O’Connell
89           TE Sean Ryan

CHARGERS
6              QB Charlie Whitehurst (3rd)
24           CB Dante Hughes
29           RB Michael Bennett
41           S C.J. Spillman
61           C Nick Hardwick
79           T Jon Runyan
84           WR Buster Davis
93           DE Luis Castillo

VRABEL GETS WORK IN
November 28th – 9:40 AM (PST)

Chiefs injured LB Mike Vrabel (knee) went through a nice 60-minute workout with trainers this morning upon arrival at Qualcomm. Although the prospects of Vrabel playing have seemed dim (he’s officially listed as questionable), his movements were definitely an encouraging sign regarding his rehab process.

We’ll know Vrabel’s official status 90 minutes prior to kickoff. LB Andy Studebaker is expected to start in Vrabel’s place should Vrabel not be able to play today.

CHIEFS PROMOTE WR QUINTEN LAWRENCE
November 28th – 2:15 PM (PST)

The Chiefs have promoted practice squad WR Quinten Lawrence to the active roster. The addition of Lawrence brings Kansas City’s active roster to 53 players. A spot on the active roster was previously opened with CB Maurice Leggett was placed on injured reserve earlier this week.

Lawrence made the trip on the team charter this afternoon. He will add depth in the receiving core and can also factor into the return game on special teams. Lawrence opened the season on the Chiefs active roster before being released on October 25th. WR Lance Long was signed from the practice squad to complete that transaction earlier this year.

CHIEFS/CHARGERS – TAKE 2
November 28th – 6:05 AM

The most re-played NFL press conference moment of the past five years has to be Denny Green’s infamous “The Bears are who we thought they were…and we let ‘em off the hook.”

With the Chiefs and Chargers meeting for the 100th time this Sunday, the heart of that quote is typically the line of thinking when these two familiar foes go head-to-head twice each year. But this time around, the Chargers aren’t who we thought they were and, conversely, the Chiefs aren’t who the Chargers thought they were.

So much has changed in only a month for both of these teams.

The first meeting, on October 25th, was a Charger beating 37-7 at Arrowhead. Nothing went right as the Chiefs uncharacteristically turned the football over three times, had a punt blocked for a touchdown and just flat-out stunk up the joint in general. That Chiefs team, however, isn’t a proper representative of today’s Chiefs team.

For starters, the Chiefs have a new approach to their rushing game with Jamaal Charles and Kolby Smith. Secondly, the Chiefs have found an answer to their deep-threat woes in the passing game with Chris Chambers, who ironically came to Kansas City via waivers from San Diego. Then there are players like TE Leonard Pope, WR Lance Long, LB Andy Studebaker and LB Jovan Belcher all seeing increased roles since that first meeting date.

From a personnel point, things are much different this time around with Kansas City.

“There’s no doubt,” QB Matt Cassel answered when asked if the Chiefs were a different team from one month ago. “There are new pieces of the puzzle that have been coming together. RB Jamaal Charles is a great example, he’s added quite a spark for the offense and he’s made some big plays. You see that week-in and week-out, that big-play potential and obviously adding WR Chris Chambers, he’s really stepped his game up for us.”

The personnel changes are the most glaring different aspect of the Chiefs game, but the overall attitude has shifted as well. Winners in three of their last five and two-straight, including a victory over the defending Super Bowl champs, Kansas City now enters Sunday with that key intangible – confidence.

“Winning does so much for you,” Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said. “The way we started and to go through the pre-season - even though we know those games don’t count - and this being the embryonic stages you need some positive reinforcement. So, I think that the guys were working really hard and were into it and trying to get better every single day. But until you actually see those results and have that validation that’s when you can start taking little bigger steps.”

“We were taking baby steps,” Haley continued. “Then we win on the road in Oakland and you come back home against Pittsburgh in front of your fans and defeat the defending Super Bowl champions. There’s no doubt there’s a little more bonding that goes on; the guys want to hang around a little more and success breeds success.”

Success no doubt breeds more success and that’s exactly what’s going on in San Diego, winners of five consecutive games. Right now, San Diego is the hottest team in football outside the undefeated duo of Indianapolis and New Orleans. The Chargers have outscored opponents at the clip of 145-69 over their winning streak and have gone from 2-3 overall and left for dead to 7-3 division leaders since the Chiefs last saw them.

“The first time we played Kansas City, that was the healthiest we had been to that point,” Chargers head coach Norv Turner explained. “We lost five starters in the opening game. We were moving a lot of people around on the offensive and defensive line and we were having a tough time having consistency in both of those areas.”

“The Kansas City game, we came together,” Turner continued. “We were able to make some big plays in the passing game and it was the first week we were able to run the ball the way that we would like to. I think since then we’ve built on that.”

The most glaring difference involving San Diego of late has been the return of the Chargers rushing attack. San Diego ranked dead-last in the league in rushing the football when they made the trip to Arrowhead last month – a giant head-scratcher when you have the rushing duo of LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles. Although the Chargers still rank 30th in rushing after their horrid start, the run game has produced 322 yards over the past two weeks including a 203 output in Denver last weekend.

“I think more than anything we just hung with it,” QB Phillip Rivers said of the Charger rushing attack. “It is easy to go down the excuse road and I don’t intend for this to sound that way but we dealt with a lot of injuries up front in Week 1. LT also dealt with an ankle injury and we played three or four of the top five run defenses in the league.

“With that being said, we didn’t execute as well as we could have,” Rivers continued. “It was a combination of all those things that had a great deal to do with it. We just hung with it and I think the last few weeks it has paid off for us and obviously contributed a great deal for us to be able to win five in a row.”

So much has changed in so little time for each team lining up across from one another this Sunday. The Chargers aren’t who we thought they were….neither are the Chiefs.

Last weekend, we knew we’d learn something more about this Chiefs team. We did. This weekend, we may learn even more.

Things I Think I Know
(60% of the time they’re right every time)

• WR Chris Chambers will win the receiving battle against the man that replaced him, Chargers WR Malcom Floyd

• The Chiefs were cautious a week ago with the debut of LB Andy Studebaker. Studebaker played in 55 of 77 overall snaps and the Chiefs largely kept him in positions that played off of his strengths. LB Pierre Walters got time in nickel situations and some passing downs, I’d expect that to continue (This is all assuming that LB Mike Vrabel doesn’t play, which I’m assuming).

• This one got nixed last week due to injury, but expect RB Kolby Smith to take on a decent load as Charles’ compliment on Sunday. Charles’ touches were a bit heavier than the Chiefs would have liked a week ago with Smith’s injury. WR Lance Long replaced Charles on kickoff returns late in the game as a result.

• Jamaal Charles will continue to serve as both the primary returner and feature running back.

• The loss of CB Maurice Leggett (injured reserve – shoulder) plays a bigger impact in the Chiefs secondary depth than most seem to believe. Leggett could play virtually any position in the secondary and was a vital part of the Chiefs special teams units. He was playing free safety on most third-down situations as well for Jon McGraw.

• As a result of Leggett’s injury, don’t be surprised to see CB Travis Daniels serve as the role at safety once filled by Leggett. Daniels has been playing primarily nickel back to date.

• We saw the Chiefs get creative with the fullback position a bit last weekend with the fullback option and a 19-yard reception from Mike Cox. Recently signed Tim Castille offers more of a flex for the Chiefs in a number of different offensive scenarios. Now that Castille has the full playbook under his belt, the way Haley uses the duo of Cox and Castille in certain situation on Sunday should give us a good feel for Castille’s role going forward.

• I will once again be reminded how much I hate the Chargers upon hearing “San Diego…Super Chargers!”