But all is not lost.

I didn't get to watch the game, but I watched the statistics and read the reviews afterwards. Here's my take:

1) The two long runs allowed by the defense were troubling. They were against the 1st team on the same drive. There are a few things that give me some comfort: with Maslowski and Mitchell out, we had a starting MLB who hadn't really done much work there, and so the necessary level of comfort hadn't kicked in yet. Not to mention that five starters on defense were not suited up at all for that game. And all those horrible yards given up resulted in only 7 points. On the other hand, if it is indicative of an ongoing problem in the defense, you could also see it as a disaster in the making; but KC did such a good job against the run last week, I can't believe the whole defense went into reverse, so I'll expect some improvement next week. We'll see how they do in the season opener, as well. If they don't allow any runs over 15 yards and the ypc is right around 4.0, I think we're fine for the season, although a bad week is always possible. But if we start off the season doing well stopping the run, I think things can only get better as the season goes on and the players get more comfortable in Gunther's system.

2) Sims had a great game. Even Jason Whitlock thinks so, less than 2 weeks after all but pronouncing him a bust. I guess Sims just needed a little more time to get comfortable in the brand new defense scheme before starting to make an impact. I think he'll do fine, and next week's game will let us know for sure.

3) Trent Green is doing quite well, still. He will make any WRs look darn good...and he may have to. I'm really troubled by Boerigter going down. He was playing well in the preseason, like he was going to take the next step and win a starting position and maybe push for the pro-bowl. If he's done for the season, as several interviewees seemed to fear, that takes a major chunk out of our offense. Kennison is not a #1 receiver, and we don't have another tall, fast guy who can leap on the team. Hall, Parker, and Smith are all the speedy, "get open by burst speed" type of guys that do well in the slot or as the #2 receiver. I don't know if there's even anyone on the horizon who might get cut that could do the job. If Bo is out and Morton doesn't come back soon, it could get bad.

3) With the above situation, nabbing Kris Wilson in the draft is seeming more and more brilliant. We chose him because he creates mismatches like Tony Gonzalez does: too fast for a Linebacker to cover well, too big for a safety to bring down easily. With TG, KW and a top-notch blocker like Jason Dunn (who can catch well, but doesn't have the speed to stretch the defense with his bad knees), a 3 TE formation doesn't mean "run" as clearly as it would for another team. With our WR problem, Kris Wilson's flexibility could salvage the season for us.

4) Todd Collins' performance in the preseason has been top-notch. There were times the coaches were obviously a little worried to go with him as the back-up, in case he ended up wilting under fire. But he's done well enough, consistently enough, against #1 defenses in the preseason thus far that I think we can trust him if Trent were to go down. As a result, I think we keep Clausen over Huard for the #3 QB.

5) Some of the players the Chiefs let go from the defense are going to end up starting somewhere else by next season. We have a plethora of young Safeties, Cornerbacks, and D-lineman that can really play. Clint Finley, Willie Pile, and Scott Connot are all young guys who already good enough to fill in a game or two and are on their way up since none have more than 1 year experience. Lyle West, though, has the inside track, so we'll probably end up cutting 3 of these guys. Some may make it onto the practice squad, but I'll bet at least 1 ends up on someone else's roster by the end of this season, and they all find a home somewhere by next year's opening day.
The same thing, to some extent, with Montique Sharpe and Jimmy Wilkerson. They are both young and still learning. They would make good backups for most teams in the league, but I doubt we'll have the roster spots to keep 'em.

In fact, just by the growth of several young players since last season, we've got a much stronger defense this year. The only problem is, the improvement might not be noticeable: our LB corps is still weak, and even weaker from the injuries... And Gunther's system depends on good LBs. Maybe they'll grow into the system? We'll see.

All in all, it's just one pre-season game. The 3rd, so the things we saw do mean more than what we saw in the 1st. As things stand now, we're still looking at an 11 or 12-win season. But subtract one win for each WR we lose from here on out...