Some good things and at least one disastrous event in last night's game.

Good things:

Richard Smith is ready for the NFL. He might be starting by the end of the year. If he continues to improve at the rate he seems capable of, he'll make the pro-bowl at some point in his career. He's good. Dang good for an undrafted rookie who didn't get much attention or reps early in camp.

Todd Collins is good. He's ready to be a starter in the Coryell system, so we are set if Green goes down. Drop-off might be less than one game over a season, or maybe not even that. In light of that, it seems like we should have kept Casey Clausen as the 3rd QB, since it seems our #3 won't get any playing time anyway. In an emergency that makes the #3 guy a starter for an extended time, you could always bring Huard back, anyway, so why not give an obviously-skilled young prospect a chance to learn from two experienced guys? Maybe Clausen will end up on the practice squad, but he's vulnerable there, and nothing I saw made me think Huard is a significant upgrade over Clausen...

The defense is fine. Even with the 2nd and 3rd string generally being less effective against the run than the starters, we still allowed less than 4 ypc for the game, even with allowing a long run to Richie Anderson. Breakaways happen, and always will. The question is how the defense will react? And the Chiefs defense stepped it up and made it even harder to run. Dallas gave up a 53-yard TD reception, and I haven't heard grumbles/worries/derision directed toward their defense. Biesel did fine, eventhoug he has had less than 2 weeks to prepare for his start at MLB. The next 10 days should see significant improvement for him. Bartee seems to have stepped it up at CB, stopping Keyshawn Johnson effectively. All in all, we will most likely bring a strong secondary, sufficient D-line, and weak LB corp to Denver next Sunday. But with the corresponding weakness of their WRs and the loss of downfield blocking engendered from the retirements of McCaffery and Sharpe, I think the defense will be strong enough to keep Denver to a low enough point total to win.

Bad news: Kris Wilson was what I considered our "ace in the hole". He was going to surprise some defenses, and his importance to the offense was only increased by the loss of Boerigter (who was also having a monster preseason). His loss for at least the next 8 weeks means an average of 3 less points per game, I think (I expected him to score 1 TD or contribute significantly to a TD drive at least once every two weeks...). With the loss of conditioning and practice time that goes with a broken leg, he might not make those kind of significant contributions until the end of the season, if not the playoffs. Big Frowney Face.

But I think we'll be okay. The performance of the starters makes me think we are still on track for a 12-win season, as long as we don't have any other significant injuries that keep key starters out for a significant amount of time. But that's true for any team.

Bottom line: KC over Denver, 24-14....maybe as high as 34-21. Denver should be miffed they waste their home game against KC so early in the season. KC is far more polished at this point, and Denver still hasn't fully integrated all the new elements after their wholesale offseason changes. It should be a good game, though.