Chiefs have what might be termed as a 'good' loss

By Doug Tucker

AP Sports Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- If there's such a thing as a good loss, the Kansas City Chiefs may have just had one.

Playing with their second-team quarterback in a place where they hadn't won in six years, they gave up only six points in four quarters. The offensive line allowed only one sack after giving up seven to Cincinnati the week before. Larry Johnson ran for 126 yards even though everyone knew the Chiefs would play a conservative run-oriented game plan to take the pressure off Damon Huard.

Yes, the Denver Broncos won the coin flip and subsequently the game with a field goal for a 9-6 overtime victory. Nevertheless, there is much to build on as0the Chiefs go about meetings and practices before taking the weekend off.

''Coming into the game we wanted to play better than we did last week. We felt like we had to have that,'' said guard Brian Waters.

''The play overall was a vast improvement. It really was. So I think we realize we're going the right way. But we definitely would rather have won.''

No one knows how long Trent Green will be sidelined with the severe concussion he sustained in the season opener. But Huard, in his first start since 2000, acquitted himself well while going 17-for-23 for 133 yards and keeping things conservative, rarely trying to go downfield.

''We played the game exactly the way you want to play football -- defense played well, we ran the football and we didn't take a bunch of risks,'' Waters said.

The game was lost because of a few key mistakes -- two fumbles and a curious misuse of a time-out at the end of the first half that prevented Huard from making one more throw into the end zone before settling for a field goal.

''We lost a game that we had a chance to win and we have to grow from this,'' said Herm Edwards, who is 0-2 as Kansas City head coach.

''There are no moral victories. The players have to understand that we have to make a play before the overtime starts on offense to go the 25 yards to get into field goal range, or in the overtime on defense hold them when we have them pinned back there and make them punt and then we get the ball back with a short field.

''We just didn't get it all finished. Once you do that, you get some confidence in those situations.''

After the sloppily played 23-10 loss to the Bengals, many were predicting doom in this year of transition from Dick Vermeil's score-on-every-play approach. Now, everything looks much sunnier.

''After our first game, we had to get better and we did. The shame is that we didn't win. It's a process,'' Edwards said.

As he did last week, Edwards was quick to defend himself against critics who charge him with dumbing down the high-flying offense that had led the NFL the previous five years.

''I challenged these guys to be a physical, tough football team. We needed to do that to a man,'' he said.

''When a new coach takes over, regardless of what's happened in the past, he inherits players and he has to decide which players to keep and which players are going to fit because things are going to change. I didn't come here to put a bandage on what was going on.''

Edwards said Green was planning to stop by Arrowhead this week and say hello. But whether he's able to come back in time for the next game, Oct. 1 against San Francisco, remains unclear.

''He's doing better. I don't know what he's going to do this week,'' Edwards said. ''He's got some more tests he's taking.''