The Kansas City Chiefs offense truly had an incredible day yesterday. Jackie Battle came from nowhere to rush for 119 yards. Matt Cassel matched a career high with four touchdowns. But it was the performance of wide receivers Dwayne Bowe and Steve Breaston that caught the attention of Todd Haley after the game and had the Kansas City Chiefs head coach commenting on what he saw.
The former offensive coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals is known for his work with wideouts, so it's not surprising to hear him focused on their play. And given how great both Breaston and Bowe looked yesterday, there's no denying their impact.
"We really offensively tried to stick to doing the things we know we can do well, and those are things you learn as the season goes on," said Haley in the post-game press conference. "We'll fight ourselves even in game plan situations where you see some good ideas on tape and you say, 'Let's do this.' And we'll resist the urge and just do the things that our guys do well. Dwayne here the last couple of years has really developed as a player. He was able to make a couple of really good plays. To me it didn't matter as much who it was against, it was that he was doing things the way he can do them and the way we were coaching him. We were able to execute."
When it came to Breaston, it was clear that Haley was excited about a development in the receiver's game that he'd specifically coached him about.
"Then you saw some of the same things across the way. Then you saw Steve... I was so excited about that touchdown because I coached him for a long time in Arizona and it was one of his best releases. It's a little thing, but he did a great job on something we talked about for years. It got him open and Matt made a great throw. That was just a big play for us."
Haley is apparently continuing his intensive work with the receivers, and with the loss of Jamaal Charles for the season, the Chiefs will need to focus more and more on the passing game. Jon Baldwin would do well to pay attention that he's playing for arguably the best coach in the league who can develop his game.