In one of the most exciting games of the year thus far the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the San Diego Chargers 23-20 Monday night in Kansas City. The Chiefs are now tied with the Chargers and Oakland Raiders at 4-3 atop the AFC West division.
There are a lot of story lines coming out of this game and the one that most people are going to be discussing around the water cooler at work on Tuesday is Philip Rivers inability to take a snap with under a minute to play and the Chargers in field goal range. That fumble may come back to haunt the Chargers on this Halloween night as they dropped the ball on a certain victory with a play that will be second-guessed for a very long time. But one player that deserves more credit than he will probably get from this game is Chiefs' quarterback Matt Cassel.
It may not be a huge statistical performance from the Chiefs signal caller but when the game was on the line Cassel made the plays to help the Chiefs win the game. The most important play of this game was in overtime with the Chiefs having a 3rd and 14 from the Chargers 46-yard line. Cassel hit Steve Breaston across the middle for a 17-yard gain that led to the Chiefs game-winning field goal. The Chargers were coming with the blitz and Cassel hung in the pocket long enough to find Breaston coming across the middle of the field.
The Chiefs have found themselves with a pretty damn good set of wide receivers after a Jon Baldwin coming out party following a 39-yard touchdown catch to give the Chiefs the early 10-0 lead. Baldwin finished with a team-high 82 yards on five catches with the one touchdown. Baldwin was targeted eight times on the night which trailed only Dwayne Bowe (11). The emergence of Dwayne Bowe, Steve Breaston, and now Jon Baldwin, gives the Chiefs a dynamic group of wide receivers that are plenty able to make plays in the passing game for an emerging Chiefs team that has now won four in a row.
Matt Cassel has shown over the last few weeks that he can find success with Dwayne Bowe, Steve Breaston, and now Jon Baldwin, and that's a good sign for the Chiefs moving forward. Chiefs fans were calling-out Cassel early in the season for not being able to shoulder the load for an offense that had lost Tony Moeaki and Jamaal Charles for the season. By no means was Monday night a perfect example of what the Chiefs offense can do, but it does show that Cassel can take advantage of the weapons around him and he can shoulder a good portion of the burden and help lead the Chiefs to victory. The Chiefs take on the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos over the next two weeks. Those are both winnable games and gives the Chiefs an opportunity to get to 6-3 before the tough part of their schedule begins in mid-November.