It took a new head coach and starting quarterback to completely change the culture of the Kansas City Chiefs. But once those two were in place with Romeo Crennel and Kyle Orton specifically, the rest of the Chiefs players responded in a way they haven’t before this season. The end result was an unexpected win over the Green Bay Packers this afternoon.
Bill Reiter of Fox Sports noticed the difference when analyzing the Packers loss and writes, "With Romeo Crennel stepping in as the interim head coach and Orton back in the lineup, the Chiefs were a different football team Sunday. They (and a string of drops by Green Bay receivers) suffocated the Packers’ offense enough to limit it to 213 passing yards, 315 total yards of offense and those measly 14 points. The Chiefs stifled the league’s most high-octane offense, a unit that had averaged more than 35.8 points per game heading into Arrowhead.
“On the other side of the ball, Orton spearheaded a 438-yard day for the offense. His workmanlike 23-of-31 passing day and 104.1 passer rating was good enough, surely, to confuse Chiefs fans who had not glimpsed even an imitation of a real NFL quarterback in about the same time since Green Bay last lost a game.”
These two made a major difference today for the Chiefs and Scott Pioli has to be excited about the way the holdovers responded to the new elements in the locker room. Perhaps he knew what he was doing after all.