Kansas City Chiefs Year in Review: Handing Out the Best of and Worst of Awards

With the '11 NFL regular season now complete, it's time to look at the year in review for the Kansas City Chiefs.

To put it lightly, 2011 was a wild season for the Chiefs organization.

They fired their head coach, used three different quarterbacks, lost three of their star players to injury, yet were still able to come within one missed field goal of the playoffs while sending two players to the Pro Bowl as well.

Here are the best and worst of award for KC this year.

Best Offensive Player: Dwayne Bowe

Coming into the '11 season, Chiefs wideout Dwayne Bowe was coming off the best season of his pro career.

What did he do for an encore?

He had 81 catches for 1,159 yards and five touchdowns to lead the team in all three categories this year.

Even though he failed to make the Pro Bowl for the second straight season, he was by far KC's best offensive player in 2011.

Best Defensive Player: Derrick Johnson

Johnson's high level of play was one of the main reasons that the Chiefs defense seemed to improve as the season went on.

His bone-crushing hits and excellent run defense at his ILB spot made him one of the most-feared defenders on Kansas City's defense.

He recorded a career-high 134 tackles this season, which was good for tops on the team.

DJ also earned his first Pro Bowl selection as he has quietly become one of the premier players at his position in the league today.

Rookie of the Year: Justin Houston

Houston ran away with this award after his dominating second half of the season.

The rookie OLB was able to rack up 5.5 sacks in his last five games of the year.

The highlight of his season was in Week 7, when he put in a show against the Bears by sacking Chicago QB Caleb Hanie a total of three times in that game.

He has all the makings of a very talented pass-rusher for the future of this defense.

Most Disappointing Player of the Year: Matt Cassel

This was a tough decision for me to make, but Cassel wins this dubious award for 2011.

In nine games this season, the former backup to Tom Brady did not look like the same QB who led his team to an AFC West division title and a playoff just a season ago.

He threw nine interceptions in his nine starts this year and was wildly inconsistent with moving his offense from game to game.

Cassel's disappointing year ended in a thud when he was injured after a hit by Denver's Von Miller in the Chiefs' Week 10 game against the Broncos.

Best Team Offensive Performance: Week 5 vs. Colts

This was the breakout performance for the Chiefs offense this season.

Even though they didn't do too much in the first half of this contest, they were able to roll up 21 unanswered points after halftime to seal this victory.

QB Matt Cassel threw for 257 yards and four touchdowns while the KC ground attack rushed for 194 yards, led by RB Jackie Battle's 119-yard effort on that day.

Wideouts Steve Breaston and Dwayne Bowe both had a pair of TD catches to help spark the comeback win.

Worst Team Offensive Performance: Week 2 vs. Lions

The Chiefs offense has had much better days than their Week 2 game against the Detroit Lions earlier this season.

It's safe to say that they just weren't ready for this game at all.

After being drubbed by the Bills in Week 1, KC traveled to Detroit to play a red-hot Lions team, and the end results were disastrous for Kansas City.

Four turnovers and just 267 total yards later, the Chiefs saw themselves on the wrong end of a 48-3 score.

Best Team Defensive Performance: Week 7 vs. Raiders

I could have easily gone with the Packers game for this award but decided to go with the KC defense's Week 7 effort at Oakland.

On that day, the Chiefs were able to pick off an amazing six passes from Raiders' QBs, including two pick sixes as well.

The defense was able to pitch a shutout, while making the Raiders offense miserable in this game.

Chiefs fan should remember this will win for a long time, even though the offense had one of their worst performances of the season in this matchup.

Worst Team Defensive Performance: Week 2 vs. Lions

It's hard to believe that a team can have their worst offensive and defensive performance of an entire season in the same game.

However, that was exactly the case with the Chiefs this year.

The Kansas City D let Lions QB Matt Stafford light them up for 294 yards and four touchdowns while Detroit cruised to an easy victory.

Everything the Lions offense did on this day seemed to work, including the touchdown catch by Calvin Johnson in the picture for this slide.

Best Individual Performance: Dwayne Bowe vs. Colts, Week 5

This was one of the better performances of Bowe's career.

He had seven catches, including an incredible one-handed catch in the end zone, to go along with 128 total receiving yards and two touchdowns.

After having one of the worst games of his life at Indianapolis last season, D-Bowe was able to flip the script and turn in his best effort of '11 against the Colts at the same venue.

Hats off to Dwayne Bowe for winning three awards on this list.

Worst Individual Performance: Tyler Palko, Week 12 vs. Steelers

This was one of those quarterback performances that the Chiefs would just like to erase from their memory.

Then-starting QB Tyler Palko thew for just 167 yards while tossing three interceptions and committing a fumble in a loss against the Steelers in Week 12.

What makes this ugly performance even tough to swallow was the fact that KC had a chance to win this game on their last drive in regulation.

In the end, Palko threw the ball right to the Pittsburgh defense, completing one of the worst games for a Kansas City signal-caller since Matt Cassel's laugher against Baltimore in the playoffs last year.

Best Coach of the Year: Romeo Crennel

From a Chiefs perspective, it's not to not like Romeo Crennel.

He is a mild-mannered guy on the sidelines and also is well liked by many in the organization.

I also forgot to mention that he's has one of the best defensive minds in the NFL today.

When you consider that this team was without star safety Eric Berry, it makes it even more amazing what Crennel was able to get out of his defense this season.

Worst Coach of the Year: Todd Haley

This was a relatively easy pick for me.

Todd Haley made many questionable decisions this season which ultimately decided his fate as head coach of this team

His team looked unprepared in many games this season, while Haley looked overmatched from a coaching standpoint.

Coach Haley's time with the Chiefs organization ended abruptly after a Week 14 loss to the Jets.

Best Play of the Year: Dwayne Bowe's One-Handed TD Catch vs. Colts, Week 5

What more can you say about this amazing touchdown reception by Dwayne Bowe?

Some have labeled it as the catch of the year, and I would have to agree with that.

The great thing about this catch is not only is he being interfered with by Colts DB Jacob Lacey, but he also makes the grab by just using one hand.

This is easily the best play that Bowe has ever made in his five-year NFL career.

Worst Play of the Year: Matt Cassel's Interception vs. Chargers, Week 3

Were there many passes in the NFL that were worst than this one in 2011?

If there were, I haven't see them yet.

Chiefs QB Matt Cassel's screen pass interception has to be one of the worst plays in franchise history.

As if it couldn't get any worse for Cassel after he made that dreadful pass, he also failed to put his hat on when going to the bench after the play.

Game of the Year: Chiefs vs. Packers, Week 15

This game was treated like it was a Super Bowl-type contest for the Chiefs.

They were playing the undefeated, defending world champs and were able to knock them off with a stifling defensive effort and a solid performance by new QB Kyle Orton.

It was KC's most complete game of the entire season as well.

In a win that sent shockwaves across the NFL, Romeo Crennel and his defense were able to dismantle the vaunted Packers' passing attack.