Kansas City Chiefs: Keys To Victory Against The Indianapolis Colts in Week 5

The Kansas City Chiefs will face their toughest test of the young season this Sunday as they take on Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts in a very hostile RCA dome.

The last time that KC visited Indianapolis they lost a nail-bitter 13-10 and were able to hang with the Colts for nearly the entire game. They will need the same kind of effort this weekend to have any kind of chance against a veteran Colts team.

In order to defeat the conference rival Colts at their place, the Chiefs must do a number of things right, which is why I have composed a list of Kansas City's keys to victory in this week five game.

1. Get Pressure on Payton Manning

History shows that when opposing defenses have put some heat on the future hall-of-fame QB Manning, has performance has dropped off significantly. In fact, I would argue that this is the case for many quarterbacks that have played in the league, as pressure creates problems, and problems turn into offensive breakdowns across the board.

Pressuring Manning also has to be one of the most difficult tasks for a defensive coordinator mainly due to the fact that he has been so efficient and recognizing and calling out different blitz packages that he sees and alerting other players on his offense. He also is known to get the ball out of his hands very quickly, so the Chiefs will have to watch for this as well if they want to get intense pressure on the four-time MVP.

2. KC needs to pound the ball with Charles and Jones

The Chiefs have a major strength in their rushing attack that includes emerging star Jamaal Charles and workhorse Thomas Jones. Many NFL experts believe that these two are the best running back combo in the league, and judging by their performances through the first three games, it would be hard to argue this point.

The Colts also possess easily the worst rush defense that the Chiefs offense has seen this season, which makes much more sense to pound the ball with the two-headed monster of Jones and Charles.

3. Matt Cassel needs to play well

The patience with the performance at the QB position has been growing smaller and smaller each week as Chiefs QB Matt Cassel has yet to step up his game. However, Cassel silenced some critics with his 250 yard, three TD passing day against the 49ers in the Chiefs' last game.

Many hope that Cassel can use the momentum that he acquired from the San Francisco game, and carry it into Indianapolis this weekend. After all, the Colts secondary is beaten up with injuries to Bob Sanders and Melvin Bullitt, and Cassel will have no excuse to perform well on Sunday with definite this advantage.

4. The Rookies must continue to play like veterans

Through the first quarter of the 2010 NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs have relied heavily on their brand new rookie class and it has paid the team big dividends so far with a 3-0 start to the season. Both Dexter McCluster and Tony Moeaki have two touchdowns, and safeties Eric Berry and Kendrick Lewis have improved every game at their starting safety positions.

In what looks like the toughest game for these young Chiefs at high noon on Sunday, KC will need solid contributions out of Moeaki, McCluster, Berry, Lewis and returner/nickelback Javier Arenas. Kansas City has in the show-me state of Missouri and these rookies need to continue to show why they can impact this team, and there is no better game to do it then this game against Indy.

5. Weis and Haley can keep the Colts defense guessing with their aggressive play-calling

Up until the Chiefs last game against the 49ers in week three, the KC offense had been pretty bland and predictable, much like former head coach Herm Edwards' offenses had become. That all changed when the Chiefs made the San Francisco defense look like a grade school team when they nailed them with a wildcat style flea-flicker that was executed to perfection.

The Chiefs also showed the wildcat during that game and were successful with that as well. KC will need to run some more trick plays against the Indy defense to keep them off balance, and with all the weapons they have, it shouldn't be too much of an issue.