NFL Week 5: Undefeated Kansas City Chiefs Can Make Statement With Win Over Colts

Kansas City is the City of Fountains and home to fantastic barbecue, and it is the No. 1  city in the country for staying under the radar.

For retired athletes like former Toronto Blue Jays star Joe Carter who makes his home in Kansas City, it’s great because he doesn’t have to worry about the attention he’d likely draw in other bigger cities.

When it comes to the NFL and football, the Kansas City Chiefs are under the radar every bit as much. No one even begins to take notice until they beat one of the NFL’s darlings from a larger market or a team with one of the league’s most marketable players, like Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.

This coming Sunday, the stealthy Chiefs go into Indianapolis to take on a banged up and struggling defending AFC champion Colts.

The Colts still have their future Hall of Fame quarterback, but they are hurting at virtually every other position on the field. Their defense will be starting a third-string safety in DaJuan Morgan who was cut in the preseason by the Chiefs. Receivers Austin Collie and Reggie Wayne are banged up after a week where Jacksonville landed big hit after big hit on the Colts receivers. Running back Joseph Addai appears to be missing a gear he once had and the Colts ground game continues to suffer as a result.

The Chiefs, on the other hand, are fresh off a bye week and full of the energy and youthful enthusiasm that come from having so many highly drafted and talented young players on their team. Completely healthy and looking forward to this game are playmakers like receiver/runner/returner Dexter McCluster, nickelback and returner Javier Arenas, safety Eric Berry, and elite runner Jamaal Charles.

While this game could end up representing—in the eyes of the media—a decline of a once-dominant Colts team and eminent rise of a young well-coached Chiefs team, what it really represents is an opportunity for the Chiefs to fly out from under the radar and let the NFL know that this team is for real.

With coordinators Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis at the reigns of this young and healthy Chiefs team on Sunday, both of whom have had success against Manning-led Colts teams in the past, Chiefs fans have to like their chances to knock off the team that used to be the class of the AFC.