KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The defense is still a clunker, the next breakdown just around the corner. The offensive line, in disarray. Wins? Nope, not yet.
For a team that underwent an offseason overhaul, the Kansas City Chiefs sure look a whole lot like last year's run-down version.
And it doesn't get any easier: Up next are the 3-0 New York Giants, with Dallas after that.
"It's pretty clear that our margin for error isn't real great at this time," Chiefs coach Todd Haley said Monday. "We must, as a team and a coaching staff, really do everything right, all the little things included."
This turnaround was never going to be easy. A team that won two games one year doesn't win the Super Bowl the next. Haley and new general manager Scott Pioli have done their best to shake things up, bringing in new players, new schemes and a no-nonsense attitude.
So far, it hasn't amounted to a win.
Three games into the season, the Chiefs are still generating more questions than answers. The defense has been porous and sporadic. The offense is ineffective and, at times, ultraconservative. Penalties, a point of emphasis for Haley in the preseason, have become a problem.
Nothing, it seems, is going right for the Chiefs.
"We're not in a sense of panic right now," receiver Mark Bradley said. "We have a sense of urgency to try to get things turned around and put some W's in the column."
Those seem to be getting hard to come by.
They didn't put up much of a fight against the Eagles.
Playing without quarterback Donovan McNabb and running back Brian Westbrook, Philadelphia had no trouble rolling over the Chiefs, scoring two touchdowns in the first quarter and finishing with 420 total yards. The Eagles didn't even need Michael Vick to beat Kansas City; he had one run for seven yards and two incompletions in his first game in nearly three years.
The Chiefs' offense seemed to be stuck in neutral, generating one scoring drive in the first half and plenty of 2-yard runs in the second.
Kansas City also had 10 penalties for 90 yards, including a holding call that wiped out a touchdown run by Jamaal Charles. That's 19 flags in two games for a team that spent the entire preseason listening to the coaches harp on not having penalties.
"We cannot have 9-10 penalties in a game. We just can't do it," Haley said. "We have to coach them and make them more aware than we have to this point."
Offense is another pressing issue.
The line still seems to be in chaos after multiple reconfigurations and the quarterbacks have paid for it, spending most of the first three games running for their lives. Brodie Croyle was sacked three times in the opener, Matt Cassel five times in two games since returning from a knee injury. Nearly every pass comes off the back foot or with a hand in their face.
The running game has been affected, too. Kansas City had three yards rushing in the first half against the Eagles, frustrating Haley to the point that he went almost exclusively to the ground in the second - even with his team trailing by 17.
"In no way was it a wave the white flag (situation)," Haley said. "In my gut, as the head coach, I felt like something had to be done - not in that particular game - to benefit this team going forward, to establish our mindset and kind of lay it out there, see who's got what."
To a certain extent, Haley knows what he's got, at least from a talent standpoint. He knows his team's limitations, understands his personnel may not match up with Baltimore or Philadelphia, teams that reached the conference championship games last season.
So while Haley and Pioli continue to search for new players they might be able to add, they realize the truth about their team: It has to play nearly perfect to have a chance to win.
"I don't think our margin of error will change a whole bunch," Haley said. "I think we're going to have to play a certain type of football and that's going to have to be on point, all the time."
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press
