Keeler: Give a game ball to the Chiefs' scouting department after Sunday's rout of Giants
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Your unsung heroes: Two seventh-round draft picks and an undrafted, second-year free agent out of Arkadelphia, Ark.
It's also about fit. With the Chiefs, a 4-0 record starts at the top, the laws laid down by coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey -- a new culture, a new bar. It's about reshaping a culture. It's about waking a sleeping giant.
But that ship's not going to sail very far without having a rock-solid foundation, too. The G-Men are bad (0-4) and wounded, but they're bad and wounded with a Hall of Fame quarterback (Eli Manning) and a Hall of Fame coach (Tom Coughlin). The Chiefs hit the stage without their best cornerback -- Brandon Flowers sat this one out with a knee problem -- and, over the course of the contest, saw their Pro Bowl punter and rookie right tackle knocked out for a spell, too.
In the NFL, every locker room is loaded with studs. Not every locker room is loaded with chemistry.
The right guys, glue guys, are hard to find. Special-teamers, pinch-hitters, pluggers who can pick up the rope in a pinch and start pulling like there's no tomorrow.
So save a game ball for the Chiefs' scouting department, and another for Dorsey, the Chiefs' first-year personnel guru, a man who made his reputation in Green Bay as one of the league's savviest turners-up of diamonds in the rough.
"The staff has done a good job, the GM and the coach, putting together a team where we have depth," said Schwartz, who came over on a one-year deal this past winter. "We have guys -- Donald (Stephenson) comes for (Eric Fisher) in the middle of the game, and we've had some tight-end injuries and (reserve tight end Kevin) Brock had a big catch today. McGrath is playing well.
"So that's the way this team is built. They have done a good job, and guys have risen to the occasion when called upon."
Another week, another new star, shining from out of left field. Flowers sits, and nickelback Dunta Robinson gets burned on a 69-yard reception from Manning to Victor Cruz up the boundary early in the second quarter. So the Chiefs shift Robinson inside and stick Cooper on the edge against the Giants' big dogs.
