Inside the Chiefs offices and at virtually every level of the organization are men who believe with every bit of their brains and hearts that they could have — would have — beaten Peyton Manning in the NFL playoffs. Whether they are right is impossible to know, and also not the point today.
They believed. They were there — hitting, swarming, talking — when Peyton Manning nearly broke and the Chiefs beat the Broncos by 16 in Denver. They should have beaten Manning the first time, too, but a bizarre and weak string of mistakes and turnovers turned a 14-point lead at Arrowhead Stadium into Jamaal Charles apologizing in front of his locker.