On the effectively boring (and finally steady) Chiefs

The game is over and another win is secure and there are some interesting larger implications for the zombie Chiefs. We will get to all of that in a moment. Some of it means finally approaching what chairman Clark Hunt has always wanted his team to be.

But first, it is so fitting that they reached this point in this comprehensively vanilla, 9-to-5, third-cubicle-from-the-door way. Yes, there were some highlights worth remembering from the Chiefs’ 34-14 win over the lost Ravens here on Sunday.

Most of those happened on defense, specifically with Tyvon Branch’s scoop-and-scoot fumble return and Marcus Peters’ pick-six, celebrated by a fairly decent impersonation of Ray Lewis’ old dance. But those plays were the exception.

Because mostly, this was a game best described by the quarterback completing 21 of 25 passes for 171 yards and no interceptions, and by the offense’s most important moment being an 81-yard, 8-minute drive that set up a — wait for it! — field goal.

“That kind of sealed off the day,” said Alex Smith, the Chiefs’ quarterback.

He’s not the only one who thinks so. Actually, Ravens coach John Harbaugh saw an even bigger meaning in that long march to three points.

“For them to take it the length of the field, I think, paints the picture of their season and what you have to do to win football games in this league,” he said. “They didn’t make a mistake.”

The following is a genuine compliment, even if some Chiefs fans won’t take it that way — they were effectively boring.

Nothing all that interesting happened, which means the Chiefs did a masterful job. There are no big takeaways here, which means the Chiefs controlled virtually the entire game. There are no season-changing implications which, considering the Chiefs have not lost since the day before Game 3 of the ALCS, means they accomplished everything they could have.

One more week without injuries — Mike DeVito played, and Justin Houston is one week closer to recovery — is probably the most important thing.

The Chiefs are flawed, and limited in ways that would likely make them underdogs some in the playoffs.

But they are also cold and controlled and relentless in ways that mean they’ll be in the playoffs, have a decent chance of advancing once there, and that they’ll be a tough out for anyone.

Beating the Ravens like this is a wonderful example. They choked out an injured and inferior opponent by taking an early lead, committing zero turnovers, and taking advantage of mistakes caused at least in part by the pressure they created. The Ravens outgained the Chiefs by 89 yards, and there was not a single moment where it felt like they would win.

We have enough of a sample size to know that the problems of September and October — specifically five turnovers against the Broncos, the blown lead against the Bears, and their own darkly comedic fumble against the Vikings — are buried under the success of November and December.

“If you’re a young player and you want to stay in this league, you have (to have) a team that understands how to play winning football,” Harbaugh said. “The Chiefs understand that. The Ravens have not gotten there this year, yet.”

The Chiefs have saved what was trending toward a tumultuous season by, basically, tilting football’s unpredictability to their favor. Even as Smith has found more success throwing downfield, the Chiefs value the football like an irreplaceable heirloom. They have a stockpile of naturally confident defenders set free with an uncoachable knack for gripping the moment.

“When we get a lead? Very confident, very confident,” linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “That’s what good teams do. I don’t say that in a way that, like, stand on the table, ‘Hey we’re a good team.’ It’s showing up on Sundays. That’s what good teams do. Get ahead, stay ahead, and win.”

Football is inherently chaotic, and the Chiefs have found a way to get through the bedlam and let the other guy drown in the confusion.

In the micro, the result is a stunning turnaround — no team has ever won eight straight after losing five straight. In the macro, it is the establishment of a steadiness that Hunt has obsessed over since literally the first day he took charge of this team nine years ago — a quality that has been almost cruelly absent for most of those years.

By beating the Ravens, the Chiefs guaranteed a third consecutive winning season for the first time since — and this is a little embarrassing, honestly — the 1990s. A playoff appearance would be their second in three seasons, also something they haven’t done since the 1990s.

Some of this is a reminder that the Chiefs have spent most of the last two decades losing more than their share of games in a league built for parity, but it does shine a light on the opportunity this group has to begin to shake the franchise free from its mediocre recent history.

Football coaches love to compliment each other, but the image of a Super Bowl-winning coach holding the Chiefs as an example of a team that knows how to win would’ve been unimaginable for so long.

The Chiefs are here because a good coaching staff and confident core of veteran players somehow kept believing at a point where many teams — and many Chiefs teams — have splintered.

A team that was defined by mistakes and blown leads for six weeks has remade itself into one that turns the other side’s miscues into points and protects leads with a wholistic combination of steady offense and smothering defense.

Most of this winning streak has come against the NFL’s seemingly ever-growing group of so-so teams. Even wins against the Steelers (started their third-string quarterback) and Broncos (Peyton Manning played the worst game of his life) can be minimized if you want.

But the Chiefs have no control over the schedule. Beating average and bad teams is what good teams do. Winning without drama is even better.

Effectively boring? Sure. Beats most of the Chiefs’ recent history, each of their last eight opponents and, maybe, someone in the playoffs.

This story was originally published December 20, 2015 at 6:35 PM with the headline "On the effectively boring (and finally steady) Chiefs."