<table> </table> To Chan Gailey, the evidence is conclusive. On the second play of the recent game against Denver, Larry Johnson burst loose for a 65-yard run, and the Chiefs went on to score 33 points &#8212; more than they scored in their four other games combined.</p><p>Last week in Carolina, the Chiefs retreated on their first drive, losing 15 yards. They never recovered and were eventually shut out for the first time in six seasons.</p><p>That tells Gailey, the offensive coordinator, that the biggest problem on a team with many is that the Chiefs get down on themselves when circumstances aren&#8217;t going their way.</p><p>&#8220;We need to do a better job of handling adversity,&#8221; said Gailey, listing one of his priorities for the season&#8217;s final 11 games. &#8220;I&#8217;ve talked to the guys about handling adversity. We can&#8217;t let things get us down. If we can &#8212; I hate to use the word mature &#8212; deal with it and not let things get us so far down that we can&#8217;t come back, we&#8217;ll be a better team. We&#8217;ve got to get better at that. That&#8217;s something I keep talking about and preaching about.</p><p>&#8220;I hate the word intimidate. If a football team gets intimidated, you have no chance to win. Are we getting rattled? Maybe. Are we losing some confidence? Maybe. That&#8217;s what we have to fight against. We have to realize what we&#8217;re capable of and if it doesn&#8217;t work the first time, it could work the second time. If it doesn&#8217;t work the second time, it&#8217;ll work the third time. Eventually we will get there if we don&#8217;t let things get us down.&#8221;</p><p>Getting it reversed may be more difficult than even Gailey would like to believe. He&#8217;s been the Chiefs&#8217; coordinator for only five games, but his team was suffering from a crisis of confidence going back to last season, when a feeble offense was a culprit in an 0-9 finish.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not evident to me, but I&#8217;d be ignorant if I said it definitely didn&#8217;t exist,&#8221; Gailey said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re trying to do here is get out of that mind-set that it&#8217;s going bad so it&#8217;s going to stay bad. It&#8217;s like a pitcher throwing a home-run ball. Forget it and let&#8217;s get it done the next time.&#8221;</p><p>Gailey, a veteran coordinator, was brought in to replace the fired Mike Solari and breathe some life into one of the league&#8217;s worst offensive teams.</p><p>Instead, the numbers have slipped. Points per game are down by one, yards per game down by 23, turnovers per game up by a half.</p><p>&#8220;You understand that every time you go into a new situation, it&#8217;s a challenge. There&#8217;s a lot that goes into the first year. There are always different levels of challenges. It might be run game, it might be pass game, it might be personnel.&#8221;</p><p>All have been problems for the Chiefs. Johnson had 102 second-half yards against Atlanta and 198 the next week against the Broncos, but only 117 in the other 3 1/2 games. The Chiefs because of injuries and ineffectiveness had to use three different starting quarterbacks in their first three games, a first for Gailey in his 16 years of pro coaching.</p><p>The Chiefs still have areas where they are obviously short on ability: wide receiver, certain offensive-line positions, quarterback when Brodie Croyle isn&#8217;t playing.</p><p>&#8220;The problem for us is consistency,&#8221; Gailey said. &#8220;It&#8217;s not like we can&#8217;t do it, because we&#8217;ve shown we can.&#8221;</p><p>The Chiefs are headed into their bye weekend. Croyle will return as their starter in their next game Oct. 19 against Tennessee at Arrowhead Stadium.