Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali still giving his all at 32

In the moments following the Chiefs’ convincing 45-10 win over the Detroit Lions on Nov. 1, the locker room was predictably upbeat. A team that once sat at a dispiriting 1-5 had improved to a much-more palatable 3-5 entering a bye week.

Players were laughing and there was a palpable sense of relief. All the while, outside linebacker Tamba Hali, who some of his younger teammates playfully call the “old man,” sat in his corner, surveying it all.

“Beautiful,” Hali said of the scene. “The owners, they’re happy. The coaches, they’re happy, they’re pleased with our performance. We’ve turned it up in practice and it’s starting to show on the field.”

Hali, a 10-year veteran, believed in this year’s Chiefs so much he took a pay cut to return. So he also made it clear they needed to turn their attention to Denver, 7-1, the team they have not beaten in five tries since coach Andy Reid arrived in 2013. Hali knows that finally toppling the Broncos will require a sharp focus and a continuation of the improved practice habits he says the Chiefs have shown in recent weeks.

“When we started out at first, guys were trying to save something,” Hali said of his team’s effort. “But now, there’s nothing to save. We’re all we have and we have to do it on the practice field and duplicate it on Sunday.”

Hali, who just turned 32 in early November, is practicing the high-effort ways he preaches, coaches say.

“The thing with Tamba is you can’t put him out in practice and tell him to back down,” defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said. “He doesn’t practice like that, that’s not part of his world. Really, the practices and games aren’t a lot different for Tamba, and that’s the truth.”

But Hali has been battling a sore knee for the better part of two seasons now. So while he has practiced on the defensive-centric days, he has been held out of a handful of practices.

For instance, Hali sat out Wednesday’s practice — “Just maintenance,” Reid said — but was a full participant on Thursday, the customary defensive practice.

Sutton said the Chiefs have no choice but to go this route with one of their hardest workers.

“If you want to give him some plays off, you’ve just got to (sit him out) because he knows one speed and only one speed,” Sutton said. “There’s nobody that practices harder than this guy practices. He’ll chance the ball forever. So we have to do (this) with him to give him a chance for his knee to come back every week.”

Against that backdrop, you see why coaches and teammates might be pleased to see Hali’s diligence rewarded with results over the past few games.

After recording one sack during the Chiefs’ 1-5 start, Hali has recorded 2  1/2 sacks in the Chiefs’ last two games against Detroit and Pittsburgh, both victories.

After the Lions game, Hali jokingly lamented being forced to share one of his sacks in the game.

“They took one away from me — I need to get my sacks, man,” Hali said with a laugh. “But that’s all right man, whatever coach does for the team is for the benefit of the team, and as long as we get the win, that’s all that matters.”

After averaging 11 sacks from 2009-13, Hali saw his sack total drop to six last year, though he still made the Pro Bowl. And this year, he has 3  1/2 , which will put him on pace for seven.

But outside linebacker Dee Ford said some of Hali’s decreased sack stats have to do with a combination of bad luck and the presence of fellow outside linebacker Justin Houston, who had a league-high 22 last season and is on pace for 11 this year.

“When you’re pass-rushing, sometimes you never catch that (sack) scenario,” said Ford, who has also assumed a slightly larger workload this year as Hali’s in-game fill-in. “Sometimes Tamba blatantly beats his guy and the quarterback just gets rid of it. It’s a great rush, but the scenario doesn’t happen.

“Or you turn around and Justin gets a great rush and the quarterback holds the ball and it’s a sack. That’s just how it works.”

Reid noted that Hali has been moving around well in recent weeks, and was happy to see him make some plays. His fourth-quarter sack against the Steelers, in particular, resulted in a fumble that helped the Chiefs seal the win a few weeks ago.

“It’s good that he can get a breather here and there and we’re able to spot him during games and practice,” Reid said. “He’s got a knee that bothers him at times and will swell up and he’s been able to keep that under control.”

Reid hoped Hali, like the rest of the veteran players, spent the off week resting up. If the Chiefs are going to make the run they hope down the stretch, he will be needed.

“The highest compliment I can give any player in this league is when I say they play hard as hell, and this guy’s going 100 miles per hour all the time, chasing the ball, chasing down screens,” Denver coach Gary Kubiak said. “And he’s a great player but he’s a total effort player and I have great respect for him.”

Hali, for his part, didn’t put much stock into his whether his performance last few games had anything to do with proving he’s still got it.

“I don’t think about it that way,” he said.

But he does think about winning, and as long as the Chiefs do that going forward, everything he’s put into this season — whether it be the pay cut he took, or the balky knee he continues to play through — will be well worth it.

“We’re just trying to be 1-0 each week,” Hali said. “We know we have a good team. Moving forward, we just want to have success, play with this energy that we haven’t had for the first five weeks and be excited about it and the joy what we’re doing it (with).”