Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe danced with teammate safety DaJaun Morgan, right, before the game against Washington on Sunday, October 18, 2009 at FedEx Field in Landover, MD. DAVID EULITT/The Kansas City Star

View full size photo »

And this win still feels great the morning after. I hope the Kansas City Chiefs players feel the same way.

Yesterday wasn't pretty but in the grand tradition of positive spin around here, we've pulled out five good stats from the Chiefs first win. And before you say we're wearing rose-colored glasses (which we do around here), we'll have five bad stats from yesterday's game for you tomorrow morning.

After the jump, we're talking LJ, Cassel, third downs, sacks and penalties...

Larry Johnson - 83 yards rushing

Yesterday's game had a few season highs for Larry Johnson:

• Longest run - 17 yards
• Most yards rushing in a game - 83 yards
• Highest yard per carry average - 3.6 YPC

I had a feeling that this might be LJ's best game of the season, seeing how the Redskins defense was ranked very high in the major defensive categories except for rushing defense. Part of that success on the ground was that LJ got 23 carries - his second highest total of the season.

Larry is 123 yards away from breaking Priest Holmes' franchise record for rushing yards. Will he get that next week against San Diego? I doubt it. LJ will need at least two games to rack up that many yards.

Matt Cassel - 0 INTs

Cassel hasn't thrown an interception since the second week of the season against the Raiders, when he threw two picks against a perennially good defense. Cassel was also adjusting to essentially having zero time to throw in that game as well, which makes me forgive those two picks.

If there is a criticism of Cassel that comes with many caveats, it's that he isn't getting rid of the ball fast enough to avoid sacks. Like I said, there are quite a few wrinkles to that criticism - lack of a running, o-line isn't adequate, etc., so we'll leave that one alone for now.

3 and Outs - Only Three

Only three 3 and outs out of 13 drives. The stat that couples up with that is that the Chiefs also racked up 16 first downs.

The team still struggled on third downs - 4/17 - but it was good to see that the Chiefs were able to move the ball on first and second down more effectively than they had previously this season.

Thee Sacks

The Chiefs three sacks yesterday gave the team nine the year. Last season, the Chiefs headed into Week 15 with six sacks and got three in that game against the Chargers.

This season, the Chiefs could triple last year's sack total. Your sack stats are:

• Tamba Hali (3)
• Wallace Gilberry (2)
• Mike Brown (1)
• Mike Vrabel (1)
  
• Derrick Johnson (1)
• Jon McGraw (1)

It's a huge relief to be able to put last year's farce of a defense behind us.

Four Penalties

The Chiefs had their second lowest number of penalties on the season, second only to Week 1 when they were only called for three penalties. The Chiefs penalties don't keep me up at night but it was good to see a significant decrease because it was getting a bit out of control there the last few weeks.

The Chiefs penalties by week are:

• Week 1 - 3
• Week 2 - 9
• Week 3 - 10
• Week 4 - 7
• Week 5 - 7
• Week 6 - 4

And here are those four penalties from yesterday:

• TE Leonard Pope was called for holding on the kickoff
• G Brian Waters was called for holding during the second quarter
• CB Brandon Flowers was called for a delay of game in the fourth quarter after moving into the neutral zone
• QB Matt Cassel was called for an illegal forward pass in the fourth quarter

Only two holding calls? And two other penalties that are easily fixed? I'll take it.

Anything other good stats you noticed from yesterday's win?