The thing I loved most about yesterday's game was that it was a team win - it took contributions from every facet of the team. Not every play made it (Jalil Brown's punt recovery comes to mind), but this is the list of my favorite things from yesterday's game:

1 - Jamaal Charles. Goes without saying, but he was great yesterday.

2 - Justin Houston in full beast mode. He blew up several plays and really changed the game in the second half. 3 sacks, a safety forced, 2 passes defensed, and several more QB pressures - he had a monster game.

3 - The Stanford Routt pick. I love this one for a less obvious reason, but it illustrates what a chess match a football game can be. Brees beat us over the top a couple of times with Devery Henderson early in the game - Henderson was simply bigger and faster than the corner. Brees saw single coverage with Routt and assumed that Henderson could beat him over the top. Brees has never faced Routt (at least that I could find) and didn't know that Routt has top-shelf speed. Routt had no problem staying with Henderson and pulled down a pretty easy pick. In the first half, I was yelling for Routt to be on Henderson, and in the second half that matchup paid off in a big pick for us.

4 - The Chiefs' first two draft picks. Poe (along with Pitoitua) absolutely blew up the line of scrimmage on a couple of screen attempts, and generally held his own throughout the day. Against such a vaunted interior offensive line, color me impressed. He certainly still has a long way to go, but I like what I see from him in general. I think it's no coincidence that our running game got some big gains once Allen came in the game. He made a couple of mistakes, but I didn't see him get driven back once and he mauled some people on those runs. I would really like to see Allen get a shot to replace Lilja sooner than later.

5 - Ryan Succop. I know none of the kicks yesterday were extraordinarily difficult, but we have a really solid kicker. Seeing the kicking problems some other teams had yesterday, I appreciate how steady Succop has been and without that 6-for-6, there's no W.

What were your favorite things about yesterday's game?