Anytime you mention starting fast in Kansas City Chiefs football history, you gotta mention the 2003 Trent Green-led team that rattled off nine straight victories to start the season.
(The missed block on Dante Hall's return on Nov. 16, 2003, the 10th game and first loss against Cincinnati, is still ingrained in my mind as well.)
Now, the '03 and '10 Chiefs have loads of differences between them but, as Trent Green told Bob Fescoe of 610 Sports this week, there are also a few similarities.
"I think you look back at how we won that nine-game stretch to start the season," Green said, "and, yeah we had a high flying offense and we were able to do a lot of things but, during that stretch and that season, the fact that we had such good balance that year...the special teams played really well with Dante Hall having a bunch of returns for touchdowns. The defense, even though they were giving up yards, they were coming up with timely interceptions."
I think the key there is timely plays. This Chiefs defense is 21st in the NFL in passing yards so teams can move the ball at times -- but they have trouble punching it in on the Chiefs defense at the right time.
"We were a team offensively that kept defenses off balance," Green continued. "They had no idea where the ball was going next, who was going to be carrying or catching the ball. That's what I think was so fun about Sunday -- seeing San Francisco have no clue. Any time they showed the sidelines, they were completely confused about which way they were going to be attacked next."
Clearly the offenses as a whole are very different. But that defense in '03 did have some timely plays and, like the '10 Chiefs with Dexter McCluster and Javier Arenas, the special teams unit was explosive as well.