Todd Haley Says Chiefs Had To 'Draw A Couple Plays In The Dirt'

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Todd Haley, like most NFL coaches, is a big believer in preparation, practice and consistency. The Chiefs did that for the most part on Sunday in a 42-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

But they did have some sandlot football in them.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Haley indicated that the Chiefs found a hole in the Seahawks defense during the game, and changed things up to exploit it.

"There were plays, because of what was occurring in the game, where we had to draw a couple in the dirt that Matt and Dwayne, specifically, executed to perfection, which I don't think you can make a living on," Haley told reporters. "But, in my past experiences, when you can have a quarterback and a receiver that can do that, according to some of the things we're seeing, that's a really good sign, really good sign.

"Like I said, executed to perfection, a couple of plays that were not things that we practiced, in critical situations. The best way I can describe it is we became very hard to defend because of that combination along with the run game. We made it hard for the defense to be right yesterday and I think the more you can do that the better your chances of scoring points."

This jives with what Matt Cassel said on Monday that the Chiefs were putting the Seahawks (and other defenses) "into a bind." Haley wouldn't divulge all the details of the play but says the adjustments they made made them very difficult to stop.

"As that game progressed," Haley said Monday, "we were hurting them in a way that they were having to then adjust what they were doing. As I'm standing there coaching the game, you clearly see that there's an opportunity to make a bigger play -- and it was the play down the sideline to Dwayne, a little double move, slant-and-go so to speak -- but, again, without giving too much away... We were really in a run-pass option in that second half."

This is the advantage of a good coaching staff and two players -- Cassel and Bowe -- that are on the same wavelength. The last time these two connected like that it came in a miserable blowout courtesy of the Denver Broncos. This time around they connected again...and again....and again in meaningful time.

And here I would normally go on and on about the great stats they put up but everyone already knows that. Check out the full video of Haley's interview at KCChiefs.com.