The Kansas City Chiefs 2010 season is done but there's still work to be done. We know the NFL's final four games -- New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears -- so now it's time to figure out what they did to get here.
What can the Chiefs learn from the four teams remaining?
Great defenses will get you here. Every team remaining has a great defense. The Jets are lowest ranked at No. 6 in the NFL in points scored against. Every team, possibly with the exception of Green Bay, is best known for their defense. Clearly the theme this year is defense. I wrote a story about the final four teams and how the Chiefs compare. They're a little behind in the pass rush, I think.
An elite quarterback isn't necessary. Are Jay Cutler or Mark Sanchez better than Matt Cassel? If they are, they're not much better. Both the Jets and Bears won this on defense without question. The Jets had timely throws from Sanchez which is Cassel-esque while the Bears' Cutler has a much bigger arm and his deeper passes (and more prone to mistakes). If your quarterback isn't elite, though, maybe your defense needs to be.
No. 1 receivers are a luxury. None of these teams really have a bona fide No. 1 receiver. There's talent at receiver, no doubt. The Jets and Packers have a lot of talent at the position but none of the teams have a superstar receiver on the level of Andre Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald or those guys (though Greg Jennings could arguably be in that category). I'm not saying you need a super star receiver one way or the other but I found it interesting that we didn't see those types of players right now.
They dominated for most of the year. None of these teams are a huge surprise. The Bears are the closest to a surprise but they have been playing well from day one, well enough to get the No. 2 seed. The same goes with the Packers, who didn't lose a single game this year by more than four points. The Jets and Steelers were known as two of the AFC's best teams on day one. I'm not sure what this means but there are no Seattle-type teams here that sneak in. I guess my point is that you're not going to sneak into a conference championship game.