The Chiefs went from 4-12 in 2009 to 10-6 in 2010. There were cries for Matt Cassel to win MVP for Todd Haley to win Coach of the Year. However, this team was exposed as the biggest fraud of the season in their last 2 weeks, losing 31-10 to Oakland week 17 and 30-7 to Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs, even though both games were at home.

Let’s look more into why I call them fraud. They beat one playoff team all year, the Seattle Seahawks, who made the playoffs as a 7-9 team. They beat one +.500 team all year, the San Diego Chargers week one. Considering the Chargers destroyed them 31-0 in a rematch and that Kansas City’s only 3 touchdowns in that win were on a punt return TD, a pick six, and a long run (Matt Cassel only passed for 68 yards), it’s safe to call that win a fluke. They played 12 of the 16 worst teams against the run, which benefits them because they are a run first team.

The only other +.500 team they played other than San Diego was Indianapolis, who beat them 19-9 week 3. They also had some ugly loss to .500 or worse teams, including that 31-10 loss to Oakland and a 49-29 loss to 4-12 Denver. Good teams don’t do that.

They won the division next year which makes they will play all 3 AFC division winners next year (New England, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh). They also won’t have the benefit of playing all 4 NFC West teams next year.

Matt Cassel looked good this year because he had a good running game in front of him playing bad running teams, allowing him just complete short throws on short downs, often times with the lead, and with no blitz in his face. They’d get up early against bad teams with bad run defenses and Cassel would never be challenged. He was challenged against Oakland and Baltimore and went a combined 20 for 51 for 185 yards no touchdowns and 5 picks. Good quarterbacks don’t do that. Cassel will be challenged next year and this team could easily go 5-11 or 6-10.

Todd Haley does not deserve coach of the year for eight reasons. One, this season was a fluke. Two, Bill Belicheck did a much better job turning Tom Brady and a mediocre supporting cast into 14 wins. Three,  Steve Spagnuolo did a better job in St. Louis, improving their pass rush immensely, turning rookie Sam Bradford into a legitimate signal caller and winning 7 games with a team that won 1 the year before.

Four, Raheem Morris did a better job turning the 4 win Buccaneers into a legitimate 10 win team that should have made the playoffs and beat the Saints week 17. Five, Mike Tomlin did a better job winning 12 games despite missing Ben Roethlisberger for 4 of them. Six, Andy Reid did a better job turning around Mike Vick’s career and winning 11 games in a rebuilding year. Seven, Mike Smith did a better job winning 13 games with Atlanta.

Eight, Todd Haley hated his best player. Jamaal Charles was literally one carry away from breaking the all time record for most yards per carry in a season (he held the record before being stopped for a loss on his final carry of the season. Charles averaged 6.4 yards per carry, 230 carries for 1467 yards, along with 45 catches for 486 yards, but Haley kept using Thomas Jones. Jones had MORE carries, 15 more, 245 carries for 896 yards. He had 15 more carries and had 571 fewer yards. He also only caught 14 balls for 122 yards. Thomas Jones being the lead back over Jamaal Charles is one of the stupidest moves I’ve seen in a while.