Upset win has Chiefs sleepless with joy

Sunday’s 33-19 victory over Denver snapped a 12-game losing skid.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Going almost a year without winning can play tricks on a man’s mind.

Just ask coach Herm Edwards, who had trouble sleeping Sunday night after his Kansas City Chiefs halted a franchise-record 12-game losing streak with a 33-19 victory over Denver.

“I kept asking my wife about 1 o’clock, ‘We won, right?’ ” Edwards said Tuesday. “She said, ‘Yeah, you won, honey.’ ”

Their first victory since Oct. 21, 2007, was especially important for the raft of young players on the roster of the rebuilding Chiefs, Edwards said. Coaches had noted that many of the rookies were beginning to doubt whether they even belonged in the NFL after an 0-3 start that included back-to-back blowout losses to Oakland and Atlanta.

“I think they were questioning themselves,” Edwards said. “They were questioning their talent. You can’t question that. The way you overcome that, you’ve got to just keep playing. Just play with energy. Just keep going fast. Just keep playing hard.”

Two-time Pro Bowler Larry Johnson ran for 198 yards, but most encouraging for Kansas City’s long-term picture was the energy and verve displayed by rookies. Two were given game balls. Dantrell Savage had a 51-yard kickoff return that swung the fourth-quarter momentum back to Kansas City, and cornerback Brandon Carr played well against Denver’s high-powered passing attack.

“The one thing you have when you’re a young guy, you have talent. That’s what gets you in this league,” Edwards said. “But you also have passion. You’re not going to know how to do everything correctly. That’s part of the process of learning how to play. And so, you’ve got to keep playing with your passion. Don’t let your passion die because you make mistakes and start thinking, over-analyzing things, and you play like a robot.

“You’ve got to go play. We made some errors. We didn’t do everything right on either side of the football. But I thought the way we played, we played so hard, you cover up for it. If you continue to play that way, you’re going to continue to get better. That’s what we’re trying to do.”