Print edition: 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —Sunday felt familiar. The Chiefs were blown out in a division game, against a team that, at least according to the standings, was an inferior opponent. This time it was Oakland who forced Kansas City into another period of doubt and desperation.
Regardless, it had happened before. The last time Kansas City was beaten like that, with all its key players in the lineup, was seven weeks earlier in Denver. You thought this past Sunday was a setback? The Broncos' 49-29 win was ugly enough that it could've turned the whole season sour.
Coach Todd Haley was so discouraged that he gave his starters the option of calling it a night. Head to the sideline if they wanted to; this one was lost. Quarterback Matt Cassel responded a certain way, and his teammates haven't forgotten.
On Sunday, Chiefs guard Brian Waters, still in the shadow of the most recent disappointment, remembered how Cassel reacted to his coach's invitation to give in. Here's what Waters said about it:
"You know he wants to win," Waters says. "You trust a guy like that."
In the second half in Denver, Cassel stood on the sideline and told Haley that he wasn't coming out. He was this team's quarterback, win or lose, heaven or hell. Cassel's teammates followed him back onto the field.
In that bleak environment, trailing by as many as 32 points in the second half, the game plan dissolved and Cassel was allowed to just play. The Chiefs wanted to see what he could do. So he went and passed for 469 yards and four touchdowns.
"There was this boom," Cassel says. "'Oh my goodness, we can throw the ball as well.'"
In Cassel's next five games, he threw 11 touchdown passes, one interception and had a passer rating of 106.5. That's elite-level efficiency, and perhaps the Chiefs would never have known about it if not for that meaningless second half against the Broncos.
"The more and more you believe in them," offensive coordinator Charlie Weis says, "the more you can turn them loose. As the year has gone by, it's been nice to watch as he can do more and more."
Waters doesn't disagree.
"We're able to do better things around him and make him more comfortable at his job," the veteran lineman says. "He doesn't have to do anymore than what he has to do. He doesn't have to be the coach on the field; he doesn't have to put everything on his shoulders. Everybody has matured enough that he can just do his job."
He did it with rhythm and comfort. The Chiefs kept things familiar, and as long as things didn't change much, Cassel kept improving and Kansas City kept defying expectations. Only a midweek appendectomy in early mid-December slowed Cassel, and when he returned 11 days later to start, pass for 184 yards and lead the Chiefs to a victory, that early-season doubt was gone.
Cassel stands at a lectern and smiles again.
"It kind of opened our eyes," he says. "Not only for myself but for our receivers and everybody else."
After Sunday's loss to the Raiders, another one with few visible positive features, Cassel addressed his teammates. They listened, because that's what teammates do.
Cassel told his team that they've been here before. And to remember: Sometimes some good can come from something so bad.
"We have to focus on that," he will say a few minutes after leaving the locker room. "We have to let this one go by, like we've done a number of times this year. We've rebounded from tough losses and we need to go out and do it again."
