FanHouse Kansascity

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is right around the corner, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterbacks: Oh, holy God. Do we have to start here? Can't we start at defensive line? Or even offensive line? No? Okay. So last season, Damon Huard was such the pinnacle of mediocrity, he may have redefined the word for decades. It wasn't so much that Huard was spectacularly terrible, throwing constant interceptions as he heaved them down the field, Rex-Grossman-style, it was that he looked singularly incapable of actually getting the ball downfield to begin with. So, after far too many games watching the offense set new franchise lows, Brodie Croyle who had been waiting in the wings, finally took the reins. The results were less than spectacular. Chiefs fans support Croyle because the kid has shown flashes of leadership and a pretty solid arm. The trouble is, the protection was so bad last year, no one knows whether to pin the offense's disastrous play on an inability by Brodie to produce, or a result of the fact that Croyle spent so much time on the run it's a wonder he's not dead in the cold, cold ground. So with a retooled and slightly upgraded offensive line, he should be better? Right? Right? Oh, Jesus, where's the bottle? Wait, what? Huard's still on the team? Must get bigger bottle. Heat Index: 2

NASCAR was flat out wrong Sunday night at Kansas Speedway. Watch the video, and then I'll tell you why.



They were wrong to award Greg Biffle his first win of the season because the "field was frozen at the point of yellow".

They were wrong to make such a blatant call without first reviewing any evidence. And most importantly, they were wrong in trying to cover up the move so quickly with answers that sounded more like excuses.

I've tossed and turned over this issue since the drop of the checkered flag and my NASCAR.com leaderboard service showed Clint Bowyer as the winner. Somehow, though, the images filtering through the screen and the words flying into my ears didn't render the same thing.

The fact is, though, Clint Bowyer won the LifeLock 400 and Greg Biffle finished fourth. The case is open and shut -- Greg Biffle did not remain at "cautious pace" during the final yellow and therefore should not be credited with doing so.

He did not maintain pace with the pace car as the rule states and everyone from Kansas to the Emerald City knows his reason for pulling low -- to maintain gas for burnouts -- was complete and utter bull.

It wasn't a bright and shiny day after all for Hendrick Motorsports Saturday at Kansas.

Kyle Busch won Saturday's Busch race at Kansas Speedway over Matt Kenseth by about a car length in his No. 5 Chevrolet. While the victory was nice, it could turn out to haunt Busch for the rest of 2007 season in both the Busch and Nextel Cup series.

Busch's car failed post-race inspection in a major sort of way Saturday evening. And by major sort of way, I mean like Michael Waltrip-type way, not the Carl Edwards-type way.

The intake manifold on the No. 5's engine -- a piece long thought as one of the steepest of infractions when out of bounds -- was deemed illegal in the eyes of NASCAR. The sanctioning body has since taken the part into their possession.

This certainly isn't good news for anyone involved with Busch's Busch or Nextel Cup series efforts. Without a doubt, the penalty will be steep (as Busch Series penalties go) for Busch and Co. The significant "and Co." part of that equation includes the man who crew chiefs for Busch in both divisions, Alan Gustafson.

Okay, so they didn't get that crazy, but the Devil Rays were pretty friggin' thrilled to break their eleven game losing streak. After beating the Kansas City Royals, their primary competition for the worst record in baseball, the Rays looked like a team that just clinched the World Series, cutting loose in the clubhouse with plenty of loud music, high fives and extra special guest, team Vice President Andrew Friedman, who flew in just to see what the christ was going on with this team.

No one was happier than Manager and guy-most-likely-to-have-lost-his-job-if-the-losing-streak-continued Joe Maddon:

"A load is always lifted after you've lost 11 games in a row, " Maddon said, "and to say otherwise would be total denial."

Interestingly, for all his team's woe's, Maddon had been a portrait of calm throughout the 11-game skid. After the Rays dropped their eleventh, he was still finding positives, as he told Marc Lancaster of the Rays Report:

"It's never fun to stay out there and get your brains beat in, but that's what happens in this game sometimes," he said. "We're in one of those moments that is not good and there's no way to get around that. But while we are having this difficult moment, I'm looking to see what we're improving, because this is going to go away and we're going to be fine and then we're going to turn this around. I'm not discouraged, I'm not going to grab any sharp objects and go at my wrists. This will pass."

For now, Maddon's job -- and his wrists -- appear safe.

I know that the game is scheduled only hours from now, and Sam has already previewed the game, and some people are already pulling into the Invesco Field parking lot to start their grills, radios, and televisions - but there's something that's been missing from all of our coverage here that I want to touch on quickly. After last week's embarassing loss to the Rams, almost all blame went to the offense. Afterall, they could only manage ten points, turned the ball over five times, and stayed on the field for just 27 minutes - and yet they were still very much in the game even late in the fourth quarter, a testament to the stellar play of the defense. Wide receiver Rod Smith event went as far as apologizing to the defense for the offense's lackluster performance.

But one thing that people glance over when looking at such lopsided stats is that there were also grumblings from the defensive side of the Broncos locker room, and they weren't complaining about the offense. They were saying that their own play wasn't good enough to win the game, and so they also need to improve.

Some of this talk is just players saying the "right" things and trying to take some pressure off of their teammates. But a lot of this talk is legitimate. Even though the defense didn't allow a touchdown last Sunday, they did allow the Rams to drive straight down the field until they got a third down (the Rams were 3 for 15) or drove into the red zone. Even though they didn't score a touch down, the Rams still had 320 total yards of offense, including 125 on the ground - all but four of those yards from Stephen Jackson. These are hardly the numbers of a championship-quality defense, even in a game where they spent the majority of the time on the field, and this is the point that the guys are trying to make from the locker room. They still need to improve.

That last statistic is the one that will have the most bearing against the Chiefs in about four hours' time. With KC quarterback Trent Green out of the mix, the ball is going to be on the ground a lot - in the hands of the excellent Larry Johnson. If the defense allows Larry Johnson to run on them the way Stephen Jackson did, it's going to be a long day regardless of what the offense does. That's why defensive, not offensive improvement is going to be key to winning this afternoon.

P.S., the experts now agree with me that the loss of Willie Roaf might have a profound effect on the KC run game. Wammo!