Column: Don’t Count Out The Longhorns

From Invesco Field, Denver

The Longhorns do not play for the national championship until Thursday.

But a couple of guys who know all about “Hook’em Horns” were the guys who keyed the Chiefs first victory at Invesco Field ever, ending an eight-game losing streaking here in the Rockies and bringing a halt to the 2009 Chiefs season with a fourth victory.

RB Jamaal Charles ran for 256 yards and went over 1,000 yards for the season. LB Derrick Johnson intercepted two Denver passes and returned both of them for touchdowns. Between them, they contributed 367 yards, four touchdowns, two takeaways and enough big plays to make anybody wearing burnt orange very proud. Everybody that is with the exception of the Broncos faithful, who started leaving Invesco with eight minutes to play in the game and their team down by 13 points. They knew this game was over.

It may have ended before it even started. Broncos coach Josh McDaniels decided in the days leading up to the game that he needed to take a stand involving a couple of his best offensive players: WR Brandon Marshall and TE Tony Scheffler. They were benched for this game, although Marshall didn’t think he could play because of a pulled hamstring. But the coach made it public and obvious that this was more about punishment than injury.

It’s a move that seemed to backfire, as the Broncos had a wisp of a chance to make the playoffs, but ended up performing at less than their best.

That left open the door for the Chiefs, who had nothing to play for except blowing up the Broncos chances for the post-season. They also bought into their head coach’s motivational ploy of winning and starting 2010 with a 1-0 record.

“That’s what we did, we are 1-0 in 2010,” said Charles.

That Charles and Johnson would provide the spark that made this happen would have been laughable back around Labor Day. Things were not going well for either player with the new folks in charge. Charles and Johnson were prime draft picks of the previous Chiefs regime. They were holdovers, a group of players who Scott Pioli and Todd Haley inherited. Because of their pedigree, they were viewed with suspicion by the new folks and they both found the dog house of the head coach before the season even got started 17 long weeks ago.

Johnson landed there in training camp and never really got out. Charles found himself there at the start of the regular season, when the Chiefs played Oakland and he was a healthy game-day inactive.

But it says something about the character and talent of the men that months later they were still busting their butts, still working hard, if not always the way the coach and his staff wanted. They didn’t give up. They did not fill-up media notebooks with complaints, they did not tweet their unhappiness for all to see.

They kept working. If that’s not something that should be part of the “right 53 players” I don’t know what would be. These are two guys with talent, two guys with heart, two guys with guts and Pioli and Haley should find a way to get about two dozen more of those types of players on the roster.

There is no one way to build a football team. There is only one requirement if a franchise wants to win – they’d better get talented and motivated players on the field. They can be the right 53, or the wrong 53, or the maybe 53s, or the so-so 53s, but the only way success comes is with motivated talent.

And when that talent is there, it’s up to the head coach and his coaching staff to find a way to get the best out of that talent. It doesn’t matter how those players got to the roster; no decisions should ever be made based on who drafted or acquired a player. It should always be based on talent. That’s what wins football games.

That’s certainly what won Sunday’s game in Denver. Charles is the best player the Chiefs have and he showed that without question in the second half of the season. He’s one of those big play performers who makes the whole team better. He’s the rising tide that lifts all boats in the harbor. Charles makes everybody better. All he needed was an opportunity. Once he got that, there was no stopping him.

Johnson was a different matter. Focus has always been a problem with the former No. 1 draft choice. He’s as physically gifted as any linebacker in the league, but he has survived his whole football-playing life thanks to that ability. Something more was needed. Haley decided that something was removing Johnson from the starting lineup and using him strictly as a nickel linebacker.

After going through the last four months, Johnson speaks about the whole situation with little emotion. He’s learned many things about himself. He’s come through the tunnel to the light at the other end.

“It’s a nice way to end the season,” Johnson allowed.

Actually, football is not over for Charles and Johnson. Both of them plan to be in Pasadena on Thursday for the national championship game between Texas and Alabama.

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Johnson said. “It should be fun.”

Kind of like what Sunday afternoon in the mile high city was for a couple of Texas Longhorns.