The Chiefs may pay dearly for an offseason to forget

Damon Huard threw two interceptions and was sacked three times in the Chiefs' loss to the Texans. Aaron M. Sprecher/Icon SMI

If there was a Week 1 antithesis to the Midas touch exhibited by the New England Patriots, it was the pitiful performance of the Kansas City Chiefs, who saw their personnel decision-making exposed on multiple fronts in a galling 20-3 loss at Houston.

The Chiefs lost about every way you can lose on Sunday. First to the Texans on the scoreboard, and just as tellingly, in terms of how almost every key move they've made over the course of the past six months quickly backfired.

To wit:

• Kansas City decided that return man Dante Hall had out-lived his usefulness and traded him to St. Louis this offseason. His replacement, Eddie Drummond, muffed a punt early in the second quarter against the Texans, leading to Houston's first points.

• The Chiefs had seen enough of kicker Lawrence Tynes after his sub-par 2006, and traded him to the Giants in May, after drafting kicker Justin Medlock out of UCLA in the fifth round. Medlock shanked a 30-yard field goal try on Kansas City's first possession, when the game was still scoreless. The Chiefs on Monday placed Medlock, who had endured a shaky preseason, on the practice squad and signed ex-Packers kicker Dave Rayner.

• Kansas City drafted LSU receiver Dwayne Bowe with the 23rd pick in the first round, and he was immediately thrust into a larger than expected role when No. 1 receiver Eddie Kennison injured his hamstring on the Chiefs' first play from scrimmage. Bowe wound up with three catches for 42 yards, but by some accounts had just as many drops in his ragged NFL debut.

• And then there's the Chiefs' muddled quarterback situation, which they have mishandled at every step of the way. Kansas City wanted to turn the page from the Trent Green era, but did so messily. Brodie Croyle proved he wasn't ready for the starting job that coach Herman Edwards was trying to hand him, and the team was forced to turn back to veteran Damon Huard, who was their best win-now option all along.

Having verbally committed to Croyle as their future, the Chiefs passed on Byron Leftwich when Jacksonville released him, and instead claimed rookie Tyler Thigpen when Minnesota tried to slip the seventh-rounder through waivers. Huard wasn't the reason K.C. lost at Houston (he was 22 of 33 for 168 yards and two interceptions), but the confusion that the Chiefs have undergone at the game's most pivotal position can't be helpful to his game.

The news doesn't figure to get any better this week for Kansas City, which takes its anemic offense into Chicago on Sunday. The Bears' vaunted defense stoned the potent Chargers attack for three quarters in Week 1, leaving you to wonder if the Chiefs will even match their three-point, first-game showing. A home date against Minnesota, which limited Atlanta to just a field goal, and a trip to San Diego round out Kansas City's challenging September schedule.

It doesn't take much imagination to forsee the possibility of an 0-4 start for the Chiefs, and that's going to put the architect of Kansas City's offseason personnel moves squarely in the line of fire. Longtime K.C. general manager Carl Peterson has survived in the job on a track record of success that was mostly forged years ago, and thanks to the loyalty and patience of Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt, who died last year. But K.C. hasn't won a playoff game since 1993 (0-5 in the postseason in that span), and that 13-season drought is the league's third longest.

The upshot of all the Chiefs' problems is that they look like they haven't had a coherent plan in place. They let their roster get a bit old, and rightfully wanted to infuse some much-needed youth in key spots. But there's never a time when a team's fan base will entirely accept a youth movement, and surrender any hopes of winning now. Kansas City has been ham-handed in its attempts to address both desires, and may wind up accomplishing neither. At least not in 2007, which bears the early markings of a season that was lost almost before it began.

• If the NFL penalizes New England for its sideline video subterfuge by taking away a 2008 draft choice, it'll be because of the Patriots' well-known penchant for pushing the envelope in terms of their video taping of opposing coaches' signals.

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