The Kansas City Chiefs won’t take on the Indianapolis Colts until October 10th but you can bet Todd Haley and his coaching staff are using their “week off” to work.

Here at Arrowhead Addict, we’re doing the same.

The Chiefs are still not getting respect from the national media. Don’t confuse KC’s recent mentions in the national press as respect. They are just mentions. The “experts” have to mention that the Chiefs are 3-0 and they have to mention that it is remarkable but that doesn’t mean they respect them and it certainly doesn’t mean they think the Chiefs stand a snowballs chance in hell of knocking off the Colts on the road.

They might be right. Peyton Manning is one of the best QB’s ever and as some of our astute readers pointed out earlier today, the Colts are nearly unbeatable at home. Since 2005 the Colts are 35 and 6 at home.

Despite their record the Chiefs are still developing. They have a very, very young secondary. The type of secondary Peyton Manning puts in an omelet and eats for breakfast.

Yet given all that, I think the Chiefs are perfectly constructed to beat the Indianapolis Colts.

Ok, maybe not perfectly constructed. It would help if the Chiefs had Joe Montana at QB instead of Matt Cassel but you have to play with the guys you’ve got.

While game planning for the Colts, the Chiefs need to look no farther than the Houston Texans.

Houston is the only team to beat the Colts this year and they exposed in the first game weaknesses that Indi’s last two opponents have failed to take advantage of. Whether the Texans stumbled upon their victory by planning or luck, it worked and the Chiefs would be fools not to look pretty hard at the Texans Week 1 box score.

I’m no fool so I’ve done just that. The way the Texans beat the Colts was very simple.

They ran it down their freaking throats.

For years the Texans have been getting into shootouts with Peyton Manning and for years Manning has beat them. Not this year.

The Texans beat the mighty Indianapolis Colts with a measly 98 yards passing.

Matt Shaub, normally a very good QB capable of putting up huge numbers, attempted only 17 passes to Manning’s 57.

No the Texans ran on the Colts. The pounded the ball with Arian Foster, who racked up 231 yards. In the end the Texans gashed Indi’s pitiful run defense for 257 yards and 3 rushing touchdowns.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Texans weren’t delusional enough to believe they could shut down Manning. Nobody can shut down Manning.

Peyton completed a ridiculous 40 of 57 passes for 433 yards and 3 touchdowns.

More than a few times the Texans let Manning march down into their territory before tightening up their D. They avoided letting Manning get the big play, giving him the underneath stuff. They let him get his numbers.

They got the victory.

The Chiefs have a team constructed to implement a similar game plan. They have a quick and athletic secondary that knows how to tackle. They should be able to keep the Colts receivers in front of them. When the Colts get into Chiefs territory, Flowers, Carr, Berry and Lewis should be able to tighten up enough to hold the Colts to some FG’s.

When the Chiefs have the ball they have to take advantage of Indi’s 29th ranked run defense. The Colts are giving up an average of 141.3 yards per game while the Chiefs are averaging 160.7 yards rushing. This won’t be a repeat of the 2007 Wild Card Playoffs. Bob Sanders isn’t coming back. The Colts aren’t going to suddenly learn how to stop the run. If the Chiefs can gash the Colts on the ground they should be able to score without Matt Cassel needing to throw for 400 yards.

The Chiefs will have to be opportunistic. They won’t be able to turn the ball over and they had better continue to avoid penalties.

If they can do these things I think the Chiefs have a legitimate shot at shocking the world.

A couple of special teams touchdowns wouldn’t hurt either. 😉

What do you think, Addicts? What do the Chiefs need to do to take down the Colts?