Chiefs not at best, but still impressive

The Kansas City Chiefs took their third- string right tackle, a waiver wire pickup at guard, and a left tackle carrying a back injury against one of the league’s nastiest and most effective defenses. Gulp.

Except the result: 32-29 over the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday, one of the most impressive wins in a 13-1 Super Bowl encore season that is now virtually assured of beginning the playoffs with the AFC’s only first-round bye.

The Chiefs continue to be what we’ve seen throughout this season: flawed in parts, and by the end of the game overwhelming as a whole.

The Chiefs continue to be what we’ve been calling them for months: imperfect, with specific weaknesses that could mean a ruined postseason, but enough strengths that every other team in the league would trade places.

The Chiefs had to earn every bit of this. The Saints are among the handful of teams with enough speed, power and brains to push the Chiefs.

The Saints have the best defense the Chiefs will play, with the possible exception of a playoff game against the Steelers. On this day, the Saints rarely blitzed, generally trusting a load of pass rush talent to win up front while putting more defensive backs in coverage.

The strategy earned success, or as much success as any other unit has had against the Chiefs. Expect to continue to see more of this, including that potential playoff game against the Steelers. The problem is the Chiefs continue to provide more problems than defenses have solutions.

The biggest takeaway from this game was always going to be how the Chiefs fared against one of the league’s best and most balanced teams, particularly a nasty, smart, talented defense.

The initial takeaways are all positive.

We’ve been wondering how close the Chiefs were to their best selves as the playoffs approach. There’s always things to improve, but this effort would beat virtually anyone.

All that said, if there is indeed a Super Bowl rematch the strategies will almost certainly be different.

The Chiefs can expect to be healthier on the offensive line, and Saints quarterback Drew Brees was less than his best.

The ball seemed to float on throws, particularly outside the numbers, and his decision-making — the best trait of an all-time star who will walk into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot — appeared hesitant.

This is all small- sample- size stuff, but as the game went on Brees appeared more comfortable. He was very effective late. Maybe that tells a story.

Speaking of health, offensive lineman Eric Fisher had a rough day after being listed as questionable with a back injury.

It’s impossible to know how much of this was health and how much was the Saints’ talent (he was often blocking Trey Hendrickson, who entered with 10 1/2 sacks, but this is something to monitor going forward.

Fisher has not been as reliable as in past years but remains a steady presence on Mahomes’ blind side. If he’s not healthy, the Chiefs don’t need to push him. If it’s something else, then that’s a different set of worries.

This will probably be washed away with everything else that happened but the Chiefs moved the ball effectively on the ground.

Now, to be clear, the Saints were effectively asking the Chiefs to run the ball with loads of defensive backs and light boxes. But that’s the standard for this team — to run the ball reliably against defenses focused on the pass.

They didn’t do it often — Edwards-Helaire’s 10th carry came late in the third quarter — but particularly when accounting for the shifts on the offensive line it was a potentially encouraging development.