KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Dwayne Bowe wouldn't reveal his answer, perhaps in fear of jinxing his quarterback, his team and its discovery of the downfield passing game.
But the possibilities seem endless for the Kansas City Chiefs if they can continue to open their passing game as they did in Sunday's 31-13 win over the Oakland Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium.
"You've gotta stick around and wait for it," said Bowe, one of three players to catch a pass of longer than 35 yards on Sunday. "We've got to show you."
If indeed Bowe and his teammates continue to make as many long pass plays as they did Sunday, the Chiefs will be showing up in the postseason for the second straight season. This was the missing ingredient, the thing that prevented the Chiefs from hanging around the chase for the AFC West championship.
Their inability or refusal -- call it whatever you like -- to get big pass plays was rapidly ruining their season. The Chiefs survived with a five-game midseason winning streak because they were extraordinarily efficient on third down.
But they could ride an offense that had to plod its way down the field for only so long. It was putting too much pressure on everything else the Chiefs had going and it was inevitable something would cave in.
The Chiefs entered the game 28th in the NFL in yards per completion (9.68) and 26th in yards per attempt (6.83). Their longest pass play through 13 games, in a league with rules making it relatively easy for teams to get long pass plays, was 41 yards. Every other team had a pass play of at least 50 yards.
The Chiefs finally joined that club, not to mention the modern world, with a 70-yard passing touchdown to Knile Davis. Quarterback Alex Smith also had completions of 48 yards to Albert Wilson and 37 yards to Bowe.
Smith, who finished 18-of-30 for 297 yards and two touchdowns, had 16.5 yards for every completion and 9.9 yards for every attempt.
That's the stuff real NFL passing games are made of.
"That was one of the positives," coach Andy Reid said. "It loosens things up a bit. They were playing a lot of that single safety in the middle and putting that extra guy in the box obviously concerned about Jamaal [Charles] and the run game. That opened up some things down the field for us."
The Chiefs also protected Smith well, something they hadn't done. He was sacked once, but even that was after he had tucked the ball and decided to run but failed to make it back to the line of scrimmage.
"If we can do that, we have people that can make plays," Charles said. "We've got people that can run, that have wheels on them. It's going to open up a lot of stuff in the running game as well."
With that, Charles smiled. Big pass plays or not, he's the Chiefs' best offensive player and, he perhaps more than anyone, has carried the burden of playing for a team with a plodding passing game.
Opponents have consistently jammed the line of scrimmage in wait for Charles, daring the Chiefs to do what they believed impossible and complete some long passes. In that sense, if what the Chiefs put on video Sunday is enough to make next week's opponents, the Pittsburgh Steelers, back off Charles a bit, that should help the Chiefs play to their strength.
"There [are] a lot of people locked in on me," Charles said. "If we can keep on doing this, I think that's going to be good for all of us."
