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Emergence Of The Deep Pass Good News For Charles Owners
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 ESPN.com's Adam Teicher believes the possibilities seem endless if the Chiefs continue to open their passing game as they did in last Sunday's 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."

Remember, 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 with a 70-yard passing touchdown to Knile Davis. 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.

As Teicher suggested, "That's the stuff real NFL passing games are made of."

"That was one of the positives," head 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."

"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."

Indeed, 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 the Steelers back off Charles a bit tomorrow 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."

All of us would obviously include fantasy owners with Charles and his teammates on their rosters.