KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Even before quarterback Matt Cassel left Saturday’s exhibition game because of an apparent left knee injury, Kansas City coach Todd Haley came to a realization about the way the Chiefs will need to play.

“I don’t think we’re going to be a high-powered group right now,” Haley said, “so we’re going to have to find ways to win games.”
That feat might take every trick in the arsenal. An already sluggish offense ground to a halt without Cassel in the 14-10 loss to Seattle. The Chiefs kept the status of Cassel’s injury under wraps Sunday. Yahoo! Sports reported that Cassel could miss two to four weeks because of a strained medial collateral ligament.
The mystery will be unveiled Monday when the Chiefs return to practice in preparation for their final preseason game Thursday night against the Rams in St. Louis.
The Chiefs have just two offensive touchdowns. Their immediate prospects for improvement could depend on when they get Cassel back. He was injured while being sacked — he’s gone down four times despite attempting only 19 throws — on his first pass attempt against the Seahawks.
“This would be a difficult week regardless of the circumstances,” said Haley, referring to the short week of work. “It just got a little tougher. They aren’t going to call that game off, either, so we’ve got to be ready to play.”
The Chiefs planned to hammer away at the Seahawks with their running game, and for a time that’s what they did, even after Cassel was replaced by Tyler Thigpen. Sixteen of Kansas City’s first 18 plays were runs, and at one point the Chiefs tried 12 straight runs.
The Chiefs later brought that into balance with Thigpen passes, but they were successful with the run. Jamaal Charles rushed for 54 yards and Larry Johnson 36 in the first half.
“Running the football is something we’re going to have to be able to do,” Haley said. “If there was a positive early, I felt we were moving the ball on the ground a little bit. We got sidetracked. We can’t let that happen for whatever reason. I shouldn’t say for whatever reason. I should say whatever the circumstances in a game that’s close like that.
“We must have been blocking them a little bit. Charles made a couple of real nice runs. Larry had a couple of aggressive runs, which were positive. We were coming off the ball. I saw some receivers blocking pretty well on the perimeter, which gave us a chance to turn them into bigger gainers.”
Johnson averaged just 2.8 yards per carry in the first two games with most of that yardage coming on an 18-yard gain two weeks ago against Minnesota. But against Seattle, he had his best game of the preseason.
“I wish I could have stayed in the game more and really gone after it,” Johnson said. “Having this kind of game as far as running the ball, it’s pretty good to have that going into Baltimore.
“We really wanted to run the ball and see what we could do with the run. There was some good spacing there, some good holes, and things were able to open up for us. We just had to stay with it.”
The running game won’t help much if the Chiefs don’t get better quarterback play. Thigpen, as he did in training camp, sprayed some passes and missed some open receivers. Matt Gutierrez replaced Thigpen late in the game and threw a pair of interceptions.
Haley was critical of the quarterback play, saying, “There wasn’t much good happening.”
Thigpen said, “I don’t think I played up to my ability. I feel like I did some good things but some bad things, and those bad things I have to correct.”
Brodie Croyle did not play against the Seahawks. Thigpen missed the Minnesota game because of sore ribs and the Chiefs wanted to take a long look at him against Seattle.