(My Sportsbook) - The Kansas City Chiefs have changed their postseason outlook drastically in the last few weeks, but they can't afford to rest on their laurels now.

The Chiefs started the year 2-3, and things were looking pretty bleak after a 45-7 pounding in Pittsburgh on October 15. However, the team has bounced back with three straight victories that have come as a direct result of improved offensive play.

Kansas City scored 87 points through its first five games of the season, and has tallied 96 points during their three-game win streak. Much of the credit for the offensive turnaround belongs to running back Larry Johnson, but the continued success of backup quarterback Damon Huard has also been a huge factor.

Johnson was the star in this week's win, a 31-17 pounding over the Rams in St. Louis. L.J. carried the ball 27 times and ended with 172 yards and a touchdown.

To ignore Johnson's impact on this team's success would be ridiculous. The fourth-year back out of Penn State has a whopping 459 rushing yards and seven touchdowns (6 rushing, 1 receiving) in the Chiefs' last three contests. Johnson is now third in the NFL and second in the AFC with 816 rushing yards.

The running game-by-committee approach has been catching on in the NFL, but it hasn't been necessary in Kansas City. Johnson is a workhorse in the classic sense and he leads the NFL with 199 carries this season. It's that dimension, the ability to give his team so many quality carries, that makes Johnson a special player and allows him to put up obscene rushing numbers.

"I think that mentally he's just a tough guy and he doesn't wear down," said Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards."He gets stronger as he carries the ball and that kind of helps us in the fourth quarter because you know he's going to get the ball, especially if we get a lead, and he can run it and break tackles and he has speed once he breaks tackles."

While Johnson's amazing endurance makes the Chiefs a force to be reckoned with, it's also important to mention the play of Huard. The career backup was thrust into the starting role when Trent Green went down with a severe concussion in the first week of the season.

Huard has done a solid job since coming in as the starter, and recently many folks have offered the opinion that Green should be the backup when he returns from the injury. Everyone loves a quarterback controversy, and there could be one brewing in Kansas City.

Personally, I believe it would be a mistake to not bring Green back as the starter. He has been excellent in his time with the Chiefs and is the ultimate team player. Should he really lose his starting job because he suffered a concussion while scrambling for a first down?

Still, my vote for Green has a great deal to do with the belief that a starter should never lose his job because of injury and little to do with the play of Huard.

Huard has a 105.2 QB rating in eight games this season, and that figure is second in the NFL to only the always-prolific Peyton Manning of Indianapolis. The 10-year veteran has also led the Chiefs to a 5-2 record as a starter this season.

Huard wasn't called on to do a great deal in this Sunday's win, but he was very effective when the team decided throw the ball. He completed 10-of-15 passes for 148 yards and three touchdown passes.

"He's been fantastic," said Edwards of Huard. "For the guy to win five games for us -- two on the road. He made some big time throws again today. We expect it. It's not like when he does it anymore you say, well, wow. You say, this is the way he's playing. He's got the hot hand right now. If we can just hold on to that hand, just keep dealing them out..."

If Green is going to be back in the starting role it apparently won't be until the November 19 game against the Oakland Raiders, because the Chiefs are saying that Huard will start next Sunday's game against Miami.

TURNOVER A NEW LEAF

Kansas City's defense showed its opportunistic side this Sunday, as it came up with three turnovers against the Rams.

The Chiefs came into the week with a minus-one turnover margin, but changed that with a knack for causing fumbles on Sunday. St. Louis coughed the ball up four times, and Kansas City was there to jump on three of those miscues.

The important thing for Kansas City was once the defense came up with the turnover, the offense was able to capitalize. The Chiefs wound up putting 17 points on the board of the three St. Louis turnovers.

UP NEXT

The Chiefs will be on the road again next Sunday when they head to Miami to battle the Dolphins.