By David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–Looking ahead to week six in the NFL the Raiders one of the bigger surprises in the league and so far they are facing one of the other big surprises in the NFL this season the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are sitting pretty at 5-0 this season and having won only two games last season that’s a bit of a shock to everybody following the NFL. Teams just don’t go from number one pick in the NFL draft to the playoffs it’s just pretty tough to do.

Kansas City is trying to do the impossible and their doing a pretty good job so far their sitting at 5-0 and tied for first place in the AFC west with the Denver Broncos and playing host to the Oakland Raiders this coming weekend. Kansas City has done it with improvements across the board the biggest one is one we all know here in the Bay Area is former 49ers quarterback and now Chief quarterback Alex Smith.

Smith replaces places all the different quarterbacks that played for the Chiefs last last year primarily former Chief quarterbacks Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn they just weren’t cutting it they were back ups at best and that’s what they’ve been doing this year . Smith comes into KC and provides stability and consistency he doesn’t turn the ball over and he executes Andy Reid’s ball control offense as well as well as anybody.

The Reid-Smith relationship is the perfect football marriage between a coach and his starting quarterback. Of course Reid is the other big addition he brings that ball club control offense and gives a nice system for the Chiefs to take advantage of. It also doesn’t hurt that the Chiefs recovered from the many injuries they had last year and that they suffered several including Pro Bowl safety Eric Berry he was out much of last season and his return this season has bolstered the Chiefs defense.

They’ve had some improvements all the way around with some of the young players and it’s an improvement that’s come from last year’s first round pick Dontari Poe he can set up deep in the middle of that defensive line. There were some questions whether he would be a short or long term project but in his second season he has really blossomed and has become a force to be reckoned with.

All of the little improvements are going to make it very difficult for the Oakland Raiders, the Raiders are coming off a big Sunday night win over the San Diego Chargers. It was that weird super duper late game that started at 8:00PM PDT. The Raiders came out ahead and quarterback Terrelle Pryor looked good again the defense is starting to really pick things up. Charles Woodson had a big touchdown.

The Raiders have been playing much better than what anyone would have expected their 2-3 but I can’t begin to tell you how surprising that is. You have to remember going into this season we all thought the Raiders are going to be perhaps one of the worse teams in the NFL and while their certainly not one of the best teams in the NFL their certainly better than what everyone expected.

David Zizmor is covering the NFL for Sportstalk Radio