by Sports Xchange

Updated: December 4, 2008, 3:20 AM EST

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Asking the 2-10 Chiefs to pull a major upset in Denver against a 7-5 team that could clinch the AFC West title this week is probably too high a mountain to climb, even for a team that upset the then-unbeaten Broncos 33-19 back in Week 4 in Kansas City.

But if the Chiefs are to make any game of it at all after snapping a seven-game losing streak with a win last week in Oakland, staying close through the first half is an absolute must.

Since they last won a game at old Mile High Stadium in 2000, the Chiefs have trailed the Broncos at halftime by 17 points twice, 14 and 10 points. Denver has led at halftime by a combined score of 102-37, and won by a total combined score of 210-104 in its seven-game home winning streak against Kansas City.

"The last time we were there it was 24-7 at halftime," coach Herm Edwards said of last year's game, a 41-7 Denver blowout. "The game was over before it started.

"That's been our Achilles' heel. The games get out of whack in the first half. When you go into Denver and they get up on you, it's a very difficult place to play."

But when the Chiefs are close at the intermission break, they tend to stay that way in a competitive game.

In 2006, Edwards' first season in Kansas City, the Chiefs intentionally played what Edwards' called "small ball" in a Week 2 game at Denver following an injury in the season opener that knocked QB Trent Green out of action. Kansas City led 3-0 at the half, and the Broncos needed overtime to win that one 9-6.

Surviving the first-half Broncos rush will be especially important for a team that could dress as many as 18 rookies at Invesco Field this week. Edwards, in fact, would like his new players to know little of the Chiefs' recent woes in the Mile High City.

"It will be a great learning experience for these guys," he said. "The great thing is, 18 of them are rookies who've never been in that stadium. It's like they hadn't been in the Black Hole (before winning at Oakland) until last week, so they don't know what they don't know. So that can be good or bad."

SERIES HISTORY: 97th regular-season meeting. Chiefs lead the series 53-43, with Denver winning the one playoff meeting. The teams have split their most recent four meetings, but Denver swept the season series last year. Kansas City won this year's first meeting at Arrowhead 33-19 to break a 12-game losing streak that extended back to 2007.