"This was the kind of game that, even a few weeks ago, the Chiefs might have lost. They might have froze in the pressure and reverted to 2009 form.

Not Sunday. Something happened to Kansas City at halftime in Seattle, in that oddly shaped stadium in the Pacific Northwest: The Chiefs turned the corner and began what looked like a sprint into the home stretch.

"I saw a team that willed this game to go the way that they wanted it to go," coach Todd Haley said after the Chiefs' 42-24 victory at Qwest Field. "We set our minds to it today at halftime, that we're going to finish this thing."

This didn't look like the team that tripped over itself in losses at Oakland and Denver. It didn't look like the group that lost four of five games on the road before this Sunday in Seattle. There were mistakes, sure. But whereas two blocked kicks might have doomed Kansas City before, the Chiefs kept churning Sunday. A quick Seahawks touchdown to start the second half might have been enough to shift momentum in the past, but the Chiefs shrugged it off and kept pulling away.

This was a signature victory, and it's one that Kansas City has been waiting for all season. It was a road win, a blowout, against a division leader — erratic as the Seahawks have been.

The Chiefs answered questions about themselves Sunday. They proved some things to a locker room that needed some reinforcement. They proved that, at least on this day and at this point in the season, there's more good about this team than bad.

"This is the right time for teams to start to play well and reach their potential," running back Thomas Jones said. "I really don't think that we've even come close to meeting our potential."

If that's true, then Sunday was a look into the future. Kansas City is a young team, but buried under some of that youth is a mountain of talent. Jamaal Charles. Dwayne Bowe. Matt Cassel. Derrick Johnson. Tamba Hali."