Dwayne Bowe walked into the Kansas City Chiefs locker room on Monday, exchanged hugs and handshakes with teammates who shouted out "D-Bowe!" as he arrived.
Back from a four-game drug suspension, Bowe was a welcome sight at the Chiefs' training complex.
On the field, not much has changed.
In losing 16-10 to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, the hapless Chiefs made many of the same mistakes that have haunted them all season.
Matt Cassel had another shaky game. A mediocre rushing team ran all over the Chiefs' defense. The offense kept tripping itself up. Coach Todd Haley made a questionable call or two. Receivers dropped crucial passes.
The 10th loss, not a whole lot different from the others. It's almost as if the Chiefs are stuck in a "Three's Company" marathon — each episode looking a whole lot like the last.
"I don't have any doubt we're making progress," Haley said. "It's tough when you look at the record and see that. I just go on what I see on a daily basis, during the game, after the game, certain responses by players, desire of the players to get better. We're making progress."
At times, Cassel was much better than the week before, when he was yanked in the fourth quarter against Denver with a 14.6 quarterback rating. Cassel threw for 224 yards on 26-of-43 passing and twice drove the Chiefs within reach of victory in the closing minutes.
But he also was sacked four times and had four interceptions, two in the final 2:11. Cassel's first interception, in the third quarter, was just a poor decision and worse throw. Two others came on deflections and another was a desperation heave into the end zone.
Catch a break or two, get Chris Chambers to come down with a goal-line catch with just over 2 minutes left, maybe Cassel and the Chiefs win. Didn't happen, though, and now Kansas City's $60 million man has lost 10 games as a starter after winning 11 with New England a year ago.
"I thought the quarterback did a good job of fighting through some adversity and ultimately put us in a position to win that game," Haley said. "And that is the bottom line, a win or a loss."
Kansas City's run defense was another trouble spot.
Buffalo entered as one of the NFL's worst rushing teams and ran over the Chiefs all game. Missing tackles and getting bowled over at the point of attack, Kansas City gave up 163 yards to Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch, and 200 total for a 5.7 yards-per-carry average.
"We didn't do a good enough job, obviously," linebacker Mike Vrabel.
