I completely get the fans’ mounting frustration over defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham. He clearly hasn’t accomplished what the Chiefs brought him back for. The Chiefs have invested draft picks and free agent dollars for defenders he wanted and as a whole they aren’t any better than when he replaced Greg Robinson. We could ramble on about his insistence the Chiefs sign Kendrell Bell. Meanwhile, players like Derrick Johnson, Tank Tyler and Glenn Dorsey either haven’t developed or aren’t developing like they should and Cunningham has to shoulder at least some of that blame.

What I don’t get is the fans picking on him this week, of all weeks. Got some mail since the San Diego blaming the soft, Cunningham-ordered coverages for the loss to the Chargers.

Of all weeks to be critical of Cunningham, this wasn’t one of them. By the end of the game, the Chiefs had Wallace Gilberry playing defensive end, Wes Dacus playing linebacker and some combination of Maurice Leggett, David Macklin and Ricardo Colclough playing cornerback.

That isn’t even the junior varsity, which is what you might call a lineup full of backups. These guys are backups to the backups. Gilberry, Macklin and Colclough joined the Chiefs only last week and before that, they were in demand by nobody. Gilberry was on the Giants practice squad while Macklin and Colclough were waiting by the phone. Dacus, an undrafted rookie, started the season on the practice squad and was there only because the Chiefs, already razor thin at linebacker, didn’t like any of their other young players at the position. He was bumped to the active roster only when Donnie Edwards was injured early in the season. Leggett also has some ability, but played at Valdosta State. He was initially their fifth cornerback and was forced into the lineup only because of injuries to Brandon Flowers and Pat Surtain.

I'm not sure what Cunningham could have done differently or better to stop one of the NFL's best passing teams. There’s no question that when whole, the Chiefs have underachieved defensively. But against the Chargers, with a lineup full of holes, they overachieved.