Kansas City, Mo. ? You have to wonder why anybody who plays offense for Kansas City would still be speaking to the defense.

Through their first six games, the Chiefs’ offense has been elite, scoring points at a team-record clip.

But there have been 31 300-yard passing games so far this season, and five were thrown against the Chiefs’ beleaguered defense.

It started in the season opener when Cleveland backup Kelly Holcomb hit 27 of 39 for 326 yards. Since then, it’s been Jacksonville’s Mark Brunell for 320, Miami’s Jay Fiedler for 310, New England’s Tom Brady for 410, and, last week, San Diego’s Drew Brees for 319.

Only Chad Pennington of the New York Jets was held under 300. Pennington managed a meager 245 yards against a defense that’s ranked 32nd among the 32 NFL teams since virtually the first quarter of the first game.

But while they’re dead last in pass defense and total defense, Dick Vermeil’s team is No. 3 overall in total offense and No. 1 in rushing.

In scoring, the Chiefs are No. 2 in the league, pouring across 34.2 points per game.

But that’s just two points ahead of the alarming rate the defense keeps giving them up.

It’s no wonder this team is 3-3.

Is Vermeil worried about a clubhouse schism? Could this unusual offensive-defensive dichotomy eventually wear down that fragile, hard-to-construct thing called team chemistry?

Might the offensive players begin to resent an ineffective defense that is negating, week after week, what would normally be game-winning production?

“Not at all,” Vermeil said Tuesday.

But he does have plenty of concerns about the morale of individuals.

“I worry about guys getting down on themselves and blaming themselves, and those kinds of things,” he said. “And their losing their own individual confidence in their contribution to the scheme.

“But I don’t worry about the team as a whole. Not this group. We have very good leadership, a number of good leaders. The character level of the squad is very good.”

The defense was further weakened this week when rookie defensive tackle Ryan Sims was placed on injured reserve with a broken elbow, putting him out for the rest of the year. That will not help the defensive line to get pressure up the middle on the pass rush to make things easier for young cornerbacks Eric Warfield and William Bartee.

Imbedded within every one of those 300-yard passing days are plays where Warfield and Bartee, a first-year starter, got toasted for long gains.

In charge of the defense is coordinator Greg Robinson, who held a similar position at Denver when John Elway was leading the Broncos to two Super Bowl championships. But Vermeil said it’s much too late to change Robinson’s defensive scheme, which some critics have said is too complicated.

“It’s very difficult to change schemes in the middle of the battle,” Vermeil said. “I’ve never been successful doing it. But you keep adjusting to see where people are attacking you and where they’re breaking you down.”

Without changing the scheme, plans to tweak and revise it may keep coaches up into the wee hours.

“Every defensive package has a huge repertoire of what they can call,” Vermeil said.

“There are packages you use and there are things we have in our packages that we haven’t used in ballgames that you may see come up to counter some strengths of other offensive teams.

“What we have to do within the package is just keep playing better.”