Kansas City, Mo. ? The Kansas City Chiefs have enjoyed a charmed season most teams can only envy — especially the troubled, crippled Cleveland Browns they play host to today.

Partly by luck and partly by design, just about everything that has gone wrong with the Browns has gone right with the Chiefs.

Take injuries, for example.

While becoming the only unbeaten team in the NFL the first half of the season, the Chiefs (8-0) did not have one starter miss a single game.

But the Browns (3-5) have been a collection of walking wounded, with injuries slowing two quarterbacks and essentially the entire offensive line. A week ago, the line had four backup starters. In their 9-3 loss at New England just before their bye week, the Browns were without seven offensive players who were projected as starters when the season opened.

The players who did manage to get on the field, however, have had difficulty holding onto the ball. The Browns are minus-3 in turnover differential. But the Chiefs lead the league with a plus-18. They went into their bye week with a 38-5 rout of Buffalo in which they were plus-7.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been involved in a game where my team was plus-7,” coach Dick Vermeil said.

Then there’s that elusive and hard-to-define element most people call character. Just one day into their bye week, Browns running back running back William Green was arrested on charges of driving under the influence. The Browns’ leading rusher, Green has been suspended for today’s game by coach Butch Davis.

This week, Davis demoted Kevin Johnson, the Browns’ leading receiver each of the past four years, and replaced him with backup Andre’ Davis.

Vermeil, on the other hand, felt so much trust in his team he gave everyone the entire bye week off. When it came time to report for work Monday, not one player was late. Many showed up early. Players and coaches alike agreed the first practice was remarkably sharp.

“Guys were responsible. We came back fresh and ready to go,” offensive tackle John Tait said. “You could tell the week off put an extra spring in our step.”

Said guard Brian Waters, “That’s what has helped us on and off the field, the character of this team.”

The Chiefs head into the second half of the season aiming for home-field advantage in the playoffs, while the Browns are hoping a second-half surge similar to last year’s can carry them back into the postseason.

“It’s been a season, so far, of challenges,” Davis said. “It began back in February when we had to release $25 million worth of players.”

And that’s another thing. This Kansas City team that’s gunning for the Chiefs’ first playoff appearance since 1997 has only seven rookies on the roster. The Chiefs spent the offseason making key veteran additions such as defensive starters Dexter McCleon, Shawn Barber and Vonnie Holliday

“Look at this team,” Davis said of his Browns. “Thirty-eight or 40 players on this team out of 53 have got four years in the league or less, and a host of rookies and first-year guys.”

But at least the Browns’ rookies harbor no painful memories of how the Chiefs beat them 40-39 last year in one of the most bizarre finishes of the season.

As time expired and he was about to be sacked by Dwayne Rudd, quarterback Trent Green lateraled to Tait, who rumbled 28 yards downfield.

Rudd, thinking he had sacked Green and the game was over, threw his helmet and drew a 15-yard penalty. Tacked onto Tait’s improbable run, the extra yardage put Morten Andersen in position for a 30-yard field goal after the game clock had expired.

Many of the Browns seethed that the game had been stolen from them. “If they do, they can come here Sunday and prove that we did steal one,” Chiefs receiver Johnnie Morton said. “But we don’t feel like we did. We played the last play, and sometimes it takes the whole game to win.”