Kansas City, Mo. ? Tuneup time is running out for the Kansas City Chiefs offense.

The revamped defense – with as many as five new starters – was supposed to be the part that needed the entire preseason to mesh. And indeed, there have been glitches galore.

But the first-team offense, with injuries limiting practice time for many key starters, has scored only one touchdown in its first two exhibition games.

More work clearly is in order. So the Chiefs figured to let the first team work the entire first half and possibly some of the second against Seattle tonight.

“The third preseason game is really kind of the focus point of when you want to hone in on your timing, because everybody knows the fourth preseason game is where you’re trying to have some success,” quarterback Trent Green said. “But your also don’t want anyone getting hurt before the opener.”

A welcome sight will be right guard Will Shields, a 10-time Pro Bowler who has been sidelined several months with a nagging back problem. He’ll be seeing his first action against the Seahawks.

“The difficulty has been getting that whole group together on a consistent level playing together,” offensive coordinator Al Saunders said. “Fortunately, those guys are very experienced. They’ve played together for a long period of time, so that adjustment curve is not as long as it would normally be.”

In a 24-17 loss last week to Arizona, Kansas City showed an unusual amount of defensive trickery, including blitzes from just about every part of the field – something Seattle wouldn’t mind seeing this week.

In an 18-10 loss to Dallas in their last outing, the Seahawks continually stymied themselves with penalties, a theme that coaches promised to pound all week.

“A lot of them were young guys and they don’t understand yet how important it is to play disciplined football and not be penalized,” coach Mike Holmgren said.

“We didn’t handle their blitz. They blitzed a lot. You can look bad, and we did. We didn’t handle it very well,” he said. “I hammered them pretty good on this, and I would be very, very surprised if we had another game like that.”

Holmgren also planned to play his first unit offense for most of the first half.

“The next two weeks are absolutely critical for a fair amount of guys on the team because its very competitive in about four positions,” Holmgren said.

The Chiefs had hoped to see linebacker Kendrell Bell in a game for the first time since he signed in the offseason. But coach Dick Vermeil recently said Bell’s nagging injuries probably would keep him sidelined at least one more week.

“We just want to make sure he’s 100 percent ready in his own mind, as well as physically,” Vermeil said.

Bell’s absence might mean another big game for Seattle tight end Jerramy Stevens, who had four catches for 52 yards against Dallas. One more big game could help nail down a starting job.

“I feel like I’ve done the best, more consistently, this year,” he said. “But it definitely could not hurt.”