Kansas City, Mo. ? One weekend, Jonathan Quinn was couch-bound and channel-surfing, wishing he could be out on the football field.

The next weekend, he was. Behind the feel-good story of the journeyman quarterback who gets a second chance to live his dream, however, lurks a medley of worrisome signs for the team that made the emergency call to him.

True enough, the Kansas City Chiefs could have beaten the Seattle Seahawks instead of losing, 23-17. Quinn had three shots from the nine-yard line in the final seconds Saturday night.

But with all the other problems apparently facing the Chiefs, it matters little whether they’re 0-3 or 1-2 going into their final exhibition game Friday night at St. Louis.

Why exactly did Quinn play all but the first two series? Is Trent Green’s mystery injury more serious than thought? When will Green’s regular backup, Todd Collins, get back from the hand injury he sustained in the first exhibition game?

Why did cornerback Patrick Surtain get beaten so many times by Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck? Surtain is one of the key offseason acquisitions who are supposed to upgrade a miserable defense.

Another is linebacker Kendrell Bell. But when will he play? The outside linebacker still has not appeared in a preseason game as coaches insist on keeping him benched until he is fully healed. He played in only three games for Pittsburgh in 2004, hobbled by a groin injury. He also has shoulder and ankle troubles and is still bothered by an arthritic shoulder.

If Bell had been in, perhaps Matt Hasselbeck and the first-team Seahawks offense would not have passed for 198 yards against the Chiefs starters. Surtain was burned on a 36-yard touchdown pass to Darrell Jackson, who had seven catches for 99 yards.

“I couldn’t really find the ball,” Surtain said. “I lost the ball in the lights.”

Jackson also beat Surtain on another play, but Hasselbeck overthrew him.

“There are some things I can get better at,” said Surtain, a two-time Pro-Bowler with Miami. “That’s what preseason is for. You’re going to get beat once in a while. But the good players learn from their mistakes.”

Green was flawless in his first possession, going 5-for-5 and capping a quick TD drive with a short touchdown pass to tight end Tony Gonzalez. But he was intercepted on his seventh pass and never heard from again.

Although he missed no practice time, he had been bothered all week by what was described as numbness in his lower leg and foot. Then when he was intercepted on his seventh pass, he was stepped on.

Green insisted he was fine.

“Going through warmups, this thing was kind of nagging me a little bit and I wanted to see how the first couple of drives went,” he said. “When I got stepped on, it was like, ‘Why push it any further?’

“We had some good timing and everything was clicking pretty good, and things start to count here in two weeks, so it was kind of mutually agreed upon to protect it.”

There were, as coach Dick Vermeil pointed out, several good things as well. None was better than running back Larry Johnson, who seems bent on beating out Priest Holmes.

Holmes carried five times for 10 yards. Johnson totaled 147 yards on nine carries.

In the first half, he burst through a gaping hole in the left side of the line, picked up a pulverizing block from Pro Bowl fullback Tony Richardson, and sped untouched 97 yards for a touchdown.

By everyone involved, the entire play was executed to perfection.

“If you go through and nobody even touches you, that’s called great blocking,” Johnson said. “It felt good to get a long run and not get touched.”

But Johnson, who has complained about not getting enough carries behind Holmes, said he doesn’t expect anything to change.

“I doubt that,” Johnson said. “It still comes down to me being a backup. That’s my role right now.”

Just what the Chiefs needed – a running back controversy.