Kansas City, Mo. ? With a victory Monday at Denver, the Kansas City Chiefs and their revitalized defense could grab control of the AFC West race just three games into the season.

The Chiefs would be unbeaten with two division road victories in the bank and own the AFC West’s only winning record.

With a defense showing improvement, the Chiefs improved to 2-0 Sunday night with a last-minute defensive stand that sealed a 23-17 victory at Oakland.

The Raiders, who had two touchdowns wiped out by penalty, drove to the Kansas City 14 in the final minutes. But Patrick Surtain, a cornerback brought in from Miami, broke up a first-down pass. On third down, defensive end Eric Hicks – a veteran of the horrid Kansas City defenses of the past three years – tipped a pass at the line.

Then, on fourth down, safety Sammy Knight, another newcomer from Miami, batted a pass away from Jerry Porter in the end zone.

Also having a good game was linebacker Kendrell Bell, who was brought in during the busy offseason from Pittsburgh.

In the opener against the New York Jets, the Chiefs pitched a shutout until the final minute. At Oakland, the defense saved the game with a goal-line stand in the final minutes.

Vermeil would not argue with those who say the 2004 Chiefs, during a 7-9 campaign, would have lost the Sunday night game against the Raiders.

“Very possibly that’s true,” he said. “But we won some tight games with the Raiders before this year. Last time we played them in Oakland, they had the ball in their hands, and we stopped them. But I would say that kind of speculation may very well be true.”

The influx of new players, however, is not alone in creating an entirely new Kansas City defense.

“First, we do have new talent. And second, we have improvement from our younger talent,” Vermeil said.

Perhaps the most improved player in Kansas City is middle linebacker Kawika Mitchell. Overwhelmed a year ago, Mitchell has been steady and productive from the first day of training camp. At Oakland, his six tackles were bettered only by rookie linebacker Derrick Johnson, who had seven.

“Kawika Mitchell was awarded a game ball. I think that’s the first one of his career,” Vermeil said.

“They (the new players) have brought in leadership. All three guys came in from teams that played very good defense, two from Miami and one from Pittsburgh. They don’t know any other way to play the game. So their expectations are very high. I think they’ve passed that feeling on to the other players.”

For the second week in a row, the Chiefs were hit hard by injuries. Linebacker Keyaron Fox, who crumbled because of an apparent knee injury without being hit, may be the most serious. Vermeil said he had no update on the extent of the injuries.

But losing Fox, the fourth linebacker in the 3-4 defense the Chiefs unveiled two weeks ago, will not require them to go back full time to the 4-3.

“We have two different guys who can come in there, Richard Scanlon and Chris Griffin,” Vermeil said. “I have confidence in both of them.”