Kansas City, Mo. ? Like a giddy gambler hitting a four-team parlay, the Kansas City Chiefs beat Jacksonville on the final day of the 2006 regular season and then watched Tennessee, Cincinnati and Denver all fall like dominoes.

Everything that had to happen for the Chiefs to sneak off with the final wild-card spot did. Coaches, players and fans could hardly believe their good fortune.

Only now do they realize that all their luck on that improbable New Year’s Eve was bad.

Getting into the playoffs, where they were clobbered 23-8 in the first round by Indianapolis, caused influential people in the executive suites to make a bad misjudgment. Instead of using 2007 to begin replacing over-the-hill veterans and rebuilding with youth – as coach Herm Edwards wanted – Kansas City stood pat, thinking it was only a couple of key players away from a Super Bowl run.

So aging players like Eddie Kennison, John Welbourn, Chris Terry, Ron Edwards and Ty Law all took the field last season – and all they created was disaster. Ending the year on a nine-game losing streak, the Chiefs finished 4-12, their worst season in 30 years.

Instead of grooming young players, they wasted the entire season, sinking deeper into decline and making their rebuilding project even more daunting.

Now, finally, everyone is on board with the need to start over, and almost instantaneously, the Chiefs have gone from one of the oldest to one of the youngest teams in the NFL. Rookie starters are everywhere, including the backfield, both cornerbacks and both lines.

Smarting week after week from the sort of mistakes that come with inexperience, the Chiefs entered their bye week 1-4. Coupled with the nine-game losing skid at the end of last year, they’ve lost 13 of their last 14 regular-season games and angered fans to the point that the TV blackout will almost certainly be imposed at some point this season for the first time in years.

It’s no wonder Edwards refused to let his team have the entire week off. Instead of heading out to hunt or fish and hang out with old college pals, the young Chiefs worked all week.

“I’m glad we’re here,” said third-year safety Bernard Pollard. “We don’t want to finish 4-12 again – assuming we could even do that well. It’s terrible what’s been going on with the team for the last year and a half. We’re all sick of it.”

They’ve been competitive only twice – in a surprisingly close loss to New England in the season opener and in an even more unlikely 33-19 victory over Denver that at least got fans and media critics to stop predicting an 0-16 debacle.

But the inevitable restructuring of the team Dick Vermeil built and coached for five years without a playoff win is a year late getting started.

If it had been launched in 2007 instead of 2008, the transition may well have been smoother.

One of many problems has been an inability to put pressure on the passer. The Chiefs have only three sacks in five games, none from the front four. Jared Allen, the All-Pro defensive end who led the NFL in sacks last year but demanded to be traded, is missed.

One encouraging note, however, is the improved health of quarterback Brodie Croyle. Out for four games because of a separated shoulder, he’ll be ready to start next week against Tennessee and resume what the Chiefs are hoping will be a steady development.

Team officials have said they expect the young team to be playing better at the end of the season than it did at the beginning. That could still happen.

But would it not have been better if either Tennessee, Denver or Cincinnati had won on that New Year’s Eve of 2006 and kept K.C. out of the playoffs, hastening by an entire year what they’re trying so painfully to achieve now?

“Good question,” Edwards said. “Some people say yes, some people say no. You’ve just got to look at it that at that point in time, we continued to stay with the same team. This year we’ve decided to go in a different direction.

“I’ll leave it at that.”