"Hell no," Cunningham responded. "I expect us to be a World Championship defense to go along with the rest of this football team."

No, the Chiefs' embattled defense -- 29th-ranked last year after a dead-last ranking in 2002 -- isn't where Cunningham hoped to have it after three-plus weeks in their River Falls, Wis., training camp. Not after giving up 118 rushing yards and touchdown runs of 29 and 67 yards on back-to-back carries by the Giants' Ron Dayne in the preseason opener.

And while only Cunningham, perhaps, would dare dream of taking his new defense to the No. 1 ranking in scoring the Chiefs offense has enjoyed in each of the past two seasons, or to the status enjoyed by Dante Hall and the special teams, the early indications suggested the Chiefs remain as vulnerable to big plays today as they were in the past two seasons under former defensive coordinator Greg Robinson.

Even Cunningham, though believing that improvements are being made, sees the big plays as evidence that this defense has a long way to go in its search for mere respectability.

"In the Giants game we had 48 or 49 plays where they got two yards or less, and then nine plays for about 200 yards," said Cunningham, whose recitation of statistics must be taken with several grains of salt. "We do the same thing on the practice field. We'll go 10, 12 plays against our offense and look like we really know what we're doing, and then we have a breakdown here or there.

"We've made a lot of progress," he added, "but I wish we were further along."

Cunningham's principal area of concern remains his linebacking corps, which is being asked to do more things differently than any other aspect of his new defense.

"It's totally in contrast to what they've been doing for three years," said coach Dick Vermeil, whose faith in Cunningham remains as unshaken as his stand-by-your-man backing of Robinson. "It's a more downhill, physical approach -- attack the offensive linemen, attack the blocker.

"When we do it right, there's absolutely no place to run."

And when they don't, gaps open big enough for an 18-wheeler -- or Ron Dayne -- to exploit. That's exactly what happened on Dayne's 67-yard TD when LB Monty Beisel, a backup contending for a starting spot, read the fullback on a counter play and left the end unattended when Dayne got the ball.

Those mistakes can be fixed, Cunningham said adamantly.

CAMP CALENDAR
The Chiefs broke their three-week plus Wisconsin mini-camp on Saturday, Aug. 21. They'll have three more weeks of conditioning in the hotter weather of Kansas City before meeting Denver in the Sept. 12 opener.