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KANSAS CITY, MO. - You can't lose this game. You can't ease to a 10-0 lead against what might be the worst team in football, can't watch your defense treat Larry Johnson like a chew toy, can't offer a glimpse of hope to a doubtful fan base, then fall to the Kansas City Stinkin' Chiefs.

You can't lose this game. You can't start the season 1-2 with "How'd they do that?" defeats to Detroit and KC when the next six games look tougher than week-old Arthur Bryant's short ribs.

You can't lose this way, with your star rookie running back producing 102 yards on the ground and 48 through the air, with your veteran quarterback committing zero turnovers, with your defense holding the Chiefs to 43 inches per carry.

You can't lose this game, can't lose this way, unless your idea of "game management" matches O.J. Simpson's idea of "career management."

In their cramped locker room at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, Vikings players flushed from the heat and the loss mulled two squandered touchdowns -- one on quarterback Kelly Holcomb's overthrow of Robert Ferguson in the end zone, one on a questionable official's call on an apparent catch in the end zone.

Stick to facts instead of possibilities, though, and what you have is the continuation of a trend. Since the Vikings began the Brad Childress Era 4-2, they have lost 10 of their past 13 games. In only two of those 13 games have the Vikings scored more than 21 points without the aid of a defensive touchdown. This season, they have managed all of three offensive touchdowns.

Through 19 games of Childress' tenure, his offense has changed players more frequently than Spinal Tap changes drummers. Childress has employed a couple of play-callers (himself and Darrell Bevell), a handful of quarterbacks, a peck of featured running backs, a baker's dozen receivers and a bushel of tight ends, and they've all looked about the same -- stuck in a slow-motion loop in a fast-forward league.

It was offensive coaching that failed the Vikings at the end of each half.

In the first, the Vikings took the ball with 3:32 remaining and two timeouts. After the two-minute warning, Adrian Peterson took a short pass 35 yards to the KC 33. The Vikings managed only one more play -- a 3-yard run by Mewelde Moore -- before Holcomb was forced to call a timeout with the play clock running down and 34 seconds left.

Asked how that could happen, Childress, doing a convincing impersonation of Alberto Gonzales, said he couldn't remember.

After the timeout, Holcomb missed Ferguson in the end zone -- "That was as open as I've ever been," Ferguson said -- and then Holcomb was sacked twice.

To recap: With a little less than two minutes left, the Vikings had the Chiefs reeling, had the ball at the KC 33 with two timeouts left, and they didn't even get to try a field goal. Receiver Bobby Wade, trying to explain it, said the Vikings never "got into" their two-minute offense.

The Vikings' five second-half possessions produced only one drive into Chiefs territory. That's what happens when you pretend Jim Kleinsasser is a key component of the passing game.

With 1:39 left, the offense took over on the 20, and Childress and Bevell left Peterson -- their one big-play threat, their only above-average skill position player -- on the sideline.

Holcomb attempted seven short passes, the last leading to a series of laterals, and the clock expired with guard Steve Hutchinson trying to run 60 yards for the winning score.

That's the latest testament to this offense: On the final drive, Hutchinson touched the ball more often than Peterson.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. • jsouhan@startribune.com