Chiefs nearly waste dominant performance with miscues

By Joe Warren

Nevada Daily Mail

NEVADA, Mo. -- If Sunday's football game at Arrowhead Stadium were posed in Jeopardy format, it would go something like this: Answer -- this football team dominated the field to the tune of twice as many first downs, more than twice the total yards and almost 80 offensive plays, yet still almost lost.

Question -- who are the Kansas City Chiefs?

With 30 first downs, nearly 500 yards of offense and four touchdowns from Pro Bowl tailback Larry Johnson, a better question might be how did the Chiefs barely beat the Seattle Seahawks 35-28?

The answer to that lies within the odd turn of events that characterized Sunday's game between teams seemingly headed in opposite directions.

The Chiefs (4-3), winning their fourth in five games after starting the season 0-2, began by building a 27-14 lead midway through the third period. They were lining up for a 38-yard field goal attempt by Lawrence Tynes, who had already made a kick from the same distance earlier in the game. The kick would have given Kansas City a 16-point lead, all but assuring Seattle (4-3) of their third loss in four games.

That's when the game changed. The snap to holder Dustin Colquitt was fumbled and when the punter picked it up and tried to throw the ball, he had it knocked from his hands by Seattle's Kelly Herndon. While the Chiefs' players and coaches thought Colquitt had thrown an incomplete pass, Herndon picked the ball up and raced down the right sideline 61 yards untouched for the score to get the Seahawks back in the game.

The Chiefs challenged the play but the officials upheld the touchdown and with 1:27 left in the third, Kansas City's lead was down to six.

More strange things happened in the fourth quarter. Seattle was driving when a pass from quarterback Seneca Wallace, making his first career start in place of injured Matt Hasselbeck, hit Kansas City's Ty Law in the chest but the normally sure-handed defensive back dropped the ball and the Seahawks were still alive.

That's when the game suddenly appeared to be slipping away, as two plays later Law bit on a double move and slipped, allowing Wallace to find a wide open Darrell Jackson for a 49-yards score and Seattle suddenly had a 28-27 lead.

The Chiefs finally awoke from their second half slumber thanks to a diving catch by Eddie Kennison on a 51-yard bomb from Washington-native Damon Huard, which moved the ball to the Seattle 7. Three Larry Johnson runs later and the Chiefs were on the board again, the winning score coming on a 3-yard blast that finished off the team-record 39th carry for Johnson. The two-point conversion made it 35-28.

Seattle was unable to score again, despite an interception by Kansas City's Jared Allen that was later stripped by Seahawks wideout Deion Branch after the surly defensive end tried to run with the pick. Allen's miscue came despite his team having a seven-point lead with under two minutes to play in the game.

But the Chiefs held on a fourth-and-15 play as they limited Mack Strong to 8 yards on a pass reception and the game was in hand.

"If you look at the time of possession and you look at the yards, it's really lopsided," Chiefs head coach Herman Edwards said. "But that kind of goes to show you what happens in the National Football League when you miss opportunities, turn the ball over in the wrong area of the football field and give up big plays."

Kansas City had 499 yards of total offense, 155 of those on the ground via Johnson. They held the ball for 42:15, almost three times the Seahawks' 17:45 in the time of possession battle.

Huard, who almost didn't play because of a strained groin, finished with a career-high 312 yards passing and a 124.1 quarterback rating, facing the team from his hometown of Seattle for the first time in his 10-year career.

"In the back of your mind you're like, 'are you really going to pull your groin in practice and not play?' you know. I was going to play," Huard said, despite being questionable on the injury report after pulling the groin in practice Friday.

Huard joked about the media reports prior to the game that said he might not play.

"My mom said it best, 'what's it make you feel like when everybody in the country is talking about your groin?'" he said.

Kansas City had two receivers break the 100-yard barrier for the first time in almost two years as tight end Tony Gonzalez had 116 yards on six receptions and Kennison had 132 yards on six catches. The last time the Chiefs had two 100-yard receivers was Jan. 2, 2005, when Gonzalez and Johnson did it against San Deigo.

The Chiefs scored first on a 38-yard field goal by Tynes, taking advantage of a personal foul by Ken Hamlin after he threw Gonzalez to the ground following a 16-yard reception.

The Seahawks made the first big play of the game midway through the first quarter when Julian Peterson sacked Huard, causing a fumble that was recovered by Russell Davis at the Kansas City 7. That led to the first touchdown of the game, an 8-yard pass from Seneca Wallace to D.J. Hackett that made the score 7-3.

Johnson found some room on the next possession, going 38 yards on one play to the Seattle 32. It was Johnson's longest run of the season. The fourth-year tailback added a 13-yarder later in the drive and capped it with a 3-yard touchdown dive over big Brian Waters to put Kansas City on top 10-7.

Another Tynes field goal, from 32 yards halfway through the second period, gave the Chiefs a 13-7 edge.

Seattle came right back with a touchdown drive to reclaim the lead, getting a 2-yard scoring pass from Wallace to Jerramy Stevens. The big play in the drive was a 26-yard one-handed catch by Deion Branch to the KC 3. The Chiefs challenged the play and lost, as Branch managed to get both feet down in bounds while also gaining possession with his left hand.

Johnson capped a 9-play, 77-yard drive with a 9-yard scoring reception from Huard to put Kansas City back on top, 20-14.

Johnson found pay dirt for the third time on Kansas City's opening drive of the second half, going in from 2 yards out to give the Chiefs a 27-14 lead. The score capped a 13-play, 81-yard drive that ate more than six minutes off the clock.