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Bob Dole
10-25-2004, 05:16 AM
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Willie Roaf only hopes he can feel this good while feeling this tired sometime again real soon.

The 34-year-old nine-time Pro Bowl tackle had just spent the day clearing the left side of the road over which Priest Holmes and later Derrick Blaylock ran for most of the 271 rushing yards the Chiefs amassed in their stunning 56-10 rout of Atlanta -- the NFL's top-ranked rushing defense prior to being gutted Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.

"We held the ball for 39 minutes today. That better be a formula for success because I'm tired after this one," Roaf said after Kansas City ran 49 rushing plays -- the most since a 1989 game against Seattle -- as part of their 77 offensive plays.

"It wears you out," Roaf added, "but it's a happy feeling. It's rewarding when you keep getting touchdowns like we did today."
Eight of them, to be exact, and all on the ground. That's an NFL record that betters the old mark of seven set by the Los Angeles Rams in 1976 -- an era when the ground game was still considered the primary objective in the NFL.

That accomplishment will mean something special to Roaf some day. On Sunday, however, it meant only that Kansas City won a second game in a season that's been nothing but disappointing during a 2-4 start after a 13-3 playoff campaign of a year ago.

"When you're 2-4, you can't think about things like records," Roaf said. "We just have to look ahead to next week."

But Priest Holmes wanted to think about it, if just for a few hours.

Never one to pass the chance to praise his offensive line, Holmes jumped on the chance to talk about his four touchdowns, of 15 yards in the first quarter and another three scores from two yards or less in the second quarter.

"I'll always take the chance to talk about my offensive line when it's set apart from every other offensive line in history," Holmes said. "Our offensive line has been waiting to explode in the run game. They created lanes and seams today, and myself and Derrick Blaylock did an excellent job in reading them."
It was exactly what Kansas City did on Oct. 4 in physically dominating Baltimore in its first victory on a Monday night game. And yet the Chiefs failed to capitalize on an offensive line that includes two nine-time Pro Bowl players and future Hall of Famers (Roaf and guard Will Shields) during last week's loss in Jacksonville -- a setback that neutralized all momentum from the Baltimore victory.

Not that Kansas City's offensive linemen were second-guessing the game plan that elected not to run at Jacksonville's two massive defensive tackles, Marcus Stroud and John Henderson.

"We went into that game with a different mindset," Roaf said of the approach that produced only 21 runs against the Jaguars. "Some of the plays that worked today might not have worked against them because of the way they can run. They rely on the two big guys in the middle to clog things up, and their linebackers run so well you often can't get outside. Today we did a better job getting to the perimeter against their smaller guys."

To be sure, the Chiefs' most effective plays against the Falcons were outside sweeps or screen plays -- often run to Roaf's left side.
Establishing the superiority of their offensive line will be important for the Chiefs in their next big test -- next week's rematch with Indianapolis.

Ball control will be a key component in keeping Peyton Manning and the potent Colts offense off the field -- something the Chiefs couldn't do in the playoff loss last January.

"We let it slip last week," Roaf said. "We can't afford any more slips."

Gaz
10-25-2004, 07:21 AM
A great read on the day after.

xoxo~
Gaz
Needs another cold shower.