Chiefs Bowe focuses on wins, not highlight-reel catches - Page 2

Hammock Parties · 10-13-2011, 12:31 AM

Stay humble, Show.

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/12...wins-than.html

Quote:

Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe doesn’t keep track of his favorite catches or bother to rank them when asked. He prefers to wait until the end of the season to tally his touchdowns and reflect on them then.

For the moment, he’d rather look ahead to the next big catch.

“I don’t look at the past,” Bowe said Wednesday when the subject of Sunday’s remarkable, one-handed, 5-yard touchdown grab at Indianapolis was brought up. “That play is over. We play the Raiders (on Oct. 23). I’ll make another great catch.

“My job is to catch the ball no matter how hard it looks.”

The degree of difficulty on his second touchdown at Indianapolis was off the charts. Bowe had to reach over Colts cornerback Jacob Lacey — who already had been flagged for pass interference on the play — and tip the ball to himself long enough to make a falling, one-handed grab.

ESPN ranked it as the No. 2 play of the day behind a catch by the Giants’ Victor Cruz, who caught a one-handed ricochet off a defender and went 68 yards for a touchdown.

“Things like that happen out of the blue,” Bowe said on Wednesday after the Chiefs’ final practice before getting four days off for their bye. “His was a marvelous catch. But mine was all effort. A lot of people said his was luck, but a catch is a catch. He made an awesome catch, I made an awesome catch, we just have keep going forward and see who finishes off the year with awesome catches. …

“Next week, when we play Oakland, I’m definitely going to try to make another unbelievable catch. After the game, I never look at ’em again. When you get satisfied with making one, the next week comes up and you’re going to try to do the same things. You’ve got to clear your mind … at the end of the year, that’s the only time I look at all my touchdowns.”

As impressive as Bowe’s second touchdown at Indianapolis was, his first score — a signature catch-and-run through the secondary for 41 yards — might have been even more important, because the Chiefs were trailing 17-0 in the second quarter. The play gave them some hope.

“It was a simple slant route,” said Bowe, a powerful 6-foot-2, 221-pounder with speed. “I made a good move. Every time the ball touches my hands, I’m trying to score. I’m in the mind-set like I was last year …”

A year ago, Bowe led the NFL with 15 touchdown catches while totaling a career-best 72 receptions for 1,162 yards and achieving his first Pro Bowl berth.

Now, Bowe, the Chiefs’ first-round pick in 2007, is in a contract year, and he’s caught 23 passes for 420 yards and an 18.3-yard average with four touchdowns. Each spectacular catch and game-breaking touchdown will only add to his bargaining power.

“My job is to make plays, and let my agent and the people upstairs talk,” said Bowe, who turned 27 last month. “When I’m on the field, that’s my talk. I can’t let anything sidetrack me.

“This year, my goal is to win a championship, to stack wins on top of wins. No matter how I play individually, as long as I play to the best of my ability, and this team keeps winning … championships are all on my mind. All the individual … Pro Bowl … 15 touchdowns … winning a title is way better at the end of the day.”

That’s why Bowe was prouder of a 9-yard reception in the fourth quarter that kept the game-winning drive alive at Indianapolis than he was of the two touchdowns.

“Making first downs when it counts to win a game is my thing,” Bowe said. “Touchdowns are touchdowns, but winning the game … If I had that TD catch, and we lost the game, they wouldn’t show it. That (second-) down catch I made and dragged the guy … that was my best catch of the game.”

Teammate Keary Colbert, who came up with two big third-down catches at Indianapolis, played with Carolina’s Steve Smith the year after a Super Bowl appearance and has been impressed with what he’s seen in Bowe.

“From the outside, you can’t appreciate how talented he is and how he is one of the elite receivers in the NFL,” said Colbert, who joined the Chiefs this season. “I knew who he was and knew he went to the Pro Bowl, but being able to practice with him … he never ceases to amaze me with the type of catches he comes up with.

“That’s God-given. He does it in practice, he shows up in games. It’s something you can’t coach or teach.”

And Bowe promises there will be more.

“We still have 11 games left,” Bowe said. “That play was one of the many … stay tuned for more.”