THIS WEEK IN CHIEFS HISTORY

[Hammock Parties]

THIS WEEK IN CHIEFS HISTORY

October 20, 2003

KANSAS CITY 17, OAKLAND 10

Kansas City stops Tuiasosopo-led rally as game ends

OAKLAND -- The Raiders played their best football of the season Monday night. All of it was on defense. Well, almost.

Rallying in the final 1:47 behind quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo, the Raiders saw their game-saving drive from their own 6 die at the Chiefs 1 as Kansas City posted a 17-10 victory.

There were seven seconds left when Tuiasosopo, replacing an injured Rich Gannon in the second half, found Tim Brown in the end zone. But Brown wasn't open and had to come back to Tuiasosopo.

Brown caught the ball on the 1 and was wrestled to the ground by Chiefs safety Jerome Woods as the clock hit 0:00.

"I wish we had needed 93 yards," said Tuiasosopo of the abortive drive.

It was a bombastic ending to what had been a defensive duel dominated by Kansas City. It may also have been the final nail in the team's coffin. At 2-5 heading into the bye week, the Raiders are five games removed from first place in the AFC West and three games from second.

Neither the Raiders nor Gannon were able to shed any light on the prognosis of his injury, a bruised shoulder on his throwing arm.

"I'm not going to comment on my shoulder until I find out," said Gannon, who suffered theinjury on the Raiders' last offensive play of the first half when he was blind-sided by Chiefs linebacker Shawn Barber.

Gannon tested the shoulder when the team came out for the second half but "when I tried to throw, I couldn't."

In truth, Gannon's departure coupled with Tuiasosopo's arrival seemed to light a spark in the Raiders offense. Under Gannon, the Raiders had 22 passing plays that netted a total of 40 yards, 1.8 yards an attempt.

Tuiasosopo started out wild ("I was too geeked up," he said) but finished 16-for-28 for 224 yards.

The Raiders offense that had just 75 yards in a desultory first half, finished with 357.

All that was lacking was 1 yard.

"I thought we were in," Tuiasosopo said. "We were just one second short. It's pretty emotional to me right now. I'm going to have to see the film because I thought Tim got the tip (of the ball) into the end zone."

Asked if he thought he was in, Brown's response was "sorry, I can't talk right now."

Coach Bill Callahan said, "I couldn't tell."

There was no replay requested by game officials, who have that call in the final two minutes.

Callahan, during a clipped postmortem, appeared more deflated by the loss than any he has gone through.

"It's tough, really tough," he said.

Asked at one point about a play call on a fourth-and-1, Callahan said "I don't know. Next question."

"We want to be optimistic," said safety Anthony Dorsett in the gloomy locker room. "But I'm as confused (by the team's three-game losing streak) as anybody.

"Should we be happy because we held the Kansas City to 17 points? They are a good team. You can't take that away from them. But they're not an unbeatable team."

But the Chiefs are unbeaten in seven games, the best start their coach Dick Vermeil has had. Twice before -- with Philadelphia in 1980 and St. Louis in 1999 -- his teams reached 6-0 but each time lost the seventh game.

The Raiders defense deserved better than it got, holding the Chiefs -- the NFL's highest scoring team entering the game -- to just two touchdowns, one of them a gift.

Although Priest Holmes rushed 27 times for 123 yards and had four catches for 50 yards, he was held to a 4.6 average running the ball as the Raiders held the Chiefs to 125 yards on the ground -- the least they have permitted since the opener.

They also harried quarterback Trent Green to 11-for-22 accuracy, although passes of 40 yards to Tony Gonzalez and 43 to Eddie Kennison helped him pass for 206 yards -- a figure Tuiasosopo exceeded in one half.

But the Raiders didn't score until the 8:06 mark of the fourth quarter when Sebastian Janikowski's 27-yard field goal brought Oakland to within 10-3.

But with a chance to tie the game with a touchdown, Raider punt returner Phillip Buchanon let Jason Baker's punt slip through his hands with 6:21 to play and the Chiefs made it 17-3 on Holmes' 2- yard run at 4:57.

The gift touchdown was costly because the Raiders finally broke the Kansas City end zone. With Tuiasosopo completing passes to Charlie Garner for 17 and 19 yards and Jerry Porter for 18, the Raiders drove 65 yards in seven plays and Zack Crockett scored from the 1 with 2:25 to play.

The Raiders defense held but Baker punted them all the way back to their 6, where the Raiders put up what may have been their last crack at rescuing this lost season.

"I told Tui that he could write his name right here today," said Porter, who caught four passes for 69 yards including a 34-yarder in his return after five weeks off due to hernia surgery. "And he did."

Just not quite enough.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
	RUSHING --
		KC: 	P.Holmes 27-123, T.Green 2-6, T.Richardson 1-5, J.Morton 1-(-9).
		OAK: 	C.Garner 10-32, T.Wheatley 5-32, M.Tuiasosopo 4-20, 
            A.Whitted 1-11, J.Fargas 3-3, R.Gannon 1-1, Z.Crockett 1-1.
	PASSING --
		KC: 	T.Green 11-22-1-206.
		OAK: 	M.Tuiasosopo 16-28-1-224, R.Gannon 10-19-1-58.
	RECEIVING --
		KC: 	P.Holmes 4-50, T.Gonzalez 3-87, J.Morton 2-19, E.Kennison 143, T.Richardson 1-7.
		OAK: 	C.Garner 8-71, J.Rice 5-71, J.Porter 4-69, T.Brown 4-42, T.Wheatley 1-20, 
                      T.Johnson 1-8, Z.Crockett 1-5, D.Jolley 1-0, J.Fargas 1-(-4).
	MISSED FIELD GOALS --
		KC: 	M.Andersen 50.

[corandval]

that was 2003

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by corandval

that was 2003

Thats what I was thinking...

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by GOATSE

October 16, 2005

If you're gonna give a history lesson, you should at least get the date correct...

[corandval]

How could you get that one wrong. It's was the only year we started 9-0!

[Hammock Parties]

Yeah, I always forget to change the damn date...

[corandval]

Great photos though!