THIS WEEK IN CHIEFS HISTORY

[Hammock Parties]

Yes, it's that time again, folks. Part 3 of our ongoing 2006 series here at Chiefsplanet...

THIS WEEK IN CHIEFS HISTORY

September 14, 1997 (http://slam.canoe.ca/97NFLWeek3/sep14_buf_kc.html)

KANSAS CITY 22, BUFFALO 16

Blitzing Chiefs make final 27 seconds a scream

By JOE POSNANSKI


Reggie Tongue screamed out the defensive signals with all of his voice, all of his heart, but his teammates could not hear. The crowd was too loud. It didn't matter anyway, everybody knew exactly what the call was. The Chiefs were going after the quarterback.

"Right now, baby, right now,'' cornerback James Hasty screamed, and nobody could hear him either, but they all knew this was the time.

Buffalo had the ball on the Chiefs' 7. First down. Twenty-seven seconds remained. The Bills trailed by six. Sometimes, defenses back off in these moments, they backpedal and hope for a mistake - the old flee-and-pray defense - but Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham is not that kind of man.

"Attack,'' he screamed.

"Attack,'' safety Reggie Tongue screamed.

"Here it is,'' Pellom McDaniels said, and he blitzed, everybody blitzed, Bills quarterback Todd Collins felt the pressure, he fell backward, he threw the ball to Quinn Early. Chiefs cornerback Mark McMillian somehow stuck his hand in the middle and knocked the ball away.

"Wooo,'' McMillian screamed, and he waved his arm like a cowboy whirling a lasso.

"Wooo,'' the crowd returned, and Cunningham sent in the same play, the all-out blitz, and running back Greg Hill ran to the other side of the field, he could not bear to watch. Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer stared hard, the way he does in such moments, as if his glare alone can somehow inspire his players.

"We figured we would send everything at them,'' Schottenheimer said. "We would force them to make the play to beat us. '' Second down, eight men attacked, Vaughn Booker crashed toward Collins, who threw the ball away. Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson leaped up in his box.

Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt did not leap up. There were still two more plays left.

"You never know what will happen at the end,'' Hunt said.

Third down. Tension swept through Arrowhead Stadium. Surely, the Chiefs' luck would not hold up.

Six days earlier, Kansas City beat Oakland in the final seconds, on a final miraculous play, in one of those games that takes up all of your karma, and surely everyone in the whole building felt exactly like quarterback Elvis Grbac, who wondered whether this time the Chiefs would have their hearts broken.

"We never thought that way,'' safety Jerome Woods said. "We just thought about getting their quarterback. There was so much noise, so much pressure, we just wanted to get to him. '' Again, the blitz came. This time Woods squeezed through, smashed into Collins just as he threw, the ball popped into the air, lingered, like a balloon dancing in the wind and then fell softly to the ground. Arrowhead Stadium exhaled. Fourth down.

And finally, it fell to this, one play for the game, with a crowd losing control, with a pumped-up defense, with the cheerleaders looking toward the field, and Hill staring at the ground, and Schottenheimer glaring, and Hunt hoping, and the crowd chanting "defense,'' and McDaniels asking for an even louder sound and Tongue screaming out defensive signals nobody could hear.

Nobody needed to hear.

"Every play, the coach said 'Go get 'em,' '' Woods said.

"That's such an amazing thing to hear when you're a defensive player. We have all these young guys, but Coach Cunningham and Coach Schottenheimer trusted us to make the play. They just said 'Go after them. ' We went after them.''

Linebacker Troy Dumas, one of those young guys, rushed around the end, through noise he had not heard since the loudest Saturday afternoons since he played for the Cornhuskers in Lincoln, Neb.

"The guy I lined up against couldn't hear the snap,'' Dumas said. "He never had a chance. Boy it was loud.''

Dumas blasted Collins, who somehow threw the ball anyway. That Collins kid isn't a great quarterback, but he sure is tough. The ball fluttered to the middle of the field, toward Bills receiver Steve Tasker and McMillian. The two sort of wrestled. Tasker ended up on the ground. McMillian ended up with the football. The roar would not fade.

Some Bills complained that there was pass interference, and maybe there was, but it had to end this way, with the fans standing, and players hugging, and McMillian running around with his arms out like a child pretending to be an airplane. The defense stood up. The Chiefs have won two straight games.

Schottenheimer yelled something at his players, something about how proud he felt. Nobody could hear him.


NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
BUFFALO 0 3 7 6 16
KANSAS CITY 6 3 0 13 22 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER: KAN - FG, PETE STOYANOVICH 46 YD, 6:40. Drive: 11 plays,
54 yards in 5:03. Key plays: Grbac 19-yard pass
to Anders to Kansas City 37; Grbac 7-yard pass
to Popson on 3rd-and-2 to Buffalo 48; Grbac
9-yard pass to Hughes to Buffalo 33. KANSAS
CITY 3-0
KAN - FG, PETE STOYANOVICH 45 YD, 13:52. Drive: 6 plays,
30 yards in 2:38. Key plays: Grbac 34-yard pass
to Rison to Buffalo 18. KANSAS CITY 6-0
2ND QUARTER: BUF - FG, STEVE CHRISTIE 46 YD, 7:11. Drive: 9 plays, 32
yards in 3:30. Key plays: Collins 11-yard pass
to Reed to Kansas City 47; Collins 16-yard pass
to Reed on 3rd-and-10 to Kansas City 31. KANSAS
CITY 6-3
KAN - FG, PETE STOYANOVICH 42 YD, 13:57. Drive: 9 plays,
47 yards in 1:07. Key plays: Grbac 22-yard pass
to Rison on 3rd-and-15 to Buffalo 40; Anders
12-yard run to Buffalo 28. KANSAS CITY 9-3
3RD QUARTER: BUF - TD, ANDRE REED 77 YD PASS FROM TODD COLLINS (STEVE
CHRISTIE KICK), 2:45. Drive: 2 plays, 86 yards
in 0:48. BUFFALO 10-9
4TH QUARTER: BUF - FG, STEVE CHRISTIE 33 YD, 0:31. Drive: 6 plays, 57
yards in 1:42. Key plays: 18-yard pass
interference on McMillian on 3rd-and-9 to
Buffalo 47; 40-yard pass interference penalty
on Hasty to Kansas City 13. BUFFALO 13-9
KAN - TD, TAMARICK VANOVER 94 YD KICKOFF RETURN (PETE
STOYANOVICH KICK), 0:47. KANSAS CITY 16-13
BUF - FG, STEVE CHRISTIE 30 YD, 3:08. Drive: 5 plays, 49
yards in 2:21. Key plays: Collins 45-yard pass
to Early to Kansas City 16. BUFFALO 16, KANSAS
CITY 16
KAN - TD, TONY RICHARDSON 1 YD PASS FROM ELVIS GRBAC (PAT
BLOCKED), 8:05. Drive: 6 plays, 50 yards in
2:55. Key plays: Tongue interception at
midfield; Hill 16-yard run to Buffalo 24; Grbac
16-yard run to Buffalo 5. KANSAS CITY 22-16



TEAM STATISTICS

BUF KAN
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 16 17
Rushing 2 7
Passing 11 8
Penalty 3 2
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 4-17 3-14
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-1 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 325 267
Total plays 70 64
Average gain 4.6 4.2
NET YARDS RUSHING 50 107
Rushes 23 25
Average per rush 2.2 4.3
NET YARDS PASSING 275 160
Completed-attempted 22-43 20-37
Yards per pass 5.9 4.1
Sacked-yards lost 4-22 2-19
Had intercepted 2 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 7-43.4 7-47.6
RETURN YARDAGE 152 245
Punts-returns 3-25 4-25
Kickoffs-returns 6-127 5-193
Interceptions-returns 0-0 2-27
PENALTIES-YARDS 6-55 6-93
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 0-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 31:32 28:28


PLAYER STATISTICS

Missed field goals: Kansas City (Pete Stoyanovich 48).

Buffalo rushing: Antowain Smith 11-30, Thurman Thomas 10-17, Todd
Collins 1-3, Andre Reed 1-0.

Kansas City rushing: Greg Hill 17-59, Kimble Anders 5-25, Elvis Grbac
2-15, Marcus Allen 1-8.

Buffalo passing: Todd Collins 22-43 for 297 yards, 2 INT, 1 TD.

Kansas City passing: Elvis Grbac 20-37 for 179 yards, 0 INT, 1 TD.

Buffalo receiving: Andre Reed 4-113, Lonnie Johnson 4-30, Thurman
Thomas 4-23, Quinn Early 3-67, Eric Moulds 3-39, Jay Riemersma 2-22,
Antowain Smith 2-3.

Kansas City receiving: Andre Rison 5-75, Kimble Anders 5-31, Ted
Popson 4-20, Tony Gonzalez 3-34, Greg Hill 1-9, Danan Hughes 1-9,
Tony Richardson 1-1.


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[Hammock Parties]

Bonus article!

Late mistake sinks Bills

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The game was there for the Buffalo Bills to take.

When Phil Hansen blocked Pete Stoyanovich's extra point try Sunday with almost seven minutes remaining, the Kansas City Chiefs held only a six-point lead with plenty of time left for the Bills.

And the Bills looked ready to take advantage when they drove to the Chiefs 7 with 27 seconds to go and four shots at the end zone, even though they were out of timeouts.

But a furious package of blitzing kept Buffalo quarterback Todd Collins offbalance and Mark McMillian intercepted the last try, preserving the 22-16 win.

"It feels pretty bad. They sent a lot of guys after me," said Collins, whose best chance was probably on the first play from the 7, when he released the ball a little too quickly as he tried to hit Quinn Early.

"To be seven yards away and to have four shots and not get in -- it hurts really bad. It was a little bit helter-skelter out there. We didn't have any timeouts. You can't take a sack in that situation."

McMillian said he knew the Bills would come his way.

"I knew all four plays they were going to come after me," he said. "It feels good. If they hadn't, I wouldn't be doing all these interviews."

McMillian picked off a pass intended for Steve Tasker. There were those on the Bills sideline who thought McMillian got to Tasker too early, and the Buffalo bench was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

"I'm going to stay away from the officiating," Bills coach Marv Levy said. "I think I'm better off staying away from that."

A dull game dominated by the field goal kickers came to life when Buffalo pulled off a flea-flicker. Collins hit Andre Reed on a 77-yard play for a 10-9 Bills lead when Reed got behind cornerback Dale Carter in the third quarter.

Steve Christie hit the second of his three field goals to make it 13-9 with 14:13 left.

But Tamarick Vanover finally took his coach's advice to heart on the kickoff, stayed behind his blocking wedge and burst through a huge hole for a 94-yard kickoff return and a 16-13 Chiefs lead.

"I talked to him at the half, because Tamerick has got this tendency where he wants to take the ball out of the core, out of the blocking unit," Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer said. "Run where the blocking is. Of course, the very first one, he didn't get it. Then all of a sudden ... with his power and strength and his speed, when those creases are created -- and they are always in the middle -- he hits those things and he's out the gate."

No one touched Vanover.

"We ran the same coverage as we did on the one before and it had worked on that one," Tasker said. "They gambled we would do it again and we did. They tried to pick us up a little differently and they opened up a seam."

Christie, who had field goals of 46 and 33 yards, kicked a 30-yarder to tie the game 16-16 with 11:52 remaining.

But Reggie Tongue intercepted Collins' pass to set up the Chiefs at the 50. Greg Hill ran three straight time for 30 yards, then quarterback Elvis Grbac faked a handoff to Hill and rolled to his right for a 16-yard gain.

It was a play that had been put in Friday, and called when Kansas City noticed the linebacker on that side was worrying too much about Hill.

After Hill ran to the 1, Grbac connected with Tony Richardson for the 22-16 lead with 6:55 to play.

After the teams exchanged punts, and the Bills went on their fateful last drive.

"One minute, you are sitting on top of the world and the next minute you are at the bottom trying to fight your way back up," Bills end Bruce Smith said.

The Chiefs have spent their last two games building character. They won at Oakland on Monday on Grbac's 32-yard touchdown pass in the last seconds to Andre Rison.

"With 27 seconds left and they're on the 10-yard line and we hold them out, that's a positive right there," Chiefs end Pellom McDaniels said of the latest thriller. "That's something you can fall back on when you find yourself in that situation again."

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[Easy 6]

Alot of great old memories, alot of names that had slipped from memory. Pellom McDaniels Lives!

[teedubya]

Skip would never create a thread this cool.

[/hides]

[teedubya]

although technically, Sept 14th, would be...

LAST WEEK IN CHIEFS HISTORY.

[|Zach|]

Very cool

[Hammock Parties]

although technically, Sept 14th, would be...

LAST WEEK IN CHIEFS HISTORY.

No. Week 3.

[Hammock Parties]

Saturday bummmmmmmmmmmp!

[StcChief]

Nice reminder. Vanover what a waste.