The Broncos were coming off a disappointing loss to the Seahawks in which a game-tying field goal by Rich Karlis hit the upright, snapping their 10-game win streak. Although they had temporarily yielded control of the AFC West to Seattle, a matchup with the last place Kansas City Chiefs seemed to be the perfect way to get back on track. The Chiefs were 5-8 and had dropped four in a row.
But maybe it wouldn’t be quite that simple. Early in the broadcast Charlie Jones and Bob Griese mention that the Broncos are 16-32 all time against the Chiefs and 5-18 on the road. Also, it’s freezing cold. The wind chill is at -2 and only 38,494 are on hand at Arrowhead Stadium.
Denver doesn’t play particularly well in the first half, with most of their offense coming on a 48-yard touchdown pass from John Elway to Steve Watson. But Kansas City isn’t great either. With a minute left in the first half, the Chiefs are backed up in their own end of the field and it’s 3rd-and-12, trailing 10-0.
But then Bill Kenney goes deep for Stephone Paige, connecting on a 41-yard pass, and suddenly the Chiefs are in business. Dennis Smith gets his hands on two other Kenney passes, dropping an interception on one and tipping a third-down pass into Paige’s arms on another. Aided by the good fortune, Kansas City winds up scoring a touchdown to make it a three-point game at the half.
The touchdown didn’t seem to do much to sway the momentum in the Chiefs’ favor. On the first play of the second half, Tom Jackson strips Herman Heard of the ball, and the Broncos recover. They turn it into a Karlis field goal and a 13-7 lead. After a Chiefs punt, the Broncos are quickly in business again thanks to a 46-yard pass interference penalty and a 21-yard run by Elway. On first-and-goal from the KC 10, Sammy Winder carries 9 yards to the 1 yard line, and it seems like the Broncos are poised to put this game away.
However, an incomplete pass to Rick Parros and a run for no gain by Winder quickly make it 4th down. They mention that Denver is 4-for-4 on the season on 4th down conversions. Dan Reeves opts to go for it. Winder is stuffed.
However, the Chiefs still can’t seem to shift the momentum in their favor. They go three-and-out on their remaining two drives of the third quarter.
The Chiefs had possession of the ball on their own 15 as the fourth quarter began. With the benefit of the wind at their backs, the momentum gradually begins to shift in their favor. Heard rushes of 13 and 9 yards and a 26-yard completion from Kenney to Carlos Carson set up a 46-yard field goal by Nick Lowery to make it 13-10.
The Broncos' drive stalls after six plays and they punt it back to the Chiefs. Kenney finds Carson for a 36-yard completion on 3rd-and-10 and on the next play hits Henry Marshall for 29 yards to the Denver 11-yard line. The Broncos' D keeps them out of the end zone, but Lowery comes on to attempt a field goal. His kick glances off the upright, but goes through. Tie score.
Again, the Broncos can't move the ball and punt it back to the Chiefs. A 24-yard return by J.T. Smith gives them the ball at midfield with 4:25 remaining. Kenney finds Carson for 12 yards and then Heard rushes once for 11 yards and two more times for a total of eight. Kenney is sacked on 3rd-and-2 by Rick Dennison to end the drive, but Lowery comes on and boots his third field goal of the quarter to give the Chiefs their first lead of the game at the two-minute warning.
There's still time left on the clock for Elway and the Broncos to put something together, and they get a big boost when Gerald Willhite returns the kickoff 40 yards. On this particular YouTube video, there must have been a recording error because there are a few plays missing in here. Suddenly, the Broncos are in field goal territory. They've given us plenty of shots of Karlis and reminded us all what happened the previous week in an almost identical situation.
The barefoot kicker comes on to attempt to force overtime. This kick is longer than the previous week - 42 yards - and we've already mentioned the freezing temperatures. The Broncos are letting the clock run down as far as they can before kicking, but then they wind up having to call timeout because they aren’t ready, perhaps “icing” their own kicker.
 |
| Karlis awaits the game-tying attempt |
Well, whatever happens, it can’t be as bad as the previous week where he hit the upright, can it?
Actually, it can be. This time he hits the left upright and it bounces back onto the field. Chiefs win.
Although disappointing, the loss doesn't end up having a detrimental effect on the Broncos' playoff hopes. The following week, Kansas City crushes Seattle 34-7, breaking Seattle's win streak and setting up a Week 16 winner-take-all clash between the Broncos and Seahawks. So if the master plan was to let the Chiefs have this one in order to boost their confidence, which they would then use to bring down the Seahawks.....brilliant.
No comments:
Post a Comment