The Chiefs visit Denver for a late-season Saturday afternoon game. Don Criqui and Bob Trumpy are on hand to bring us the action.
The season is over for Kansas City. A seven-game losing streak following a 3-1 start ended their hopes of competing in the AFC West. They tell us that head coach John Mackovic will be evaluated after the season.
Meanwhile, the Broncos’ playoff hopes are hanging by the thread. They must win their final two games and need either the Dolphins, Patriots, Jets, or Raiders to lose their final two to secure a spot.
The good news is that one small piece of that puzzle has already slid into place. The Jets lost to the Bears in the early Saturday game.
Garcia Lane is returning back punts for the Chiefs, the only actual instance I know of a person with the first name Garcia, other than the fictional whistleblower guy in the movie The Pelican Brief.
The first half moves along quickly, with no penalty flags thrown until well into the second quarter. Don and Bob don't quite know what to make of a quiet Denver crowd, but there isn’t a lot happening. The Broncos get deep into Kansas City territory once but Elway is intercepted in the end zone.
Elway sets the single season passing yardage record for Denver, surpassing Craig Morton's 1981 mark of 3,195 yards. Interestingly, Broncos receivers have collectively gone the entire season without a 100-yard receiving game.
They mention that the Chiefs have a 14-year playoff drought going. Their last appearance was in 1971, when they lost to the Dolphins in the longest game in NFL history on Christmas Day. That loss concluded a very successful decade from 1962 to 1971 in which the Chiefs went 90-42-8 with three AFL titles and a Super Bowl victory.
The Broncos score just before the half when Elway beats the Kansas City blitz and fires to Vance Johnson for the touchdown and take a 7-3 lead into halftime.
The Chiefs narrow the margin to 7-6 in the third quarter. Bob Trumpy is concerned about the Broncos’ listless performance. "Looking stiff." "No life." "Waiting to lose."
Elway connects with Vance Johnson on a 48-yard pass play that gets them to the Kansas City 30. There are still more than four minutes left in the quarter. Could the scoreless third quarter streak finally be coming to an end?
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| Vance Johnson breaking free for 48 yards |
They send Sammy Winder up the middle for a gain of 2. The fans boo, I'm assuming due to the play call. On 2nd and 8, Elway chucks the ball up under pressure and it is intercepted by Albert Lewis at the 2-yard line.
And so the streak of scoreless third quarters reaches 8 games, or half of an NFL season.
The Broncos have the ball as the fourth quarter opens. They cross midfield on a 20-yard completion to Steve Watson. But two plays later, Elway is intercepted by Lloyd Burruss on 3rd and 10. It's Elway's fourth interception of the game.
The Chiefs' drive stalls at the Bronco 37. The punt is a touchback so the Broncos take over at their own 20 with just over nine minutes remaining and still clinging to a one-point lead.
There's a skip in the recording because the next thing we see is the Chiefs have the ball at the Denver 8. Wait, what did we miss?
Turns out, just another Elway interception. He was intercepted by Lewis on the first play of the Broncos' drive, setting the Chiefs up at the Denver 28. None of the previous four interceptions had cost the Broncos anything more than a little field position. But this gave the Chiefs their best field position of the day. A 7-yard touchdown pass from Todd Blackledge to Stephone Paige and the Nick Lowery extra point puts Kansas City back in front, 13-7.
I realized while watching that this was the "Janet Elway" game. I remember the story from years ago and had to look it up to refresh the details. From an article written by T.J. Simers of the LA Times:
The Denver faithful were booing Elway, as they did so often during those early years, and after a fifth interception, a fan stood and let Janet Elway’s husband really have it.
“You can get your . . . wife pregnant, but you can’t . . . do anything else, ya bum.”
Janet Elway popped the guy. Slapped him right in the face before a number of Elway’s college buddies jumped in to save the heckler’s life.
For context, John and Janet's daughter Jessica was two months old, having been born in October, about a week before the previous meeting between Denver and Kansas City. I imagine this was big news around town.
Football players are real people, which is hard to remember. I don't know why John Elway was having an off day. He was still a young quarterback and continuing to deal with the pressure and expectations of an inpatient fan base. Maybe it had been a rough week with the baby. Who really knows?
The same goes for the entire Broncos team. Bob Trumpy was rightfully critical of their lackadaisical performance. But in their defense, they were only six days removed from a really tough overtime loss in which they had surrendered a two-touchdown lead to the rival Raiders, one that had likely cost them the AFC West title. They still had slim hopes of making the playoffs as a wild card, but as described above, they were going to need a lot of help. Perhaps the players could see the writing on the wall. Even if they are professionals, I imagine it's hard to get up for a game if there is a sense that the season is already lost. They are only human.
However, falling behind seems to have given the Broncos a spark. Elway completes a 12-yarder to Steve Sewell. Then a 14-yarder to Watson. Then a 29-yarder to Vance Johnson, and with that catch Vance becomes the Broncos' first 100-yard receiver of the season.
It really does seem like the Broncos are done messing around and are going to take control. But on a 3rd-and-3 from the Kansas City 8, Elway pitches to Sewell and the ball winds up on the ground. The Chiefs recover. It's the fifth consecutive Denver drive to end with a turnover.
Only 2:30 remains in the game, but the Broncos have all their timeouts remaining. But if the Chiefs can manage a first down or two they might be able to run out the clock.
They can't get a first down and as an added bonus they stop the clock twice. At the two-minute warning it's 4th and 2 and the Broncos have only used one timeout. The Chiefs punt it back to the Broncos with 1:53 left.
The first play is a 42-yard catch-and-run by Steve Watson that gets them inside the Kansas City 20. Elway converts a 4th and inches at the Kansas City 8. Winder scores three plays later on a 3rd and goal from the 1.
This one takes its place in a long list of Broncos games from the Reeves era that were pretty ugly for three and a half quarters yet because John Elway was the quarterback they came away with a win. After the Chiefs took the lead with seven minutes remaining, John Elway completed 8 of 8 passes for 122 yards.
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