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Mother Nature made them wait, but once the Chiefs hit the field at Arrowhead Stadium they were able to produce some thunder and lightning of their own, beating the St. Louis Rams by a 21-17 count to capture the Governor’s Cup and finish the preseason with a 2-2 record.

The game’s kickoff was delayed 90 minutes because of a series of thunderstorms that rolled through the Truman Sports Complex. Once the skies cleared, things remained stormy for the Chiefs as RB Dantrell Savage fumbled the opening kickoff. The ball was recovered by St. Louis at the Kansas City 22-yard line. But the Chiefs defense answered the challenged, holding the Rams to just a field goal, as Kris Brown kicked a 35-yarder to give St. Louis an early 3-0 lead.

KR B.J. Sams handled the return duties on the next kickoff and gave the Chiefs good field position at their own 38-yard line with a 30-yard return. The offense moved largely on the legs of RB Kolby Smith. He handled the ball on five of the seven plays, including a 14-yard touchdown run off right tackle where he bulled into the end zone pylon with several Rams defenders holding on. K Connor Barth added the PAT kick and the Chiefs held a 7-3 lead.

Another good return by Sams set up the Chiefs next score, as he brought back a punt 34 yards and gave his team starting field position at its own 44-yard line. QB Brodie Croyle led the offense on a nine-play, 56-yard drive with most of the work done by rookie RB Jamaal Charles. He carried five times for 34 yards. But Smith got the score, hitting over left tackle for a four-yard touchdown run. The PAT kick from K Nick Novak moved the Chiefs lead to 14-3.

The Chiefs began the second quarter with the defense forcing a turnover, as SS Bernard Pollard ripped the ball from the hands of St. Louis RB Travis Minor. DE Brian Johnston recovered at the Rams 31-yard line. QB Damon Huard came on to run the offense and in two plays and 29 seconds he had the Chiefs in the end zone again, hitting WR Bobby Sippio with an 11-yard touchdown pass. The PAT kick from Barth gave the Chiefs a 21-3 lead.

Under QB Brock Berlin, the Rams finished up the half with an 11-play, 66-yard drive scoring drive. Berlin found WR Dane Looker at the goal line for a 20-yard touchdown pass and the PAT sliced the Chiefs lead to 21-10 at intermission.

The Rams dominated the ball in the third quarter, holding it for more than 11 minutes. Under the direction of QB Bruce Gradkowski, they marched 80 yards on 12 plays as RB Lance Ball scored on a two-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Brown’s PAT kick shaved the Chiefs lead to 21-17.

The teams went back and forth for the rest of the final period, but neither found the end zone. The Chiefs used the legs of RBs Jackie Battle and Dantrell Savage to move the ball as the Kansas City offense finished with 157 rushing yards.

The Chiefs will kick off their regular-season schedule next Sunday, visiting the New England Patriots in Foxboro, MA. Kickoff is noon.

HALFTIME QUOTES
Head Coach Herm Edwards on the first half: “The first groups I thought played pretty well.  We put our seconds in there after about the first quarter and then our seconds and our thirds. It’s a shame they went down on that drive and scored on us.“

On how his team responded to the delay to start the game: “You wonder as a coach what’s going to happen when you have a delay like that, especially in the last preseason game. These guys were very loose for that hour. They had the music going. I think it loosened us up, I really do, because these guys are trying so hard to do the right thing.  We didn’t play that well last week; we played a little tight early. But offensively I thought we did some good things tonight. Defensively we did some pretty good things.  We gave up the turnover on the first play and then we held them to three which I thought was big. It was similar to last week. Last week we fumbled and gave them a touchdown, this time we give them a three. I thought our defense played well. We got a turnover and we scored off a turnover. So, we did a lot of things good in the first half offensively. 

“We’ve got to cut 22 guys this week and there are some guys who stood out so far. Now, the second half we’ll play the rest of our guys; we’ll unload our bench.“
   
QB Brodie Croyle on the first half: “It was good for us to go down and score. We needed that after last week. We’re not a bad offense. We weren’t down on ourselves.  We came out here and gave ourselves a little bit of confidence. Hopefully, we got things going in the right direction.“

On the return of RB Jamaal Charles to the lineup: “Jamaal Charles: the man can run. There’s no doubt about it. He’s probably one of the fastest football players I’ve ever been around. The key word is football player. He is that. He’s picking up blitzes; great screen runner and will definitely help our football team.”

Rams Coach Scott Linehan
(On Defense in the beginning)
“I love the way we started getting the turnover, they just got us on spot runs and got us a little bit out of rhythm.” 

(On the weather)
“Oh I don’t know, you could always blame something, we both have to play in it. So it really doesn’t matter.” 

(going into the second half)
“I feel good, I love finishing strong like that. With the drive and score,  I think we have had our last three we have done that as an offense. That is the way you play the whole game.” 

(About the radios throughout the game)
“Its awful, none of us have radios I don’t have one. We are running plays like they do in high school.”