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Public Transportation Returns to Arrowhead on Gamedays

THE MORNING AFTER – DALLAS
October 12th – 6:07 AM

There are two basic fundamentals in football. These two points of emphasis are preached throughout gridiron games and practices from the pee wee ranks, right on up to the professional level. Those two fundamentals are the ability to effectively run the football and tackling.

The Chiefs did neither effectively on Sunday.

The result was Heartbreak Hotel on Lamar Hunt’s day at Arrowhead. The Game That Never Was turned out to be a star-studded affair that saw NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in attendance, QB Len Dawson hoist the Super Bowl IV trophy into the air at halftime and countless other alumni revisiting Arrowhead, ultimately representing five decades of Chiefs football.

The Chiefs rolled back the throwbacks, while the Cowboys chipped in with some vintage wear of their own. The crowd was electric, a hefty dose of Dallas faithful spiced things up and the American Football League was once again on center stage. Lamar would have been proud.

The Game That Never Was turned out to be one that will forever be hard to forget. An instant classic was turned in between the two squads, albeit it at Arrowhead Stadium and not in the Cotton Bowl some 50 seasons ago (the entire Kansas City sports community has Lamar to thank for that – Thanks Lamar!).

The contest saw QB Matt Cassel make his best throws to date as a Chief, most notably the two biggest clutch plays of the game – a 25-yard strike on third-and-14 to WR Bobby Wade just under the two-minute mark and a fourth-and-seven 16-yard TD pass to WR Dwayne Bowe that tied things up at 20 with just 24 seconds to play.

The Chiefs were successfully able to move the football the length of the football field, in crunch time, during the closing minutes. That is something that Chiefs fans haven’t witnessed in an incredibly long time.

“When we talked in [the locker room] after the game, I think the most important thing for our team to understand is that today was the first time that we really came together as a team,” QB Matt Cassel said. “The defensive side of the ball made some big plays for us and the offensive unit went down and scored when we needed to. We battled throughout the course of the day and we put ourselves in a position against a very good football team, the Dallas Cowboys, to win.

“That’s what we’re looking for,” Cassel continued. “The prior games that we’ve had we haven’t been in the game late, and that’s’ what we wanted to do. We wanted to show everybody that we can be in these games, especially against good football teams, and as long as we play better and execute, then we’re going to be a good football team.”

All of the above is what makes this loss hurt so badly. Despite one of the grittiest overall performances in recent Chiefs memory, this contest will be remembered for two critical errors – errors that came in the form of missed tackles on eerily similar TD tosses to Cowboys WR Miles Austin. One gave the ‘Boys the lead with two minutes to play, while the other sealed the deal in overtime.

“Defensively, we missed some tackles out there but I thought overall the guys competed to win the game,” Chiefs head coach Todd Haley said. “It wasn’t the result we wanted and I know the guys are all hurting.”

Austin finished the day with 10 catches for 250 yards – a Cowboys single-game franchise record. He filled in admirably at wide out for the injured Roy Williams, especially considering Austin had only 278 yards receiving during the entire 2008 season. But at the end of the day, one could argue that those receiving totals should have nearly been cut in half by simply wrapping up the tackle.

“We told him, ‘Hey, you have to come through,” Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips said. “This is your time, you wanted the opportunity and you worked hard for it.’ You know he has been working hard in practice and he hadn’t been getting the ball a whole lot. When he was in there as the third wide receiver we told him if he was going to be a starter that he needed to come through. He said, ‘I will coach,’ and he certainly did.”

Negative plays again haunted the Chiefs as well, primarily in the run game. At one point, RB Larry Johnson was thrown for a seven-yard loss behind the line of scrimmage just as soon as he was handed the football. When a back that doesn’t dance behind the line is thrown for a loss of that magnitude, it’s not a good sign.

Overall the Chiefs averaged just 2.5 yards per ground attempt, a number increased by Cassel’s 7.0 average from four scrambles. In total, 15 negative plays were turned in when four sacks and seven penalties are added into the equation.

“I thought that, offensively in spurts, we showed some progress,” Haley said. “Although 15 minus plays again-that’s the area to me, offensively, that has to change. We have to improve that.”

But despite the negative plays, a major missed tackle and a blocked field goal attempt with just about three minutes to play, the Chiefs still saw multiple opportunities present themselves to win a football game.

After Bowe’s TD cut the Dallas lead to one point, Haley faced a decision – to kick or not to kick? Do the Chiefs go for two points and the win, laying all on the line for one play or do they kick the extra point and head into overtime. Haley chose the latter.

“I thought we had moved the ball sufficiently and our defense had played well enough with just two missed tackles for big plays,” Haley explained. “I thought we had played well enough to feel like whether we won the toss or not we had a chance to win the game, which I think was the case. We won the toss, got a productive first down, and a penalty put us in a bad spot. Anytime you get the ball back a couple of times in overtime I’m not worried.

“I think the high percentage thing there [at the end of regulation] is to kick the extra point and get the thing to overtime,” Haley continued.

Haley is correct. NFL teams have only been successful on about 40% of two-point conversion attempts over the past decade. Backed with Haley’s rationale and a 50% chance of winning the coin toss, Haley’s decision makes sense. It made even more sense when the Chiefs won the coin toss and started overtime with the football.

As soon as the Chiefs won the toss, you could feel a jolt of electricity fill Arrowhead. When the Chiefs punted the football five plays later, hope was not lost; it was time to start the “defense” chants.

Just 63 seconds later the Chiefs had the football back. The defense had forced a three-and-out deep in Dallas territory, ultimately giving Kansas City the football back at mid-field for KC’s second possession of overtime. The writing appeared to be on the wall for K Ryan Succop’s first NFL game-winner. Arrowhead felt victory.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. We all know what happened.

Did the Chiefs show improvement yesterday? Certainly. Did they play an inspiring game on a very special day for the franchise, despite entering the contest winless and labeled as heavy underdogs? No doubt. Did they have a chance to legitimately win this football game? Yes.

That’s what hurts. The Chiefs were there, and they were close, but they just couldn’t finish. Twice.

“We just need to win a game,” S Jarrad Page said. “It’s just disappointing that we continue to do things that keep us from winning.”