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In-game analysis Chiefs prevail in key AFC West showdown with Raiders
Posted: Monday November 29, 1999 09:17 AM
The Football Fiend is live in Oakland filing reports to keep you up with the action between the Chiefs and Raiders. Game over Say what you want about kickers, but having a good one will get you places. Ask the Kansas City Chiefs. After Oakland missed a go-ahead field goal minutes earlier, Pete Stoyanovich split the upright from 44 yards out on the game's final play, helping the Chiefs gain a crucial game in the AFC West standings. Credit Kansas City coach Gunther Cunningham for good clock management on the game-winning drive as the Chiefs gave Stoyanovich just enough time to bury the Raiders and send the crowd here home stunned. 6:24 remaining 4th quarter Kansas City caught an enormous break on some sloppy ball handling by Raiders backup tight end Derrick Walker. After catching a crossing pass from Gannon, Walker was turning up the right sideline when he was tackled from behind by Chiefs safety Jerome Woods. Walker lost the ball as he twisted to the ground, and Chiefs cornerback Cris Dishman picked it up and ran it from 40 yards out to knot the game up again at 34. Oakland questioned the ruling on the field, but the replays showed that the correct call was made by the officials on the field. The fans at Network Associates Coliseum didn't agree with the ruling, but the play appeared to be too close to overturn on replay. Walker made the mistake of carrying the ball with his inside hand allowing Woods to track him down from behind and jar the ball loose as Walker spun down to the turf. 13:38 remaining 4th quarter Tony Gonzalez atoned for his earlier drop that led to Woodson's interception return for a touchdown by catching a crossing pass from Elvis Grbac and outrunning Raiders linebacker Greg Biekert down the left sideline for a 73-yard touchdown catch. Gonzalez came across the middle on a drag route after the Chiefs had run a play-action fake to running back Donnell Bennett into the line. Oakland's defense bought the fake and pursued to the middle of the field assuming that Bennett had the ball. Biekert appeared to recognize the play fake and stay with Gonzalez, but as the two were crossing the middle of the field about five yards off the line of scrimmage, Biekert got caught up in the traffic of pursuing linebackers allowing Gonzalez to spring free of Biekert. Grbac did an excellent job selling the play-action by holding the ball on his hip until Gonzalez had cleared the linebackers. 0:03 remaining 3rd quarter Charles Woodson picked a nice time to get his first interception of the season. Woodson's shoestring pick came thanks to a dropped pass by Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez. Elvis Grbac got pressure on a blitz from the left side of the Raiders' defense and had to unload the ball more quickly than he wanted to. Gonzalez was a bit late in turning around to pick up the ball coming out of Grbac's hand, but he was still in good enough position to make the catch. The ball slipped right through his hands, and Woodson made a very athletic play to pick the ball off the top of his shoes and dart 15 yards nto the end zone to open up a 14-point lead for Oakland. The Raiders have done it with defense in the third quarter, as interceptions by linebacker Greg Biekert and Woodson deep in Chiefs' territory led to 14 quick points for Oakland. 4:06 remaining 3rd quarter Rickey Dudley has fooled the Chiefs for most of the afternoon. Dudley was matched up with Derrick Thomas on his scoring catch on first and goal from the 3, and while Thomas would've been a good matchup for Dudley earlier in his career, the aging Chiefs linebacker doesn't have the speed to stay with the athletic Dudley. Gannon's pass to Dudley in the corner of the end zone was perfectly placed so that only Dudley could catch the pass. Dudley made a pretty over-the-shoulder catch to put Oakland up seven in the middle of the third. For someone who has been routinely criticized for not having good hands, Dudley has done a nice job catching the ball on Sunday once he has beaten his man downfield. 5:15 remaining 3rd quarter Oakland's offensive line got away with holding on Chiefs defensive tackle -- and former Raider -- Chester McGlockton on Rich Gannon's 6-yard touchdown run that tied the game. McGlockton got an excellent jump off the ball, but center Barrett Robbins and right guard Gennaro DiNapoli pinched him between the two of them, and held on for dear life while Gannon got out of the pocket. As the pocket collapsed, McGlockton slipped off of the double-team block and made a lunging try for Gannon but came up short. Gannon weaved his way through the vacant middle of the field to score the game-tying touchdown. Gannon has been getting pressured a lot in the second and third quarters, and the Raiders could get a significant boost if he is able to scramble out of trouble and pick up some yardage as he did on the touchdown run.
8:56 remaining 3rd quarter Rich Gannon has done a very poor job of looking off his receivers since his second-quarter touchdown pass to Rickey Dudley. On that play Gannon froze the defense by pump-faking to Tim Brown in the corner of the end zone and then coming back all the way across the field to Dudley on the back side. On Cris Dishman's 47-yard interception return for a touchdown, Gannon locked onto Tyrone Wheatley coming out of the backfield, and then threw a poor pass behind Wheatley that fell right into Dishman's waiting arms. By not looking off the defense before coming back to Wheatley, Gannon allowed the linebackers to follow Wheatley to the play, and Dishman was able to play soft coverage behind Wheatley coming out of the backfield. 10:20 remaining 3rd quarter Kansas City knotted the game up at 13 following a nine-play, 31-yard drive that led to a 37-yard Pete Stoyanovich field goal. The Chiefs stayed committed to the running game for most of the drive, but the big play was a 15-yard completion to Derrick Alexander that took the Chiefs down the Raiders' 21-yard line. Donnell Bennett, Mike Cloud and Tony Richardson all got carries on the drive for Kansas City, which continues to rotate its running backs nearly every play to keep a fresh back in the game. Grbac seems to be looking to Alexander on the outside in key passing situations, but the two couldn't connect in the end zone on a 1st down passing play from the 21.
At the half Oakland had success moving the football against Kansas City for most of the first half, and if not for two stalled drived in the red zone could be up 21-10 instead of 13-10. Raiders head coach Jon Gruden will likely tell his team to focus on executing in the red zone, because Oakland could have a sizable advantage rather than a tenuous one if they had performed better in key situations in the red zone. Kansas City needs to keep pounding the ball on the ground against the Raiders defense. Oakland is missing free safety Eric Turner and linebacker K.D. Williams today, so two of their best run-stoppers are out of the lineup. The Chiefs should be able to wear down the Raiders and get back in this game if they keep pounding the ball at them with their big running backs in the second half.
1:19 remaining 2nd quarter Rickey Dudley has been the go-to guy for Oakland in the first half, and never more so that on the Raiders' scoring drive late in the second quarter. Dudley caught a 24-yard pass from Rich Gannon early in the drive, and then capped off the eight-play, 73-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown grab to put the Raiders back on top 13-10. The touchdown pass was a beautiful bit of deception from Gannon, who pump-faked to Tim Brown running a corner route to the back left of the end zone, and then came back to the weak side to find Dudley open over the middle. Dudley has been getting off the line of scrimmage almost unimpeded during the first half, and if the Chiefs don't make an adjustment to have a linebacker or strong safety jam him off the line, then the Raiders might be looking at a really big game out of their big tight end.
4:51 remaining 2nd quarter Kansas City had problems of its own after crossing midfield in the middle of the second quarter. After Elvis Grbac marched the Chiefs into Raiders' territory, but a penalty and two incomplete passes forced the Chiefs to kick a 47-yard field goal. Grbac has been solid finding open receivers when he has had time to throw the ball, but Oakland has been getting pressure on Grbac forcing him from the pocket. Scrambling is his biggest weakness, and his ability to thorw on the run is subpar for a starting NFL quarterback. Grbac had receivers open on both the second- and third-down plays, but pressure from the Raiders front seven didn't allow him to make the throw that he wanted to, and incomplete passes forced Kansas City to kick the long field goal. 8:08 remaining 2nd quarter Oakland's offense stalled in the red zone for the second time, forcing it to settle for another Michael Husted field goal to pull within one point. Rich Gannon threw the ball well for most of the drive, but once the Raiders got inside Kansas City's 20-yard line, Gannon threw two incompletions and the drive was halted. Tim Brown was open on the third-and-7 play, but Gannon threw the ball too high to be caught, and the pass could've been intercepted by the Chiefs. Oakland has been moving the ball well in the middle of the field, but once they get deep into Kansas City territory the offense has tightened up. The Raiders will need to convert those opportunities into seven points instead of three to beat the Chiefs and stay in the AFC wild-card race.
12:30 remaining 2nd quarter Chiefs head coach Gunther Cunningham always tries to establish the running game first, but the Raiders did a nice job stopping Kansas City on the ground in the first quarter. Oakland knows that Kansas City thinks run first, so early in the game the Raiders were committing eight men in the box to stop the run. The Chiefs struggled moving the ball early as a result, but Grbac's ability to find his running backs out of the backfield helped keep the Oakland defense honest, which eventually opened things up for the running game. Kansas City warmed up the offense with its first possession of the second quarter, marching down the field to jump out to a 7-3 lead over Oakland on a 2-yard touchdown run by Donnell Bennett. The Chiefs ran for only four yards on six carries in the first quarter. The Chiefs started to move the ball on the ground by mixing up the formations on Oakland early in the second quarter, and the result was several big gains on the ground by Bennett as part of a six-play, 52-yard drive that lasted 2:59. Bennett isn't the quickest back in the world, but he looked quick enough on the scoring drive when he got to the outside on a sweep play. The Chiefs would love to get ahead of Oakland and then let their running game go to work and try to tire out the Raiders' defense.
4:09 1st quarter The Raiders jumped out to a 3-0 lead with 4:09 to play in the first, capping off an efficient 40-yard drive with a 33-yard field goal from Michael Husted. Oakland took the ball at its own 45-yard line with 7:02 to play and moved down the field with a balanced mix or running and passing. Rich Gannon was 2-of-4 passing on the drive, with the two completions going to Tim Brown for 16 yards, and Rickey Dudley for 19 yards.
The Raiders recognized loose coverage from the Chiefs in the secondary, and ran Brown on a slant route over the middle in front of Cris Dishman. Dudley exploited a similar coverage scheme one play later on a seam route that took the ball down to the Chiefs' 15-yard-line with the 19-yard pickup. The Chiefs' defense buckled down at that point, forcing Oakland to kick the field goal. But the Raiders had an excellent chance to score with Brown wide open in the end zone on 2nd and 10, but Gannon delivered the ball late, and cornerback James Hasty made a great break on the ball to bat the pass away before Brown could grab it for the touchdown.
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