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CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- The last time the
Kansas City Chiefs
visited the Queen City, the elder George Bush was president, the NFL was recovering from a labor dispute and Chiefs kicker
Morten Andersen
was only in his sixth NFL season.
On Sunday, the Chiefs try to become just the ninth team since the AFL-NFL merger to inaugurate a season with a 10-0 record when they visit the
Cincinnati Bengals
. Seven of nine previous teams to win their first nine games since 1970 eventually reached the Super Bowl, and five of them won it.
"If someone's going to beat us, it's going to be a real good football team," said Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil, who seeks to become the fourth coach to guide three different teams to a 10-win season.
With their next three games against sub-.500 teams - Cincinnati, Oakland (2-7) and San Diego (2-7) - the Chiefs could be on their way to 12-0. But the Bengals, who have won their last three home games, believe they can end Kansas City's unbeaten run.
Cincinnati's leading receiver
Chad Johnson
even went so far as to repeatedly "guarantee" that the Chiefs will lose at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday.
"We will win - that's a guarantee," Johnson said of the upcoming game against the Chiefs immediately after Cincinnati's 34-27 victory over Houston last week. "It's no offense to their organization. It's just the way I feel. Some people might not like it, but I'm confident that my teammates won't leave me hanging."
Twice last season, Johnson, a cousin of Tampa Bay receiver
Keyshawn Johnson
, made headlines by guaranteeing wins. His first prediction came true - a 38-3 rout of Houston for the team's first victory. But his second guarantee ended in a 27-20 loss to Cleveland.
New Bengals coach Marvin Lewis has succeeded in restraining the rhetoric, but knew that
Chad Johnson
was ready to unload.
"He (Johnson) told me last week that he was going to do that," Lewis said. "I just told him about what goes along with that - responsibilities."
However, along with the chatter,
Chad Johnson
has done his part to make the Bengals a contender, catching 48 passes for 807 yards and five touchdowns.
Cincinnati trails first-place Baltimore (5-4) by one game in the AFC North and can get immediate respect by knocking off the NFL's lone remaining unbeaten team.
The Bengals have not been at .500 after 10 games since 1990, the last time they had a winning record and made the playoffs. Kansas City's unbeaten run is the longest since the
Denver Broncos
started 13-0 in 1998. That year, the Broncos survived a scare at Cincinnati en route to a 33-26 victory in November.
And when the Chiefs last visited here in 1987, Jim Breech kicked a 32-yard field goal in overtime to give the Bengals a 30-27 victory.
The Chiefs are coming off their fourth 40-point performance of the season - a 41-20 rout of the
Cleveland Browns
.
Trent Green
threw for 368 yards and three scores and
Priest Holmes
accounted for 158 yards and his 13th and 14th touchdowns of the season.
Holmes recorded the first two 100-yard rushing games of his career in 1998 against Cincinnati as a member of the
Baltimore Ravens
- 173 yards on September 27 and a career-high 227 yards on November 22.
Kansas City has an NFL-high 287 points, an average of 31.9 per game. The Chiefs are on pace to reach 510 points, a figure that would break the team record of 467 set last season. Only eight teams have topped the 500-point barrier.
But the Chiefs are not just about offense. They rank fourth in scoring defense at 16.7 points per game, a drastic improvement from last season when they yielded an average of 28.6 points through nine games. Kansas City also has an NFL-high 19 interceptions and a plus-18 turnover ratio.
Kansas City leads the series, 11-9, including a 17-15 win in the last meeting in October 1993.
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