NFL Recap (Dallas-Kansas City)
Posted: Sun December 13, 1998 at 9:21 p.m. EST
KANSAS CITY 20, DALLAS 17
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Does anybody want to win the NFC
East?
With their second opportunity in as many weeks to clinch the division
title, the Dallas
Cowboys committed two costly third-quarter turnovers that the Kansas City Chiefs
converted into 14 points en route to a 20-17 victory.
The Cowboys (8-6) hold a one-game lead in the NFC East over Arizona,
which posted a 20-17 overtime win at Philadelphia. Dallas can clinch its
sixth East crown in seven years with a win in either of its remaining games
as it holds the tiebreaker edge over Arizona based on a sweep of the season
series.
With the victory, Marty Schottenheimer earned his 100th win with the
Chiefs (6-8) and continued to protect his streak of non-losing seasons.
Schottenheimer's worst mark in 10 seasons with Kansas City came in 1989,
when the Chiefs were 8-7-1.
"It was rather characteristic of the way we like to play," said
Schottenheimer. "It's not always pretty, but we keep staying the course
and we made enough plays to get the job done."
Kansas City linebacker Greg Manusky recovered
punt returner Tyrone Hughes' fumble at midfield with 11:13 remaining in the
third quarter. The Chiefs embarked on an 11-play drive that culminated in
Bam Morris' one-yard TD plunge, giving Kansas City a 10-3 lead with 4:01
left.
On the Cowboys' ensuing drive, Troy Aikman was intercepted
by safety Jerome Woods,
who returned it 28 yards to the Dallas 35. Six plays later, quarterback Rich Gannon scored on a
nine-yard jaunt to extend the margin to 17-3.
Morris rushed for a team season-high 138 yards on 27 carries for his
first 100-yard effort since November 2nd, 1997 against the New York Jets as a member of
the Baltimore Ravens.
The last Chiefs rusher to reach triple digits was Donnell Bennett with 115
in the season opener against Oakland.
"Before I came in today, I called my little sister and she said, `Keep
your legs pumping and run,'" said Morris. "I was thinking about that before
the game. I think it was a special moment. Marty told us we were going to
run the ball this week and the line did a great job."
"I thought we didn't tackle well," added Dallas coach Chan Gailey. "I
thought we had guys in position sometimes. But Bam just broke a bunch of
tackles out there today. He's a big guy and he's hard to wrap up. You
have to run through the guy. We didn't get him on the ground."
Gannon completed 19-of-41 passes for 200 yards.
Dallas rallied in the fourth quarter as Aikman hit Patrick Jeffers with a
28-yard scoring strike with 10:25 left to cut the deficit to 17-10. The
touchdown was Dallas' first since Emmitt Smith scored in the
fourth quarter of the Cowboys' 46-36 loss to Minnesota on Thanksgiving.
After Pete
Stoyanovich kicked a 43-yard field goal to give the Chiefs a 10-point
cushion, Aikman found Smith on an eight-yard TD pass with 2:48 left to pull
the Cowboys within three. But Morris converted a 3rd-and-2 with under two
minutes left to help the Chiefs run out the clock.
"We were going to run the ball to run the clock down," Morris said.
"They were telling me in the huddle to protect the ball. I didn't worry
about that, I just wanted to do my job."
Aikman was 18-of-35 for 199 yards and Smith finished with 42 yards on
14 carries as the Cowboys' ground game was halted for a second straight
week. After collecting a miniscule eight yards in a 22-3 loss to New
Orleans last weekend, Dallas managed just 51 yards against the Chiefs.
"It wasn't a lack of confidence," said Aikman. "We just didn't play
real well today. We've been without a lot of people offensively and
defensively as well."
The Cowboys were without starting cornerback Deion Sanders, who has been
hampered by a toe sprain for several weeks. They also lost wide receiver
Michael Irvin to a back
bruise in the second quarter.
"It is part of the game," added Aikman. "You've got to deal with
that. Obviously we are better with those players than without them."
Dallas holds a 4-3 edge in the all-time series.
The Chiefs marched 82 yards on 14 plays on their first drive but
settled for a 24-yard field goal by Stoyanovich.
Early in the second quarter, Hughes had a 35-yard punt return to the
Kansas City 32. Richie
Cunningham made a 32-yard kick seven plays later to knot the score with
4:21 to go in the first half.
Kansas City wide receiver Danan Hughes jarred the
ball out of Tyrone Hughes' hands early in the third quarter and Manusky
recovered the loose ball, sparking an 11-play, 50-yard drive in which
Morris carried eight times for 26 yards before going in from the 1.
"It always seems like me and Danan are always running down there,"
said Manusky. I got flipped around, Danan hit him and the ball just
flipped up. I was in the right place at the right time. Ever since I was a
pup, everybody always tells me to be around the ball. You never know what
might happen. I was fortunate enough to get it."
After Woods' interception, Gannon scored on a perfectly executed
bootleg around left end, avoiding Dallas safety George Teague on his way
to the end zone.
"It's a naked (bootleg)," said Gannon. "That's a run-pass option. In
that situation, you'd like to run it first. But the safety kind of played
it pretty good at the start, so I had plenty of time to wait on what he was
going to do."
"He is normally more of a scrambler than throw kind of a guy," said
Teague. "In hindsight, I should have made it a little tougher on him. But
it was a lose-lose situation."
Dallas answered with a 10-play, 63-yard drive which culminated in
Aikman connecting with Jeffers on a crossing pattern that pulled the
Cowboys within seven points early in the fourth quarter.
But Gannon was 4-of-5 for 55 yards on Kansas City's next drive and
Stoyanovich made his second kick of the day to make it 20-10 with 5:56
left.
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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