Chiefs Turn Table on Patriots in Loss
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Posted Under: 1999 Patriots Season
HOME > Patriots Blog > 1999 Patriots Season
KANSAS CITY — The Patriots actually led at the half. And they didn’t know what to make of it. Or do with it.
Leading at intermission, 7-3, the Patriots’ defense had shut down every phase of the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense. They stuffed the running game cold. They covered receivers like blankets. They pressured Elvis Grbac so much that Grbac looked like Scott Zolak in his prime.
Instead of Pete Carroll and his staff laying down the good adjustments, it was Gunther Cunningham and his lieutenants that brought out their big stuff in the locker room. The Chiefs came out in the third quarter, took control of the game, and never let go.
The Chiefs had to withstand a late Patriot charge, and watched with great anxiety as Adam Vinatieri’s last-second 32-yard FG attempt doinked off the right upright. The Chiefs had a 16-14 win, but the game was won in the third quarter by a fired-up Chief offense that took the game right from the Patriots.
Carrying this a step further, the Patriots should have been up by at least 21-3 at intermission, perhaps more. Penalties, turnovers, and Drew Bledsoe’s inability to connect on long bombs to Shawn Jefferson cost the Patriots a chance to blow the game open early.
The Patriots came out looking like goofballs. Five times in the first quarter, the offensive line was guilty of false starts. Three of them were on Heath Irwin. The crowd had barely sung their warm-up scales. Bledsoe spent the entire first period looking at 1st and 15 and 2nd and 20. This problem went away, but it was more nagging than debilitating.
What was debilitating were the turnovers. Bledsoe was sacked in the first quarter by Derrick Thomas, who stripped the ball away. Chester McGlockton recovered, then tried to lateral the ball. Vashone Adams would hold on to the ball, but the defense managed to escape with only a field goal.
More damaging was a Terry Allen fumble in the second quarter, a fumble that never should have happened. The Pats had the ball at the Chief 18 when Allen took a handoff and blasted up the middle. But the ball was jarred loose and Marvcus Patton recovered at the 12-yard line. The play should not have counted, as Leslie O’Neal was offsides on the play, but the officials missed it.
Nevertheless, the Patriots dominated the first half. Bledsoe did find a deep receiver, Terry Glenn, for a 49-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. The only Chief score came after the Bledsoe fumble, and they were stuffed three times in the red zone prior to the attempt.
Grbac did nothing in the first half. He misfired on most of his attempts, and the boo-birds were out in force at Arrowhead.
But the Patriots were only up 7-3, and that gave the Chiefs hope.
The Chiefs came out running in the second half, and the Patriots could not stop it. Donnell Bennett and Morris came out and smoked the Patriot front seven for 35 yards on three carries. That loosened things up for Grbac to find Joe Horn for a 15-yard catch on 2nd and 9. Tony Richardson (who would make the key run of the game later) ran for three yards on 3rd and 1 at the Patriot 7, and Bennett later pounded it in from one yard out to give the Chiefs a 10-7 lead.
The drive went 76 yards and consumed eight minutes. The Patriots never fully recovered.
The Chiefs owned the ball for practically the entire third stanza. After Vinatieri’s first miss (from 49 yards out), the Chiefs got the ball back and went on another sustained drive. Bennett ran for 12 yards, then Grbac found Horn for passes of 12 and 16 yards. Stoyanovich booted a 41-yarder that did not hit an upright.
The Chiefs nearly put the game away in the fourth quarter with still another eight-minute scoring drive. The Chiefs drove 64 yards to Stoyanovich’s third field goal, thanks to two catches by Kevin Lockett for 9 yards each, a 12-yard pass to Tony Gonzalez in which he made Chris Carter look like a piggy-back expert, and a 23-yard rip up the middle by Morris. The Chiefs had a 16-7 lead with 5 minutes to go.
Bledsoe made it close with a late touchdown drive, and he did get the Pats in field goal range at the end. But the damage had been done. The Chiefs took the game away from the Patriots, the exact opposite of the previous four weeks.
Despite a great game by Andy Katzenmoyer, the Patriots allowed the Chiefs far too many key second half runs of ten or more yards. This loosened things up for Grbac, and he was able to get into a rhythm and find receivers like Horn and Lockett at key times.
And the Patriots never really got untracked offensively. The four turnovers were out of character for this team so far this year. The false starts were as much laughable as they were aggravating. Bledsoe was hurried plenty today, thanks to McGlockton, Patton, Derrick Thomas and O’Neal.
Never more in any previous game than today’s were the two biggest concerns of the preseason exposed: running the ball and stopping the run. Allen did manage 53 yards on 11 carries, mostly in the second half, but his runs led to a missed field goal and an interception by James Hasty. The rest of the Patriot rushers had nine yards on eight carries. Meanwhile, the Chiefs as a team rushed for 140 yards, 78 more than the Patriots.
And the key play of the game turned out to be a crucial 13-yard run by Richardson. With only one timeout left and the two minute warning, the Pats had the Chiefs at their own 19 with 2:20 left. Stop the Chiefs on three-and-out and the Pats get the ball back with about 1:20 left. But on first down, Richardson ripped off this 13-yard gem right off left tackle, and Bledsoe would get only 35 seconds. The field goal attempt did happen, but how much different would things have been if Bledsoe had those precious extra 35 seconds?
The Patriots remained winless in Arrowhead Stadium, and haven’t won here since 1964. Considering the second half flop against a very beatable Kansas City team, it may be another 35 years before the Pats win again here in the city on the western end of I-70.
The Patriots need to regroup, forget about this (especially the kicker), and head back home to prepare for Jimmy Johnson and his school of fish.
And accept the fact that they won’t always rule the second half. At least not today.
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