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Title: Kansas City's New Year's Eve Miracle: Defying All Odds, the Chiefs Make the Playoffs
Source:
Kansas City Star
URL Source: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansa ... ansas_city_chiefs/16359731.htm
Published: Jan 1, 2007
Author: those crazy football gods
Post Date: 2007-01-01 11:31:31 by Arator
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Keywords: Chiefs, Miracle, Playoffs
Views: 494
Comments: 25
Ain’t that a kick for the Chiefs? The Associated Press Joe Nedney (left) made a field goal that gave the 49ers a win, beat Denver and got the Chiefs in the playoffs. DENVER | In the 1999 season, Joe Nedney kicked the Chiefs out of the playoffs with a field goal in overtime as the Raiders won at Arrowhead Stadium in the season finale. On Sunday, he kicked the Chiefs into the playoffs when his 36-yard field goal with 1:56 to play in overtime gave the 49ers a 26-23 victory. The Chiefs not only needed to win Sunday but also needed Tennessee, Cincinnati and Denver lose. And the Hail Mary playoff scenario actually happened. “It’s terrible, it really is,” Broncos receiver Rod Smith said. “We’re better than that football team, by far. We didn’t play like it today. It ended our season. We ended our own season. It’s hard to take that.” Denver blew a 13-0 lead in the second quarter and trailed 23-16 when Jay Cutler threw a 9-yard touchdown to Tony Scheffler that tied it with 90 seconds left in regulation. The Broncos, who would have made the playoffs with a tie, had two possessions in overtime but didn’t get past midfield. San Francisco got the ball back with 4:38 left in overtime and drove 42 yards to the Denver 18, where Nedney kicked his fourth field goal. “San Francisco?” Broncos receiver Brandon Marshall said. “Come on, San Francisco? It was a perfect setup for us.” Actually, 49ers coach Mike Nolan had the perfect setup. He wants to know whether Chiefs coach Herm Edwards will get a bonus for reaching the playoffs. If so, Nolan said, “I want half of it.” Steelers 23, Bengals 17 CINCINNATI | Shayne Graham was wide right on a 39-yard field goal try with 8 seconds left in regulation that would have won it for the Bengals. “I felt really good about it,” said Graham, who missed for the fifth time in 29 attempts this season. “I hit the ball, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it was good. Then I saw the way it veered off to the right.” On the third play in overtime, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger threw a pass to Santonio Holmes, who eluded three defenders and dived the final few yards into the end zone, completing a 67-yard touchdown play. “I never in a million years thought we’d be sitting at home during the playoffs, with the talent we have,” running back Rudi Johnson said. The Bengals were first in line for a wild-card playoff berth with three weeks to play, but they finished 0-3. Patriots 40, Titans 23 NASHVILLE, Tenn. | The Titans came up short in an attempt to become the first team to start 0-5 and reach the playoffs. The youthful Titans had won six straight, covering up mistakes and inexperience with big plays. They got an 81-yard punt return by Adam “Pacman” Jones, and quarterback Vince Young ran 28 yards on third and 3 in the third quarter to pull within 26-23. But that was as close as they could get. “I’m disappointed that we couldn’t finish up on a winning note, but I’m very, very optimistic about the future of this football team,” coach Jeff Fisher said.
Poster Comment: Pittsburgh (who barely edged out the Chiefs last season to become the AFC's 6th seed) went on to win it all. Are the Chiefs this year's team of destiny?
KC gets just what it needs as Broncos, Bengals and Titans lose.
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#1. To: Arator (#0)
The USC Trojan marching band just passed the announcers at the Rose Parade. They are warming up for their game against Michigan at the Rose Bowl this afternoon.
That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true... Before yesterday's games, of the six teams contending for the two AFC Wildcard slots, the Chiefs were number six, behind the Broncos, Jets, Bengals, Titans, and Jaguars. The Jets won their game against the Raiders and secured the 5th seed early. That left the five remaining teams to contend for the last remaining seed. In order to make the playoffs, besides winning their final game against the Jaguars (thus eliminating them from contention), the Chiefs needed three other teams to win games on the road. Two of those games matched road underdogs already eliminated from the playoffs against two win-and-their-in would-be playoff contenders. Namely, the Chiefs needed: 1) New England to beat Tennessee (in Nashville) First, the Chiefs hung on to beat the Jaguars 35-30, eliminating the Jaguars from playoff contention. Then, the Patriots took care of business in Tennessee, easily beating the Titans 40-23. So, the table was set for two improbable overtime victories by underdogs. First, incredibly, at the end of regulation, the Steelers make a field goal attempt to tie the game and the Bengals miss their would-be-game-winner, sending the game into overtime. Then, in overtime, Steeler San Antonio Holmes catches a pass, breaks into the open field and runs 67 yards for the game winning touchdown, eliminating the Bengals from play-off contention. That left only the Chiefs arch rival, the Denver Broncos. Win or tie and the Broncos are in. Lose, and the Chiefs get their miracle. But the Broncos almost never lose at home. Until yesterday, that is, when 49er's kicker Joe Nedley's field goal attempt in the final few minutes of overtime hooks wildly but yet still threads the uprights, ejecting the Broncos from the play-offs and securing the 6th and final seed for the Chiefs. Unbelievable. Incredible. Two improbable overtime victories by underdogs resurrect the Chiefs from the dead, three weeks after the franchise was rocked by the death of Chiefs owner, AFL founder and NFL legend, Lamar Hunt. Kansas Citians can't help but wonder if Mr. Hunt may have had a heavenly hand in the improbable events of yesterday.
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
Just goes to prove that all pro sports games are fixed. :-)
The Bears are limping into the playoffs as one of the weakest 13-3 teams ever. I don't give them much of a chance
Mark "I was real close to Building 7 when it fell down... That didn't sound like just a building falling down to me while I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there of hearing explosions. [..] and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... — Former NYC Police Officer and 9/11 Rescue Worker Craig Bartmer
KC in the playoffs Herm Edwards went home, kept the TV off and played with his little girl Gabrielle on the floor. If the last piece fell into place Sunday night, and if slim-to-none turned into an improbable playoff berth, somebody would call. Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt had to watch. He wondered whether outside forces were at work. It started with a field goal that hooked right in Cincinnati, was kept alive with Kansas City’s wild 35-30 win over Jacksonville and ended with another field goal in another time zone at Denver. The Chiefs are going to the playoffs for the first time since 2003, and nobody — not the players, the Arrowhead Stadium employees who huddled around the TVs or the soggy collection of about 60,000 fans — thought it would happen. Some of them still aren’t sure it actually happened. With the season still in doubt, president/general manager Carl Peterson took off on a plane to a bowl game and was flying over Denver when the pilot told him the Broncos’ game had gone to overtime. It was that kind of a day. But Hunt passed by a TV about 3 o’clock Sunday, when the Bengals missed that field goal, and began to believe. “I’ve had some people in the locker room,” Hunt said, “suggest that maybe my father had a hand in that.” Eighteen days after the club lost founder Lamar Hunt to cancer, two weeks after Kansas City limped home from San Diego after its third straight loss, the Chiefs hastily made plans to play at Indianapolis at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The locker-cleaning that was planned for this morning would wait. And one of the worst months in Chiefs history ended with a few gifts from some AFC rivals. Edwards arrived at the stadium early Sunday and told his team it couldn’t control the outside factors, whether the Steelers could beat the Bengals, the Patriots could beat the Titans and the 49ers could beat the Broncos. He didn’t even tell them that all those teams would have to do it on the road. The only thing the Chiefs could control was a 60-minute tug-of-war that was played through rain, then snow, and was rife with drama and fisticuffs and boos and controversy. “It was just that kind of game,” guard Brian Waters said. “We knew it was going to be physical. That was just two teams that were really frustrated about their situation and wanted to win the game.” The day was a microcosm of Kansas City’s 9-7 season. The Chiefs seemed to be at their best when things looked the worst. Trent Green had three turnovers and was booed. The defense bent, twisted and nearly broke. They couldn’t even rest after an 18-point second-half lead because another backup quarterback — this time an unknown named Quinn Gray — was running and passing at will. No, it wasn’t over until Jaguars defensive end Bobby McCray was called for being offside with 1:16 to play, and Green could take a knee and run the clock out. And then it wasn’t really over, anyway. Larry Johnson ran for 138 yards and three touchdowns and broke an NFL record with 416 carries on a season, and when he slipped out of the locker room late Sunday, he no doubt thought he’d be in for a long winter’s rest. Green thought the same thing. He spent roughly 30 minutes in a rare, candid postgame chat with reporters, and talked about how he was undaunted by the boos and was looking forward to coming back next season. At one point during the conversation, a room next door erupted in hoots and hollers when the 49ers made a play in Denver. Green stopped for a moment and said he wanted to go watch the game somewhere. “It’s very frustrating,” he said when asked how tough it would be to not go to the playoffs again. “But if you look at the last two seasons, we’ve done it to ourselves. You can say we played 16 games like everybody else. We don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves.” For the second straight year, Peterson gave the scoreboard operator the directive not to flash any scores from Cincinnati or Tennessee during the game. He wanted the team to stay focused. But the press box at Arrowhead turned rowdy in the waning moments, and at one point, PR director Bob Moore had to tell a gaggle of people pressed against a wall and fixed on the Bengals’ game to keep it down. It almost seemed as if the game on the TV was more intriguing than the one on the field. “It seemed like we always had the game in our hands,” defensive end Jared Allen said. “They weren’t beating us with plays; it was like schoolyard ball.” As confident as Allen was with what they did against the Jaguars, he wasn’t so sure about the 49ers. He glanced at the TV after receiver Eddie Kennison grabbed a remote and flipped on all the televisions in the locker room. “Hopefully we’ll get some blessings from heaven,” Allen said. The Chiefs had experienced their share of final-week heartache. Last year, they won 10 games but couldn’t get in after the Steelers hung on to beat Detroit. Edwards wasn’t in Kansas City that day, and he didn’t want to hang around the TV on Sunday night waiting. He feared if he turned on the game, he might change the 49ers’ karma. But his wife, Lia, was watching in another room, and every time she hollered, he asked, “What are you screaming about now?” “Then she told me it was in overtime, and I said, ‘Well, we’ve still got a chance,’ ” Edwards said. “Obviously, when I heard her scream at the end, I knew something good had happened.” Playoff opener •WHO: Chiefs vs. Colts •WHEN/WHERE: 3:30 p.m. Saturday in Indianapolis
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
It's tough to go into the playoffs 13-3 with the expectation of winning the Super Bowl. The Chiefs have done it that way twice and been bounced out in painful upsets both times. I like the way the Chiefs are set up this time much better. Not even expecting to be in the playoffs, they can now play with no pressure and nothing to lose. And, even better, by squeaking in as the 6th seed, they get the Colts in the first round -- the teams with the league's worst run defense. KC's Beast-back Larry Johnson will eat them up. Look for the Chiefs to upset the Colts in Indy. Then, if we do win in Indy, the Chiefs will go on to face division rival San Diego and their former head coach, Marty Schottenheimer. That too is a winnable game. That puts us in the AFC Championship/de-facto Super Bowl against the Ravens, Patriots or Jets. Pull out a miracle there, and the Chiefs will be Super Bowl victors against whatever patsy the weak NFC puts up. In other words, the table is set for a Super Bowl run. Go Chiefs!
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
fantastic NFL action. here's a football player that did not have a good day. Broncos' Darrent Williams is shot dead The Associated Press Jan. 1, 2007 07:05 AM DENVER (AP) -- Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver early Monday morning. Team spokesman Jim Saccomano said police called him about 3 a.m. from the scene of the shooting and told him three people had been shot and that Williams had been killed. A little after 2 a.m., a white Hummer limousine was sprayed with bullets from a vehicle that pulled up along its side, said Sonny Jackson, spokesperson for the Denver Police Department. Three people in the limousine were hit and were taken to area hospitals, where one man was pronounced dead, Jackson said. The other man and woman who were shot were not identified. Jackson said police were searching for the suspects and interviewing witnesses. "We have no motive yet," Jackson said. "We're hoping to talk with witnesses to find out where they were coming from, and that might give us some clues." Saccomano said he spoke with coach Mike Shanahan and others in the organization. "Complete shock. We're speechless. It takes words away. A terrible tragedy," Saccomano said. Hours before the shooting, the Broncos lost to San Francisco 26-23 in overtime, eliminating them from the playoff race. The 24-year-old Williams finished the season with 88 tackles, 78 of them solo, and four interceptions. On Sunday against the 49ers, he had three tackles and returned two punts for 50 yards before leaving the game with a shoulder injury late in the second half. Williams, a second-round draft pick out of Oklahoma State in 2005, made an immediate impact on the Broncos, starting nine times in his rookie season following a stellar career at Oklahoma State, where he totaled 11 interceptions and scored three touchdowns on punt returns. Players and coaches are off Monday. They were scheduled to meet Tuesday before heading home for the offseason.
Galatians 3:29 And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Tough day for Denver all around. I wonder who put the hit out on Williams (and/or his companions)?
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
The Colts are very tough at home. I believe they were robbed a couple years ago by very suspect non penality calling against the New England Patroits.
Mark "I was real close to Building 7 when it fell down... That didn't sound like just a building falling down to me while I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there of hearing explosions. [..] and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... — Former NYC Police Officer and 9/11 Rescue Worker Craig Bartmer
LJ is a beast. He ran wild as a Sr. at PSU, and it looks like he's carried that anger into the pros. Go Chiefs!!!!
Did ya know he set a new NFL record for carries in a season yesterday? And he lost the NFL rushing titled to LT by only 22 yards. He's known as the man-beast around here. Half man, half stampeding animal. He should run wild come Saturday. KC thanks Pittsburgh for knocking off the Bengals yesterday. We owe alot to western PA. ;^)
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
This game will rock! I have all the munchies lined up in the pantry waiting to be pulled out when the game gets under way.
Sounds like you know how to enjoy a game. I read a couple articles saying that it is expected to be a good game, but not for the title. And another typical beautiful New Years' Day in CA. I grew up not far from Pasadena, and my dad who was born in Alhambra (next door to Pasadena), graduated from Pasadena City College before WWII and USC after WWII. My eldest son graduated from USC law school. He goes to the games sometimes. CalTech once messed with the scoreboard at the Rose Bowl to have it say at halftime "CalTech Wins!", and some balloons were released from someplace at the same time. Now with all the security BS, students would prolly be shot trying such shenanigans. Pranks Caltech students have been known for the many pranks (also known as RF's) they have pulled off. The two most famous are the changing of the Hollywood sign to read Caltech, by judiciously covering up certain parts of the letters, and the changing of the Rose Bowl scoreboard to an imaginary game where Caltech soundly trounced MIT. During the 1961 Rose Bowl Game, Caltech students altered the flip-cards that were raised by the stadium attendees to display "Caltech." This event is now referred to as the Great Rose Bowl Hoax. Recently, a group of Caltech students, during the admitted students program at MIT in 2005, pulled a string of pranks, including covering up the word Massachusetts in the "Massachusetts Institute of Technology" engraving on the main building façade with a banner so that it read "That Other Institute of Technology". A group of MIT hackers retaliated by altering the banner so that the inscription read "The Only Institute of Technology". MIT retaliated in April 2006, when students posing as the Howe & Ser Moving Company (the name, if said rapidly, and if read recognizing that the & symbol is a ligature of the Latin word "et", sounds like howitzer) stole the 130 year old, 1.7 ton Fleming House cannon and moved it to their campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, repeating a similar prank originally performed by Harvey Mudd College in 1986. Thirty members of Fleming House traveled to MIT and reclaimed their cannon on April 10, 2006. They left a toy cannon with the note, "Here's something more your size." [6] In recent years, pranking has been officially encouraged by Tom Mannion, Caltech's assistant VP for campus life. "The grand old days of pranking have gone away at Caltech, and that's what we are trying to bring back," reported the Boston Globe, which noted that "security has orders not to intervene in a prank unless officers get Mannion's approval beforehand."[7]
That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of Nations is as shocking as it is true... They're still playing football? Thanks for the update.
Well, what happened? K.C. was terrible.
Mark "I was real close to Building 7 when it fell down... That didn't sound like just a building falling down to me while I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there of hearing explosions. [..] and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... — Former NYC Police Officer and 9/11 Rescue Worker Craig Bartmer
Apparently not. :-)
Evidently KC's success was short-lived. I'm not sure if you watched this afternoon's wild card game. But if you didn't, here's the final score: Colts 23, KC 8.
Indy shut KC down completely. Dallas right now is winning at halftime.
Mark "I was real close to Building 7 when it fell down... That didn't sound like just a building falling down to me while I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there of hearing explosions. [..] and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... — Former NYC Police Officer and 9/11 Rescue Worker Craig Bartmer
Good. I stopped watching about 10 minutes ago just as Madden was saying that Dallas needed to get its act together, that Dallas seemed unsteady and had no rythmn yet. I think the score at that time was Seattle 6 and Dallas 3. So Dallas must have got its act together, yes? I don't like Dallas normally but because I can't stand Seattle, in this game I'm a Dallas cheerleader. ha, ha Back to the boobtube...
What an exciting 4th quarter. Wow - I was sitting on pins and needles. Poor Tony Romo - bad luck with the field goal miss - and in theory he should not have been taking the snap because now he's ( was?)the first string quarterback - he'll be the goat of this game nonetheless.
That was a wild 4th quarter. If you get a chance, watch the replay of the botched field goal hold by Romo. The football looked like it was Simonized. It was as shiney as a buffed out car. From what I heard, the ball used on kicks/field goals isn't the same as in normal play. Very strange.
Mark "I was real close to Building 7 when it fell down... That didn't sound like just a building falling down to me while I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there of hearing explosions. [..] and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... — Former NYC Police Officer and 9/11 Rescue Worker Craig Bartmer
The football looked like it was Simonized. It was as shiney as a buffed out car. From what I heard, the ball used on kicks/field goals isn't the same as in normal play. Very strange. Yes, I saw the replays and it was really bad luck and circumstances for Romo. Evidently as the back up quarterback in the first half of the season, he alswys held the field goal ball and presumably got experience in doing so. Then he got promoted to first string and in theory, Romo (by football custom) should not have continued being the holder for the field goal kicker. But he continued with that job. And I can see some of the reasons why teams don't have the first string quarterback holding the field kick ball - accidental injuries to the hands by the kicker comes to mind and the fact that the first stringer is accustomed to grasping a certain sized football for 60 minutes of game play and it might be confusing to suddenly grab and manipulate a smaller sized football into perfect position on the ground for only 3 plays in the entire game. Although, I'm not excusing Romo - he goofed - no doubt about it - and regardless of the risk of having him as field goal ball holder as a firster stringer, those guys are highly paid professionals - they're supposed to be able to challenge and overcome risk, bad luck. The fact that the ball was so shiny - yep, probably it's customary to have a brand spanking new shiny clean ball for each field goal play. The way the game was going in the 4th quarter with all these unexpected happenings, I half expected that Romo would throw a successful hail Mary pass to the end zone and Dallas would win.
I haven't a clue! That was the worst they've played...ever. Pre-season included. I can't believe how inept their offense was. When's the last time an NFL team went an entire half without making a first down? The Chiefs were pathetic. Staggeringly so. What a sorry bunch of heartless, gutless losers. They totally wasted a hard-won playoff opportunity (and the nation's time and/or entertainment dollars).
Check out my blog, America, the Bushieful.
Indy is tough at home. They played well. Next up is the Ravens. They look very, very tough. Bears play Seattle. Seattle looked weak. The Bears SHOULD win.
Mark "I was real close to Building 7 when it fell down... That didn't sound like just a building falling down to me while I was running away from it. There's a lot of eyewitness testimony down there of hearing explosions. [..] and the whole time you're hearing "boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." I think I know an explosion when I hear it... — Former NYC Police Officer and 9/11 Rescue Worker Craig Bartmer
The football looked like it was Simonized. It was as shiney as a buffed out car. From what I heard, the ball used on kicks/field goals isn't the same as in normal play. Very strange. A K-Ball is the same dimensions and construction as a regular ball, it's just supposed to be brand new out of the box, whereas the game balls are allowed to be practiced with. Romo doesn't have great hands (9 fumbles in 6 games), but that ball did look like it was Armor Alled. I was at Dick's Sporting Goods the other day looking at brand new leather balls and not one of them had anything close to the shine of that ball. It must have been one glistening pig in the barnyard walking around. Maybe it used Avon Skin So Soft.
– Thomas Paine
#2. To: All (#0)
(Edited)
2) Pittsburgh to beat Cincinnati (in Cincinnati)
3) San Francisco to beat Denver (in Denver)
#3. To: Arator (#2)
Unbelievable. Incredible.
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#4. To: Arator (#0)
#5. To: Kamala (#4)
Chiefs wonder about ‘outside forces’ as they get a little help and new life
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star
#6. To: Kamala (#4)
(Edited)
#7. To: Arator (#2)
#8. To: Red Jones (#7)
#9. To: Arator (#6)
#10. To: Arator (#5)
#11. To: Jethro Tull (#10)
(Edited)
LJ is a beast. He ran wild as a Sr. at PSU, and it looks like he's carried that anger into the pros. Go Chiefs!!!!
#12. To: robin (#1)
The USC Trojan marching band just passed the announcers at the Rose Parade. They are warming up for their game against Michigan at the Rose Bowl this afternoon.
#13. To: scrapper2 (#12)
This game will rock! I have all the munchies lined up in the pantry waiting to be pulled out when the game gets under way.
From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Institute_of_Technology
– Thomas Paine
#14. To: Arator (#0)
#15. To: Arator (#11)
#16. To: lodwick (#14)
They're still playing football?
Remember...G-d saved more animals than people on the ark. www.siameserescue.org
#17. To: Kamala (#15)
Well, what happened? K.C. was terrible.
#18. To: scrapper2 (#17)
#19. To: Kamala (#18)
Dallas right now is winning at halftime.
#20. To: Kamala (#18)
Dallas right now is winning at halftime.
#21. To: scrapper2 (#20)
#22. To: Kamala (#21)
If you get a chance, watch the replay of the botched field goal hold by Romo.
#23. To: Kamala (#15)
(Edited)
Well, what happened? K.C. was terrible.
#24. To: Arator (#23)
#25. To: Kamala (#21)
That was a wild 4th quarter. If you get a chance, watch the replay of the botched field goal hold by Romo.
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