It’s nearly impossible to completely silence 76,000 at a NFL football game but that’s exactly what happened for more than three quarters inside a sun-drenched Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
Division-rival San Diego came out gunning and nearly knocked the Chiefs out as they soared to a 21-3 halftime lead in a game that resembled Rocky Balboa’s first fight with Mr. T in “Rocky III” after his manager Mick had died and he basically stood there and took it on the chin until he was knocked silly. The Chiefs could do no right for much of the game as the defense was out of position on nearly every play. Phillip Rivers dissected the Chiefs defense like a surgeon as most of the crowd stood there in shock (or began booing loudly).
It was Ware who was able to punch it in from the 5 yard line to tie the game with just over a minute to play in regulation. Sure, close to 15,000 people had sauntered out of the stadium by this time, but a Dee Ford sack of Phillip Rivers on the Chargers ensuing position assured the game would be headed to overtim
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Quarterback Alex Smith took over on the Chiefs first overtime drive as he perfectly engineered a 10 play, 70 yard drive which culminated in a rushing touchdown which capped the biggest comeback in team history. They say the mark of a great team is being able to win games such as this one, and the Chiefs needed this victory desperately if they hope to live up to their pre-season hype of being on the AFC’s best teams. Clearly, there are defensive issues on this football team. The d-line struggled to penetrate, the linebackers looked slow and lost and the secondary basically left every Charger wide open for two-and-a-half hours, but perhaps this was merely a wake-up call for a team that could be poised for greatness down the road.
