Round 3: '02-Chiefs stun '06-Jax with late comeback

After being victimized by mysterious SAT bugs at halftime late last night, sub Marc Miller was subbed for by Marc Weiss, and an instant classic ensued.
Instant Classic in J-Ville

JACKSONVILLE (AP) —In an third-round elimination game, the high-powered Chiefs invaded Jacksonville to take on the defensive-minded Jaguars.
The Chiefs took the opening kickoff and assembled an 11-play, 80-yard drive consuming 6:53 to take an early 7-0 lead.

Fifteen seconds later, it was 7-7. Maurice Jones-Drew returned Andersen’s kickoff 91 yards for the score. “I’m a moron,” Dick Vermeil would later say. “I knew I should’ve squibbed it. Dumb***.”

Sixty seconds later, it was 14-7 KC. Dante Hall returned the kickoff to the KC 46, and Trent Green hit Kennison for 15 and Gonzalez for 37 for the score.

After giving up 137 yards on the first two series, Jacksonville would allow zero on the next two, and only 69 in the next quarter and a half. Meanwhile, the Jags put Josh Scobee to good use, calling on him three times in the second quarter, giving Jacksonville a 16-14 halftime lead. KC did win a ‘bend but don’t break award’ for holding the Jags to field goals after two long drives, and the middle field goal was the result of an interception of Green at the KC 22. With :05 left in the half at the KC 47, Green beat the prevent defense and hit Kennison on a flag, but he was hauled down at the 14 as time expired.

Jacksonville continued to frustrate KC’s offense in the third quarter. After the first two drives, KC reached a streak of five straight possessions with no points, spanning 33 minutes of the game. Meanwhile, Garrard got hot midway through the third. Well, hot for two plays, which is all it took to move the Jaguars 88 yards for a score. Garrard hit Matt Jones for 41 from the Jax 12, then, avoiding a heavy rush and looking off his first choice, hit Jones again for a 47-yard TD strike. A hot Garrard coupled with the devastating rushing tandem of Taylor and Jones-Drew would spell defeat for KC.

However, the Chiefs responded, finally emerging from the doldrums of ineptitute they habitated for two quarters. Green engineered a 10-play, 85-yard drive for a TD to cut the Jacksonville lead to 23-21 late in the third quarter. The drive was aided by a defensive holding penalty on a 4-yard gain on 3rd and 9 at the KC 16. A couple of plays later, Gonzalez hauled in a short post and rambled 44 yards, and on 3rd and 4 from the Jax 18, Green hit Morton on a slant for the TD.

The next four series fell into a pattern of one or two first downs and then a punt. Jacksonville pinned KC at the five with 1:43 left in the third quarter, but after one first down, Stryzinksi dug out of the hole with a 50 yard, non-returned punt. Jacksonville got one first down and then pinned KC at its 10 with 11:00 to play. The chiefs could not amass a first down or even positive yardage. On 3rd and 13 at the 7, Green was crushed by McCray at the goal line, and fortunately for KC, the ball was spotted at the one. Stryzinski’s punt was taken by Pearman at the 40 and returned to the 23, setting up Jacksonville to build its lead.

However, Reggie Williams fumbled an 11-yard pass, and Corey Harris pounced on it for KC at the six with 9:29 to go. Three straight possessions began at or inside the 10 yard line for the Chiefs.

Yet again, the Chiefs could muster but one first down, and Stryzinski punted for the third stright drive, as Jax fair caught the punt it at their 32 with 7:58 left.
Jones-Drew picked up 16 yards on two plays, and the Jags seemed bent on putting it away. However, Garrard was flagged for a 13-yard intentional grounding penalty, and Taylor could only recoup 9 of that on the next two plays. The Jags punted and KC amazingly took over on their 27 with 4:37 left.

Green then picked a fine time to get hot. He hit Hall for 9, then scrambled for 10 and then 16, making fans wonder if Vick had escaped prison and donned Green’s uniform. From the Jax 38, Green hit Holmes for 7. Holmes busted inside for two. On 3rd and 1 at the Jax 29 with 3:16 left, Jacksonville nailed the play, keying on Holmes and trapping him for a four-yard loss. It was not enough to push Andersen out of field goal range, however, as he nailed the 50-yarder to give KC a 24-23 lead, its first lead since the second quarter, with 2:40 left.

Needing only a field goal to win, Jax took over on their 34 with 2:32 left after the squib kick. Garrard went to Chief-killer Jones for 47 to the KC 19, as Jones was singlehandedly destroying KC and the hopes of its fans. Now, Jax could eat some click and call on Scobee to deliver the win with little time remaning. However, two plays later from the KC 18 with 1:42 left, Garrard hit Wrightster for an 18-yard TD.

“I was almost relieved with that TD,” remarked Vermeil, “since we would not have had much time left if they milked the clock.” Nonetheless, the Jags were elated to re-assume the lead, which is what mattered.

KC over on its 20 with 1:45 left and one timeout. Green was sacked for a 10-yard loss on first down, and KC’s hopes took a crushing blow. "That sack seemed devastating," Green would later say. "The field looked really long with 4 minutes and 50 yards to go for a field goal against that defense, and even longer at 80 yards and 1:45, but it looked miles long with 90 yards to go and 1:18 left." Green found the answer for the long field by connecting with Holmes on a flare pass, and watching as the big guy would not go down. He rumbled and rambled for a whopping 72 yards, finally being tracked down at the Jacksonville 18 with :46 left.

Green was then sacked again for a six-yard loss to the Jax 24 as the Chiefs used their final timeout with :38 left. Green then found Kennison on a flag for 15 yards to the Jax 9. Kennison went out of bounds to stop the clock with :30 left. On 3rd and 1 at the 9, Green rolled away from pressure, looked off his primary receive and hit Kennison on a square in at the one, and Kennison lunged over the goal line for the TD with :23 left! At 29-23, Green looked for Gonzales on the two-point try, was flushed from the pocket, and scooted around end, diving over the goal line to make it 32-29. After returning the squib to the Jags’ 28, Jax could not cover 72 yards in the final :17. The teams had combined for two TDs in the final 1:52, and 17 points in all in the final 2:47.

“Wow, I’m floored,” remarked an exhausted and typically emotional Vermeil. “Green was just amazing, both in passing and running, and of course, we owe our continued existence to Holmes. That 72-yard catch-and-run was a work of art. Jacksonville played great, and just shut us down for huge chunks of the game. My hat's off to them for a well-played game”

-contributed by Chris Howell-