Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus
Kansas City runs away with it
Editor’s note: This story was published Nov. 11, 1996. It was edited here for space.
Kansas City, Mo. — Losing an interconference game by a touchdown in one of the National Football League’s harshest settings won’t stop the Green Bay Packers from reaching the Super Bowl.
Actually, the Packers lost no ground when their closest pursuers in the National Football Conference - San Francisco, Philadelphia and Washington - all were beaten Sunday, too.
But if the Packers’ 27-20 defeat at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs does come back to haunt them, they should remember this afternoon before 79,281 mostly red-clad and rabid fans at Arrowhead Stadium as a game that clearly should have been won.
Packers coach Mike Holmgren actually attempted to pass it off as a nice comeback by a team on the rise after a desultory start, conveniently forgetting that the Packers were a 3-point favorite and played in the NFC Championship Game last season.
There was no reason in the world for anyone in the Green Bay locker room to be proud.
For the second consecutive week, the Packers’ supposedly impregnable run defense was gouged. Last week, the greatness of Barry Sanders was given as the explanation for why Detroit rushed for 166 yards. This time, the Chiefs gained 182 yards on the ground with a corps of five running backs that doesn’t have a standout.
Moreover, they really don’t have a quarterback, their tackles are below average, their tight ends are backups and their wide receivers are a bunch of guys off the street or late-round draft picks.
What the Chiefs do have on offense is a powerful center, Tim Grunhard, and a pair of elite guards, Will Shields and Dave Szott. More important, they have a hard-nosed identity developed over time and a realistic approach to their many flaws.
How important was it for the Chiefs to make their running game work?
“We had no chance otherwise,” said Jimmy Raye, their running backs coach. “It was clear we couldn’t get into a passrush game with them. We had one mindset.”
So the Chiefs went stubbornly about their task, rushing 40 times and permitting Steve Bono to drop back just 23 times. For Bono, Bono played well. In other words, he hit some open receivers when play-action passes gave him opportunities, and when the Packers chased him he threw the ball away without incident.
“That’s him,” Raye said. “He was efficient. We want him to just play smart.”
Against the Chiefs’ limited arsenal, the Packers’ No. 1-ranked defense should have had more than enough personnel to maintain control.
But Craig Newsome allowed for 69 yards on the game-opening play. Marcus Allen, more persistent than explosive at age 36, slammed 10 times for 48 yards. And then his replacement, disappointing former first-round pick Greg Hill, destroyed the Packers with 94
yards in 14 rushes and three touchdowns, including a 34-yard touchdown catch.
“That’s the first time this season someone has run on us,” Holmgren said. “They got us. It won’t happen again.”
Green Bay still hasn’t had even one of its top 15 or 16 players on defense miss a game because of injury. But the Packers were far from full strength.
Defensive tackle Santana Dotson played with a bad knee. Defensive end Sean Jones left in the first half with a sore ankle. Safety Eugene Robinson went the distance on an injured ankle. And cornerback Doug Evans, a much better player in run support than rookie Tyrone Williams, was ejected on the first play of the second quarter for bumping an official after a questionable 27-yard penalty for pass interference.
“It was a horrendous call,” general manager Ron Wolf said. “There’s absolutely no question it should have been interference on the receiver. It took one of our men away from us. That was even worse. It hurt everything we did.”