Chiefs see playoff hopes dashed by loss

By Rick Dean
Morris News Service

NEW ORLEANS -- Tony Gonzalez doesn't want to believe it's over.

But then, he doesn't want to believe the Chiefs are 3-6, either, in the wake of their 27-20 loss Sunday to the New Orleans Saints.

"It's incredible to look at our record and see where we are now," the Chiefs Pro Bowl tight end lamented. "This is like a bad dream; it just doesn't make sense to me. I mean, we're the same team we were a year ago when we were 13-3.

"I don't know mathematically if we're out of (the playoff picture), but I guess we've got to run the table now," Gonzalez added. "Maybe that will make us play harder. Maybe we'll play smarter."

And maybe it's just not going to happen.

The harsh reality Gonzalez and his Kansas City teammates are struggling to accept is, Kansas City will be merely playing out the string in the final seven games of this maddening 2004 season.

Let's face it ­ no team that committed 12 penalties and two red-zone turnovers (of four total, all in the Saints' end) has any chance of winning seven straight games. Especially when the next one is a Monday night clash against mighty New England.

Coach Dick Vermeil, at least, comprehends the reality of his team's fall from greatness in just one year. Remember, if you can, that the Chiefs were 9-0 at this point just a year ago.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Chiefs running back Derrick Blaylock cruised through a big hole for a second-half touchdown, but his 186 rushing yards, the fifth best total in team history, went wasted in a 27-20 loss to the New Orleans Saints Sunday. "Our playoffs hopes might be over," Vermeil said. "I don't know if any team has ever come from this far back."

Don't even bother to look it up.

Because no team that settles for a field goal after getting six snaps from the 5-yard-line against the NFL's worst defense needs to be talking about the playoffs.

No team that allows Aaron Brooks to hit home run passes of 57 and 42 yards ­ the last for the game-winning touchdown to former Chief Joe Horn with 5:28 remaining ­ needs to be thinking about post-season play.

No team that allows sore-legged Deuce McAllister to average 9.8 yards on his first 11 carries ­ part of his 127-yard day ­ can consider itself a contender.

And no team that runs up 497 total yards, controls the ball for nearly 36 minutes and still invents ways to lose to the Saints ­ a team for which bad play is as much a New Orleans tradition as flashing for beads on Bourbon Street ­ should be saying it's a better team than its record indicates.

Yet the Chiefs were saying just that even after Trent Green's interception from the New Orleans 17 killed KC's bid to tie the game with 1:16 remaining.

"It's one thing when you just (stink) and just can't beat anyone. It's another when you're good enough to beat anyone but you end up beating yourself," said Dante Hall, whose 63-yard return of the opening kickoff jump-started KC's march to what could have been a 21-0 lead.

But even with backup halfback Derrick Blaylock running for 79 of his eventual 186 yards ­ the fifth-best rushing day in Chiefs history ­ on Kansas City's first three possessions, the Chiefs managed only a 10-0 lead following Green's 21-yard TD pass to Eddie Kennison on the opening series.

Johnnie Morton's fumble at the Saints 15 ended the second drive. The Chiefs shook that turnover off and drove to a first down at the 5.

But playing without touchdown machine Priest Holmes showed in the red zone. The Chiefs got six snaps ­ getting a first down after a Saints personal foul on a third-down sack ­ without advancing past the 5. Lawrence Tynes kicked the first of two field goals for an uncomfortable 10-0 cushion.

The Saints took advantage of the opportunity for touchdowns drives of 68 and 89 yards, the last fueled by a 57-yard bomb to Horn.

They expanded their 14-13 halftime lead to 20-13 on two John Carney field goals.

The Chiefs countered with a 78-yard scoring drive in which Green hit all four passes for 57 yards before Blaylock's 3-yard TD tied the game with 8:07 remaining.

It took only 2:39 before Brooks caught Horn running between high-priced Chiefs safeties Jerome Woods and Greg Wesley for a 42-yard tiebreaking TD strike with 5:28 remaining.

That still left plenty of time for Green, who hit Morton for 15, scrambled for 13 and hit Gonzalez for 29 for a first down at the 17 at the two-minute warning.

But then the Chiefs gave it away. On second down, Green tried to scramble out of a sack and shot a pass toward Blaylock just in front of him. But the throw sailed high off Blaylock's hands and into those of Orlando Ruff to seal the Saints' fourth victory.

"Sometimes it's better just to take the sack," Green said of his second interception. "Earlier in a similar situation I was able to escape and get rid of the ball to keep us in field goal range. But that last one was just ugly on my part."