Week One
Kansas City at Chicago
It may as well have been Thanksgiving for the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier field in Chicago Sunday afternoon as they feasted on both Bear quarterbacks setting an all-time NFL record for sacks with 22.
Bears' head coach Dick Jauron--refusing to name his starting quarterback until game time since that was his only competitive edge--started rookie Cade McNown. Wanting to establish McNown's presence as a deep threat, the Bears opened their first series with 3 straight play action passes, which found Cade McDown in the backfield on each one. On 4th and 34 from his own 6, punter Todd Sauerbrun failed to field the long snap from center, which went out of the back of the end zone for a 2-0 KC lead.
Things progressed similarly through much of the first half--while the Kansas City offense sputtered repeatedly, the defense dined liberally on McNown and replacement Shane Matthews. The Chiefs' only scoring drive on offense ended with less than 2:00 left in the first half when quarterback Elvis Grbac closed his mouth long enough to complete a 12 yard strike to tight end Tony Gonzalez. After a Pete Stoyanovich PAT, the Chiefs went in at the half leading 9-0.
Kansas City showed some of its 1997 shine when Tamarick Vanover returned the 2nd half kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown. The snap was bobbled by Aguiar on the PAT, however, causing Pete Stoyanovich to knock Aguiar unconscious with a spinning back kick to the head. Aguiar remains comatose in a Kansas City hospital ICU in critical condition.
The Bears' first half troubles continued as the offense failed to gain any positive momentum after the half. Kansas City's defense continued to stifle any ground attack from Curtis Enis, who ended the day with 9 carries for 14 yards. Kansas City 2nd year cornerback Eric Warfield returned a Fabien Bownes pass 8 yards for a touchdown. Bownes, a wide receiver who was the backup quarterback at Western Illinois in 1996, replaced Matthews late in the third quarter because head coach Dick Jauron "just thought it would be cool to read about Elvis going head-to-head with Fabien.) Kansas City successfully completed the 2-point conversion with a pass to tight end Gonzalez.
Chicago did manage to find the endzone midway through the fourth period when place-holder Chris Dolan trundled 74 yards on a fake field goal attempt while Kansas City's special teams stood around yelling, "They can't fucking do that! Who the hell would do that?"
After the game, Chiefs' GM/Czar Carl Peterson commented on Kansas City's 23-7 victory.
"I thought we fucking played a great fucking game, even with that fucking John Tait's fat fucking ass still holding out. Now if I can just fucking find somebody to replace that fucking Aguiar as punter, I'll be a happy motherfucker."
Coach Gunther Cunningham was a little more reserved (or so it
appeared) and conducted the entire post-game press conference in
German, although he did use the word "jellyfish" a
number of times.
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