Blast from the past - week 8

October 14th 1990: Kansas City Chiefs 43 - Detroit Lions 24

The Chiefs hadn’t made the post-season for three straight years, but in 1990, under coach Marty Schottenheimer and with solid veterans like Christian Okoye and Steve deBerg, the prospects were good. After a reasonable 3 and 2 start by KC, the Detroit Lions and their young phenomenon Barry Sanders were welcomed to Arrowhead.

The future hall-of-famer had a lightning start – within the first quarter, Sanders had scored both a passing and a rushing touchdown, as Detroit raced to a 14-3 lead. But that was the cue for the Chiefs to switch up a gear, and score 26 unanswered points to snuff out the Lions’ hopes. Jonathan Hayes started the fight-back in the second quarter, the tight end hauling in a short pass – one of a dozen he made over his Kansas City career. The Chiefs got the ball back with enough time to march downfield again, and Nigerian Nightmare Christian Okoye darted over the line from short range to give us a narrow half time lead.

After an early Nick Lowery field goal in the third quarter, the Chiefs defence put pressure on Detroit and earned a safety when Bill Maas tackled quarterback Bob Gagliano in the end zone. Maas played almost all of his 10 year NFL career with the Chiefs, mostly at nose tackle. He managed 40 sacks in that time. He also scored two touchdowns, unusually both were from fumble recoveries and both were in games against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With the next possession, the Chiefs went down the field and yet again sent Okoye into the end zone from close range. This gave us a comfortable 29-14 lead entering the last quarter of the game. The Lions managed to put another 10 points on the board in the last quarter, but either side of their touchdown, Kansas City’s Barry Word ran into the end zone for a pair of scores. They couldn’t have been more different – one was a 1-yarder through crowded traffic, while the other was a lung-busting run from inside Chiefs territory. Word had 7 years in the NFL, but his most productive spell was the three years in the middle at Arrowhead. He was a very good backup to Christian Okoye, racking up 13 touchdowns and over 200 yards across the three years – though today would be his only career game with multiple touchdowns. He had a great performance in the 1991 wild card game against the Raiders, rushing for 130 yards in a closely fought 10-6 win.

The result set the direction for the season for both teams; while the Lions stuttered to 6-10, the Chiefs went on to an 11-5 record and a place in the wild card game – where they would lose agonisingly to the Dolphins thanks to a Dan Marino led 4th quarter

Elsewhere in the NFL at the time:

It may sound strange nowadays, but a strong Raiders side got an expected win against the Seattle Seahawks! Jay Schroeder threw touchdown passes to three different receivers in the first half to set up a big lead, and despite a second-half revival from the Seahawks, the L.A. Raiders held on for a 24-17 win.The Raiders would go on to win the AFC West and reach the AFC championship game, but were slaughtered 51-3 by the Bills.

Elsewhere in the world:

Later this week, chaos on the soccer pitch at Old Trafford, as 21 of the 22 players in the Arsenal v Manchester United took part in a mass brawl, resulting in both teams having points deducted. Arsenal had the last laugh as they still went on to win the league.