Visitor:  Cincinnati Bengals

Home:  Kansas City Chiefs

Date:  October 14, 2007

Week 6

 

Scoring:

Team                1          2          3          4          Final

CIN                 7          0          0          13          20

KC                  10        10        0          7            27

 

Visitor playmakers:

DE Justin Smith, LB Landon Johnson, CB Blue Adams, S Madieu Williams, S Chinedum Ndukwe, DE Robert Geathers, WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh

 

Home playmakers:

DE Jared Allen, DE Tamba Hali, DT Ron Edwards, CB Patrick Surtain, S Bernard Pollard, TE Tony Gonzalez, RB Larry Johnson

 

Network:  CBS (KCTV Kansas City)

Announcers:  Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon

 

Pregame:  Yes – Chiefs Insider, Chiefs Locker Room Show

Halftime:  Yes

Postgame:  Yes – Chiefs Endzone Show

Commercials:  Yes

 

Grade:  Excellent

 

Notes:  Tony Gonzalez caught his record-breaking 63rd touchdown pass much the way he caught the first 62 -- stretching out his 6-foot-5 frame as high and as far as he could and pulling the ball down in traffic with soft, powerful hands.

 

His 3-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter Sunday gave Gonzalez the NFL record for tight ends. Then the eight-time Pro Bowler caught Damon Huard's 26-yard scoring strike in the fourth quarter that proved the difference in Kansas City's 27-20 victory over the downward-spiraling Cincinnati Bengals.

 

With Gonzalez getting two TDs and 102 yards receiving, the Chiefs (3-3) rolled up an impressive -- for them -- 354 total yards Sunday against the suspect and injury-weakened defense of the Bengals (1-4), who lost their fourth in a row.

 

Johnson, who had not scored a touchdown after sitting out all of training camp, got 119 yards on 31 carries against a defense that had been giving up 152 yards on the ground. After his mistake cost the Chiefs a touchdown in the second quarter, he dropped to his knees on the sideline and bowed his head for several minutes.

 

A couple of minutes later, after a Carson Palmer interception, Johnson slipped into the end zone on an 8-yard run and the Chiefs had a 17-7 lead.

 

T.J. Houshmandzadeh caught eight passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns for Cincinnati but could not make up for a suspect defense that was further weakened by the loss of linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Rashad Jeanty and the suspension of cornerback Johnathan Joseph.

 

The Bengals, who have gone 1-7 since being 8-5 last year and holding a one-game lead in the wild-card chase, were 0-for-10 on third down conversions until finally getting their first in the fourth quarter.

 

Defensive end Jared Allen had 2½ of the Chiefs' four sacks and frequently pressured Palmer into throwing early or poorly, or both.

 

Running time:  4:09 (2 discs)