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| | | | | | | |  Tuesday, November 14, 2000
Chiefs MNF Outlook: Gonzo and D-Line carry the load
By Marc Connolly
MondayNightFootball.com
Who cares what the football police are saying. So what if the Chiefs have done a complete 180 since the days of Christian Okoye. You don't need a 100-yard rusher in the backfield when you've got Tony Gonzalez getting more touches than failed drug tests in Sydney.
|  | | Chiefs WR Derrick Alexander pulls in the winning touchdown pass here against Denver last week. |
The slick tight end hauled in 10 balls for 127 yards and a TD in their huge -- by Week 4 standards -- 23-22 victory over Denver last Sunday. And there's no reason to think Gonzalez won't continue to put up lofty numbers on Monday night against Seattle (ABC, 9 p.m. ET) with the way quarterback Elvis Grbac throws the ball.
Why not bring throw a Seattle strong safety on Gonzalez, you ask. Well, if last week was an indication of what defenses will do to cover the Chiefs pass-friendly offense, that position has more than just Gonzo to key on.
"Sylvester Morris took away a lot of attention from Tony Gonzalez," explains head coach Gunther Cunningham. "Their coverage started rolling out towards the wide receivers and they tried to match (LB) Romanowski up on Tony Gonzalez and we took advantage of it."
The Broncos, as usual, weren't naïve in their strategy. Most teams would have done the same thing after staring at tapes all week showing Morris' dazzling three-touchdown performance (6 catches for 112 yards) against San Diego the week before. That sort of prowess out wide forced the Broncos to respect the multi-talented rookie out of Jackson State a little more than they would have expected. It worked too, as Morris was held in check for just two catches for 13 yards, though his mere presence determined the outcome.
The Seahawks might have the solution. With Shawn Springs developing more and more every day into the Deion stratosphere of cover corners, it'll surprise no one if he's off on his own island giving lessons to a player who has only started three games in his life. Morris has a three-inch height advantage (6-3 to 6-0), but no one -- I mean, no one -- beats the former Buckeye on go routes.
Seattle hopes their emerging D-back can negate Morris with little help from his friends so that the safeties can concentrate on Gonzalez. Easier said than done. There's also a guy by the name of Derrick Alexander left to cover out wide. If Grbac continues to apply Wilson tattoos to his receivers with stunning consistency, Alexander may be the one to flourish at Arrowhead on Monday.
It's a must that one of the three aforementioned ball catchers are in sync with Grbac because the "Three runs and a dust of Cloud" running game is not to be counted on. With Mike Cloud as the starter in a revolving door of rushers in the KC backfield, nothing seems to be working. After scurrying for a mere 49 yards against Denver, this facet of the Chiefs game is ranked 26th in the league. A lot of that has to do with the lack of continuity on the O-Line, further damaged when Dave Szott went down with a torn biceps against Indianapolis on opening day.
"If you look at the left guard and left tackle, they're both new players," said Cunningham. "(OT) John (Tait) played some last year but obviously he's a new starter this year. We're going to keep pounding away at it."
Seattle rides a two-game winning streak, but how much does that really mean considering its triumphs came against San Diego and New Orleans? So, at 2-2, this contest takes on not only the usual AFC West implications, it also will go along way in determining just who the 2000 version of the Seattle Seahawks are. In order to stifle any playoff talk for Mike Holmgren's squad, the Chiefs defense may carry the most importance on Monday night.
Lining up against a unit that has allowed four or more sacks in three straight games, and is ranked 27th in total offense (261.3 yards per game), the Men in Red have to be salivating. Keep in mind Kurt Schottenheimer's defense has only yielded 14.0 ppg this season. The rest of the points posted against KC come from snafus on Grbac's part and the complete inability of the offense to tackle once an interception is thrown or a fumble is lost. (Think that maybe they should work on this in practice?).
Though his front four has had the offsides penalty bug as of late, Cunningham will take some lost yardage here and there as long as they keep producing ferocious explosions off the line and blowing up ball carriers.
"It's a difficult thing to do to get off the ball and hug the ball like we do," said Cunningham. "We're right on the line of scrimmage. Some teams play maybe a foot off the ball and if they jump a little bit they don't get called. However, with those teams they don't rush the passer very well. What we try to do is penetrate on both the run and pass."
This game may very well be won or lost on the line of scrimmage when the Chiefs are on defense. For one, Jon Kitna will have to yelp his cadence like a hungry two-year-old if his teammates are to know what's going on through a sold-out group of crazies at Arrowhead. Then, he's got to deal with the somewhat anonymous D-Line, led by Eric Hicks (who?) with 4.0 sacks, that has accounted for 11.0 of the club's 12.0 sacks thus far. They'll be sending the dogs early and often in hopes of making every Kitna attempt to Sean Dawkins and Darrell Jackson an immense struggle.
Regardless of what type of showcase Gonzalez or Morris is putting on in front of a blood-thirsty home crowd that watched their boys get swept by Seattle in 99, how Kitna and Co. perform will have the biggest outcome on which team moves to 3-2.
And yes, despite no semblance of a running game whatsoever, that team could very well be the Chiefs.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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