Surprise Pass, Stout Defense Propel Chiefs Past Steelers

Marcus Allen’s legs have carried him throughout a 16-year career. His arm carried the Kansas City Chiefs to a 13-10 victory Monday night over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Allen threw a 14-yard second-quarter touchdown pass to Danan Hughes and the defense made it stand up, holding the Steelers to just 101 yards after a first quarter in which Pittsburgh took a 10-0 lead.

It was a game typical of Kansas City under Marty Schottenheimer. It wasn’t pretty, but the Chiefs won against a Pittsburgh team coached by his former defensive coordinator, Bill Cowher.

“The only thing we wanted, we got, and that is 7-2,” said Schottenheimer, whose team stayed within a game of Denver in the AFC West.

Kansas City got all its points in the second quarter on Allen’s TD pass and field goals of 35 and 44 yards by Pete Stoyanovich.

Then the Chiefs, who outgained Pittsburgh 392-235 and kept the ball for more than 36 minutes, spent the second half moving up and down the field but making critical mistakes.

Allen fumbled backward after appearing to make a first down on a fourth down at the Pittsburgh 4 early in the fourth quarter, and Kimble Anders fumbled away the ball as the Chiefs were driving later in the period.

But each time the defense, led by Derrick Thomas, Anthony Davis, James Hasty and Jerome Woods shut down the Steelers and Kordell Stewart, who has had explosive second halves.

“You have to like a defensive football team that can shut down a team like that for three quarters,” Schottenheimer said after his team limited Pittsburgh to just 101 yards in the final three quarters.

“We played very, very good defense tonight.”

Jerome Bettis, who finished 17 for 103 and went over 1,000 yards for the season, had only 35 yards on seven carries after gaining 68 in the first quarter. The Kansas City running game got 183 yards from seven different ballcarriers, led by Allen’s 49 yards on 10 carries - the most carries by any Chief.

The loss dropped Pittsburgh (6-3) into a tie for first in the AFC Central with Jacksonville.

The game was delayed for more than 10 minutes in the third quarter after Kansas City tight end Ted Popson was injured when he was hit under the jaw by the Donnell Woolford of the Steelers. The preliminary diagnosis was mild head trauma and soreness in the neck.

The Steelers got off to an uncharacteristically fast start.

The TD came first, 7 minutes into the game on a 44-yard pass from Stewart to Courtney Hawkins. Then Norm Johnson hit a 27-yard field goal.

But the second quarter belonged to Kansas City.

After Stoyanovich’s two field goals, Woods picked off a Stewart pass and returned it 17 yards to the Pittsburgh 45.

Four plays and 55 seconds later from the 14, Grbac handed off to Allen, who floated a perfect spiral to Hughes, four yards behind the Pittsburgh secondary. It was the fifth TD pass of Allen’s career.