Closer But No Cigar Seahawks Put Up A Good Fight But Still Can’t Win At Arrowhead

For the first time in 16 years, the Seattle Seahawks were in position to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium without needing a miracle.

Early in the fourth quarter of a tie game Sunday, Steve Broussard was stopped for a 4-yard loss on a third-and1 at the Seattle 44.

With 35 seconds left in regulation, the Seahawks were at the Chiefs’ 47, a 10-yard play away from field goal position. No such play.

The final blow came in overtime when Warren Moon fired a long interception to safety Jerome Woods that set up Pete Stoyanovich’s game-winning 41-yard field goal 13:04 into overtime.

The Seahawks won respect in Arrowhead, but they lost the game, 20-17, and may have lost wide receiver Joey Galloway for a couple of weeks with an ankle injury.

“Yes, it was a good game, but we didn’t win,” Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson said. “That’s the bottom line. You have to win football games. We had an opportunity to win.”

Despite one of their gutsiest performances in front of 77,877 red-clad Chiefs fans, the Seahawks fell into a difficult three-way tie for third place in the AFC West with a 2-3 record. They trail the unbeaten Denver Broncos by three games and the 4-1 Chiefs by two.

“Denver, at some point, will get knocked off a couple of times,” Moon said. “Our chances of catching them got tougher, so this was a big step backward for us as far as that was concerned. But our team is actually getting better, believe it or not.”

Believe it. For most of the second half, the Seahawks were playing without six starters - halfback Chris Warren, defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, quarterback John Friesz, Galloway, left tackle Walter Jones and defensive end Phillip Daniels.

Kennedy, Friesz, Jones and Daniels didn’t suit up for the game. Galloway injured his right ankle being tackled in the end zone by cornerback Dale Carter after he was beaten for a 41-yard touchdown pass 8:33 into the game. He left the stadium on crutches.

In the third quarter, Warren strained a hamstring after a 28-yard run. This wasn’t a normal game against the Chiefs. The Seahawks were getting hurt running around in open spaces they’ve never seen before in Arrowhead.

They had five plays longer than 28 yards. Moon’s touchdown passes were 41 yards to Galloway and 54 yards to James McKnight, who beat Carter in the third quarter when safety Reggie Tongue failed to cover the deep zone. Mike Pritchard had a 50-yard catch. Lamar Smith broke a 35-yarder to the Chiefs’ 47 that should have set up the victory.

“There’s a million things when you go into overtime that you can look back on as far as losing the football game,” Erickson said. “But our players played as hard as they possibly could play. They played their guts out.”

The defense was on the field for 86 plays on a 79-degree day. Big plays were a part of Seattle defense in the first half when the Seahawks picked off three Elvis Grbac passes.

Moon drove the Seahawks 61 yards for a 44-yard field goal with 9:34 left in the second quarter, and the underdog Hawks led, 10-0.

Then little things killed them.

Mr. Automatic - kicker Todd Peterson - missed a 37-yard field goal with 1:28 left in the half on a ball he thought was hit right.

A series of missed tackles by Seattle allowed Marcus Allen to cap a 77-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown, his first of two.

“When you come out against a big team like the Kansas City Chiefs at home, you’ve got to make plays,” said strong safety Bennie Blades, who intercepted a pass to stop one Chiefs drive. “We didn’t make a play when it counted. In the first half, we just weren’t tackling. If you miss a tackle, it’s an extra four yards.”

The Chiefs, who had 219 yards in the first half, marched 79 yards in the third quarter to take a 14-10 lead on Allen’s 1-yard run.

The Seahawks came back quickly with Moon hitting Lamar Smith for 10 yards, Pritchard running a reverse for 14 and McKnight catching a 54-yard TD pass.

The Seahawks led, 17-14.

“When teams press man-for-man, either they are going to make some plays or you are going to make some plays,” said Moon, who made his plays in an impressive 19-for-26 performance for 252 yards and two TDs. “We’ve got some pretty good speed on the receiving corps, and we took some chances.”

Grbac, who passed for 274 yards, got greedy on a third-and-1 at the Seahawks’ 1. He rolled out and was sacked by Blades, forcing the Chiefs to settle for a 29-yard field goal and 17-17 tie with 13:14 left in regulation.

The Seahawks turned a little conservative. Against a fierce Chiefs blitz, Broussard was stopped for a four-yard loss on a third-and-1 at the Seahawks’ 44. They punted. They eventually got the ball back at their own 15 with 1:18 left and had a chance to win when Smith broke the 35-yarder into Chiefs territory.

Smith then dropped a swing pass to the left on first down. The next pass to Smith was stopped for a 1-yard loss. A third-down pass to Pritchard was three yards short of the first-down marker, and Peterson missed a 58-yard field goal at the end of the fourth quarter.

They lost a gamble in overtime by sending Pritchard and Blades deep on a pass play. Broussard missed a block and Moon was hit as he threw. Woods grabbed the interception and the Chiefs drove for the winning kick.

Graphic: Chiefs 20, Seahawks 17