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| Derrick Thomas would set the NFL record for most quarterback sacks in a single NFL game in the Chiefs' 1990 game with the Seattle Seahawks. |
However that was not the case in the game between the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs in week 10 of the 1990 NFL season as Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas would break the record for most quarterback sacks in a NFL game.
The Chiefs entered their game with their division rivals(The Seattle Seahawks were in the AFC West from 1977-2001) with a 5-3 record and hopes for a trip to the playoffs under head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who had became the Chiefs' head coach in 1989 after 4 1/2 seasons as head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Also arriving in Kansas City at the same time as Schottenheimer was Thomas, who was selected with #4 overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft.
Thomas would have a fantastic rookie season as he recorded 10 quarterback sacks, earning him NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and a trip to the Pro Bowl, the first time that a Kansas City linebacker had been selected to the Pro Bowl as a rookie since Hall-of-Famer Bobby Bell did it in 1963.
The Chiefs finished the 1989 season with a 8-7-1 record, just one game short of the playoffs.
Kansas City seemed poised to make it to the playoffs in 1990 thanks to their defense which had given up a touchdown or less in three games and Thomas coming up with eight quarterback sacks up to this point.
Their opponent for week 10 of the 1990 NFL season, were the Seattle Seahawks, who had gotten off to a 0-3 start only to win three of their previous five games, which included a 19-7 win over the Chiefs in the Kingdome three weeks earlier.
But if the Seahawks were going to continue to climb out of the hole they had dug themselves earlier in the season, they were going to have do something they had never done under head coach Chuck Knox, who was in his eighth year as the Seahawks' head coach, and that is beat the Chiefs in Kansas City, something that had not been done by the Seahawks since the 1980 season.
After forcing the Chiefs to punt on their opening drive, the Seahawks got the ball at their nine-yard-line.
Seattle was able to drive to their 38-yard-line until a holding penalty on right tackle Ronnie Lee pushed the Seahawks back 10 yards to their 28-yard-line where they faced a 3rd & 20 situation.
That is when Thomas struck for the first time in the game, sacking quarterback Dave Krieg for a five-yard-loss to force a Seattle punt.
The Chiefs would pick one 1st down before punting the ball back to the Seahawks, who took over at their 15-yard-line.
On 3rd & 10, Thomas would again sack Krieg, almost giving the Chiefs two points in the process as Krieg was dropped at the one-yard-line, just barely avoiding a safety that would have given Kansas City a 2-0 lead.
Nevertheless, the Chiefs were already in range for a field goal following the Seattle punt as the Kansas City offense took over at the Seahawks' 20-yard-line.
The drive would began with running back Barry Word running for 12 yards on the first play of the drive, which was followed by a five-yard run that set up 3rd & 5 where quarterback Steve DeBerg hit Stephone Paige for six yards to set up 1st & goal at the nine-yard-line as the first quarter came to a close.
The Chiefs seemed to poised to score a touchdown as the "Nigerian Nightmare" running back Christian Okoye ran for six yards on 1st & goal, only to have Word get dropped for a four-yard loss on 2nd down, which was followed by an incomplete pass on 3rd down, leading to a 25-yard field goal by Nick Lowery to give Kansas City a 3-0 lead with 13:02 left in the second quarter.
The Seahawks would take over at their 27-yard-line and after picking up a 1st down, Krieg connected with fullback John L. Williams for a 44-yard completion which put Seattle at the Kansas City 19-yard-line.
However after the play, Knox was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, pushing the Seahawks back 15 yards to the Chiefs' 34-yard-line.
Then on 3rd & 1 from the 25-yard-line, running back Derrick Fenner was stopped for no gain by Chiefs nose tackle Dan Saleaumua, forcing the Seahawks to settle for a 43-yard field goal by Norm Johnson which tied the game at 3 with 7:53 left in the second quarter.
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| Despite being sacked nine times(seven by Derrick Thomas) Dave Krieg would throw for 306 yards and two touchdown passes on 16-of-23 passing. |
After both teams punted on their ensuing possessions, the Chiefs would get the ball back at their 34-yard-line with just 99 seconds left before halftime.
It seemed the Chiefs would pose for a three-and-out as the first two plays only netted one yard, until DeBerg hit Paige for 15 yards on 3rd & 9 to give Kansas City a 1st down at the 50-yard-line.
Then, DeBerg would hit Robb Thomas for back-to-back completions of eight yards each to give the Chiefs a 1st down at the Seattle 34-yard-line.
DeBerg would then complete a 11-yard pass to J.J. Birden for another 1st down at the Seahawks 23-yard-line, until DeBerg threw two straight incomplete passes to force a 3rd & 10 with just 17 seconds left in the half.
That is when the Chiefs surprised the Seahawks with a running play as Todd McNair ran for 11 yards before being knocked out of bounds at the 12-yard-line with 10 seconds left.
Rather than risk another play which could run out the clock, Schottenheimer called on Lowery to kick a 30-yard field goal which would give the Chiefs the lead.
Lowery's kick was true and the Chiefs went into halftime with a 6-3 lead.
The Seahawks would get the ball to start the second half as they began their initial drive of the half at their 24-yard-line.
On the first play of the drive, Krieg would hit Paul Skansi for a 21-yard completion to give Seattle a 1st down at their 45-yard-line.
Then on 3rd & 9 from the 46-yard-line, Kreig found Jeff Chadwick over the middle for a 54-yard touchdown to give the Seahawks a 10-6 lead just 2:27 into the third quarter.
The Chiefs would take over at their 20-yard-line and would go into "Martyball" mode as Okoye would carry the ball nine times for 42 yards on a 15-play, 74-yard drive that would take up nearly 10 minutes and culminate with a 24-yard field goal by Lowery which trimmed the Seattle to 10-9 with 2:46 left in the third quarter.
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| Christian Okoye would carry the ball 21 times for 85 yards. |
The Seahawks would get the ball back at their 15-yard-line but would be put in precurious situation as Krieg was called for intentional on 2nd down, forcing the Seahawks to face a 3rd & 17 at their eight-yard-line.
That is when Thomas struck again as his third sack of the game forced a fumble that was recoverd by Saleauma for a touchdown to give Kansas City a 16-10 lead with 1:35 left in the third quarter.
Seattle got the ball back at their 25-yard-line and were able to drive to the Chiefs' 38-yard-line as the game went into the 4th quarter.
Following an incomplete pass on 1st down, Thomas picked up his fourth sack of the game as he dropped for Krieg for a 10-yard-loss, which was followed by another sack, this one by defensive end Neil Smith for a five-yard-loss, pushing Seattle back to its 47-yard-line and forcing them to punt the ball back to the Chiefs.
The Seahawks would force a three-and-out to get the ball back at their 24-yard-line and were able to pick up a 1st down as Krieg hit Williams for 10 yards on 2nd & 7 from the 27-yard-line.
But back-to-back penalties pushed the Seahawks back to their 17-yard-line where they faced a 1st & 30 situation.
Two plays picked up five yards until Krieg hit Brian Blades for 24 yards, but just one yard short of the 1st down at the Seattle 46-yard-line.
But with still over seven minutes to play, Knox decided to punt the ball back to the Chiefs in hopes his defense would make a stop.
They would forcing the Chiefs to punt the ball to the Seahawks, who took over at their 35-yard-line with 3:49 to go and all three timeouts left.
The drive got off to an auspicious start as Thomas sacked Krieg on the first play of the drive, dropping him for a seven-yard-loss and forcing 2nd & 17.
However, Krieg would rebound by hitting Fenner for six yards and then Williams for 23 yards to give the Seahawks a 1st down at the Chiefs' 43-yard-line as the two-minute warning hit.
But the stoppage in play only give Thomas a chance to re-energize as he would sack Krieg on the next two plays tying and then breaking the NFL record for most quarterback sacks in a single game which had been previously held by Fred Dean as he sacked Saints quarterback Dave Wilson six times in a 27-0 win for the 49ers in 1983.
Now facing a 3rd & 26 from the Seattle 42-yard-line, Krieg completed a 20-yard pass to Tommy Kane, only to have Kane fumble the football after a hit by Chiefs cornerback Kevin Ross, which was recovered by linebacker Chris Martin, to give Kansas City the ball at their 41-yard-line with 75 seconds left.
But the Seahawks still had three timeouts, so the Chiefs needed to pick up a 1st down to put the game away.
However, they could not as the Seahawks forced a three-and-out to get the ball back at their 34-yard-line with 48 seconds left and no timeouts, needing a touchdown to pull out the win.
The drive began with Krieg completing a 16-yard pass to Williams which put Seattle at the 50-yard-line, which was followed by a 25-yard pass to Kane to the 25-yard-line as Krieg spiked the ball with four seconds left giving Seattle one last chance for a potential game-winning touchdown.
Lined up in the shotgun, Krieg took the snap and dropped back to pass, only to have Thomas prepare to sack him for the eighth time in the game.
However, Krieg was able to escape Thomas and fire a pass toward the end zone for Skansi, who jumped up to make the catch for a shocking touchdown as time expired to tie the game.
Still, the Seahawks needed to make the extra point to win the game in regulation.
Johnson would have no trouble making the extra point to give the Seahawks a shocking 17-16 victory for their first win in Kansas City in 10 years.
The win would spark a strong second half of the season as they would win five of their last seven games to finish with a 9-7 record, but it wasn't good enough to make the playoffs as they lost out on a tiebreaker with the Houston Oilers, who had complied a better conference(AFC) record than Seattle.
Following a 7-9 season in 1991, Knox would step down as Seahawks head coach and return to Los Angeles to coach the Rams for the next three seasons.
As for the Chiefs, they would recover from the heartbreaking loss to earn a Wild Card spot with a 10-6 record, but would fall to the Miami Dolphins 17-16 in the Wild Card round.
The Chiefs would make the playoffs six of the next seven seasons under Schottenheimer, with Thomas recording four seasons with at least 10 sacks during that time.
Thomas was still an active member with the Chiefs through the 1999 season until a car accident on January 23, 2000 left him paralyzed and then ultimately led to his death two weeks later on February 8th at the age of 33 years old.
Thomas was posthumously inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2009 and had his #58 jersey retired by the Chiefs on December 6th of that year.
Even though his career and life were cut short, Thomas is considered one of the greatest pass rushers of all time.
His record for most quarterback sacks in one NFL game still stands to this day.
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