Good Times

How about this lineup for the football games of weekend past?

University of Kansas: 40
University of Kick-Kansas-Ass-36-Years-In-A-Row: 15

University of Colorado: 41
University of Perpetual-Mediocrity: 12

Iowa State University: 45
Quickly-Losing-Respectability-As-A-Top-25-University: 17

Kansas City Chiefs: 27
Oakland Raiders: 23

In case you haven't been notified of the name-changes of several universities within the Big XII, KU beat Nebraska; Colorado beat Missouri; and Iowa State beat K-State. First and foremost,

KANSAS BEAT NEBRASKA IN FOOTBALL.

No one has been able to truthfully write this sentence since before I was born. I guess all bad things must come to an end, and the Jayhawks were finally able to put 36 years of futility behind them. Of course, a lot of stars had to align to make this even a remote possibility:

1) Tom Osborne retires as head coach at Nebraska, begetting Frank Solich. Solich wins "only" 9 games per year and is forced out, begetting former Raider head coach Bill Calahan. Bill Calahan decides the best way to pick up the tattered remains of the recruiting classes Solich brought in was to institute the vaunted "West Coast Offense", even though none of these kids were recruited with this system in mind.

2) Roy Williams decides to accept his "dream job" at North Carolina, releasing his stranglehold on the rest of the KU athletic department. Lew Perkins decides to leave the burgeoning empire he created from scratch at UConn and try his hand at boosting the *entire* KU athletic department, rather than just the basketball program. Noted friend of Roy, Terry Allen, finally receives his just desserts and is fired, replaced by sizable head coach Mark Mangino.

3) Calahan institutes a system of confusion and turmoil into the Nebraska football program and winds up missing a bowl game for the first time since football was invented.

4) Mangino institutes a system of hard work and preparation and winds up taking the Jayhawks to the Phillip Rivers Bowl, er, Tangerine Bowl, the team's first bowl game since 1995.

And, finally, Memorial Stadium was not filled with Husker Red, but overflowing with Jayhawk Blue as a new stadium attendance record was set. Over 51,000 people got to witness something that a whole generation of KU football fans had never seen. Unfortunately, Kansas football still doesn't carry the same weight as Kansas basketball and so the game wasn't televised locally. But I was able to listen to Bob and Max on the radio as Bob screamed at the top of his lungs after every noteworthy play. And there were plenty of noteworthy plays:

* 40-yard TD pass on KU's opening offensive drive
* KU blocks a punt and recovers for a touchdown
* KU RB John Cornish rips off a 72-yard touchdown scamper
* A Kansas safety
* Mark Simmons catches his second TD pass for KU
* KU linebacker Kevin Kane picks off a screen pass and runs it 40 yards for a TD

I'm not sure Bob still had working vocal chords after this game. And to top off the day, main rivals MU and KSU get completely destroyed, seriously hindering their chances at ending the season in a bowl game. Meanwhile, KU needs to beat Iowa State in Lawrence (a tough, but winnable game) to make itself bowl-eligible, two weeks after at the possibility of a lost season.

This team has been both exciting and maddening at the same time. The offense, until the last two weeks, has been wretched. The defense, on the other hand, has been one of the nation's best. It had been disappointing watching the defense play its heart out only to have the offense piss away victories, game after game. Add in the fact that it's a senior-heavy defense and you could just see a potentially special season going down the drain. Now, after dismantling Brad Smith and Missouri for the third straight year and finally ending the streak against Nebraska, there is some hope again for this team.

This week, the Jayhawks travel to Austin to play second-ranked Texas. Normally, that would sound like a momentum buster, but KU was one horribly-botched call away from beating Texas last year. I'm not saying Kansas won't get annihilated by UT, but these guys have seen the possibility of beating this team and won't be intimidated in the least.

It doesn't take much to brighten the spirits of a Jayhawk football fan. Here's hoping we can send these seniors out on a bright note.

---

And as if all that college lunacy wasn't enough, the Chiefs managed to pull a game directly out of their collective ass.

The first half was a terrible snoozer, with both teams combining for five field goals and a 3-point lead by Oakland. But the second half saw KC's offense start to wake up, even though it was without Pro Bowl lineman Willie Roaf and Pro Bowl running back Priest Holmes. And once it looked like the Chiefs might take Oakland by the throat, Kerry Collins finds Jerry Porter in the end zone and makes it a 5-point game. And with time running out in the game, Randy Moss decides to show up and makes his first catch of the day: a 7-yard touchdown that, with the two-point conversion, puts the Raiders up by three. The Chiefs somehow manage to chip away and get the ball down the field, aided by a leg whip call that goes against the Raiders and negates yet another late game sack of Trent Green. With new life breathed into the offense, Green finds Eddie Kennison along the sidelines and gets close to field goal range for Lawrence Tynes. After a time-out with nineteen seconds left, Green checks off and dumps a short pass over the line to Larry Johnson.

**SIDE NOTE**

Larry Johnson has been itching to be in this situation from the moment the Chiefs drafted him and hasn't been afraid to tell anyone who will listen. After being drafted as a bargaining chip in Priest Holmes's contract negotiation, though, Johnson had been stuck riding the pine. After much whining, Johnson was able to take advantage of opportunities that presented themselves in the way of Priest Holmes injuries. He had a respectable second half of the season last year after Holmes went down and parlayed that into more carries in the preseason this year. He had added patience to his repertoire and was ripping off 15 yard runs left and right, forcing the Kansas City coaching staff to find a larger role for him in the offense. The staff settled on a rotation that alternated Holmes carrying the ball for two series and Johnson for one. Johnson has thrived, scoring as many touchdowns as Holmes in less carries and keeping himself ready for the inevitable Holmes injury. And ready he was when it was announced that Holmes would not play against the Raiders and Johnson would get his first start of the year.

**BACK TO THE GAME**

Larry Johnson catches the dump pass and turns to find no Raiders within 15 yards of him. In his most impressive run to date, he took off, full-speed, toward the goal line. Johnson is a big guy, but can make people miss if he wants to, but most of the time he runs as if oncoming tacklers have burned down his house and stolen his girlfriend and he's looking for revenge. I've never seen a more "angry" runner than Larry Johnson. Anyway, he sprints 35 yards downfield and just lowers his head as two Raiders finally realize that they'd better do something or else they'd end up like Brian Bosworth after a Bo Jackson steamrolling. They manage to stop Johnson at the one-yard line with five seconds left. The Chiefs immediately call time-out and try to decide whether to take the safe route or go for the win.

Thankfully, Vermeil decided that the offense was good enough to get one yard and didn't put the pressure back on the defense to potentially get torched in overtime. And Larry Johnson and the offensive line came through. Johnson leaped over the line for the winning score with time running out while the line blew open several hole for him to run through. The Chiefs were celebrating wildly and deservedly while the Raiders walked off the field.

It's always fun to beat the Raiders (even though we do it all the time), but this was a particularly rewarding victory. Trent Green has been mourning his father's unexpected death and his focus has been understandably distracted. The best offensive player in Chiefs history (Holmes) suffers yet another injury. Willie Roaf, arguably the best left tackle in the game, missed another game. Off-season acquisition Patrick Surtain was out due to injury. All these things could have easily derailed this team and no one would have batted an eye. But the revolving door of mediocre lineman filled in and gutted it out, just enough; our increasingly suspect secondary sustained injuries, but managed to limit Randy Moss to just one catch; and Larry Johnson turned in a much-needed professional performance when his team needed it the most. Now, instead of allowing Oakland to join the fight in the AFC West, the Chiefs put them away and remained a game back of Denver and a half-game in front of San Diego. I'm not sure this was a "season-saving" win, but it sure was a good one.