Kansas City Chiefs Rewatch: 2009 week 16 vs Bengals

After an offensive performance in week 15, the Kansas City Chiefs hoped that production would follow them to Cincinnati for their week 16 match-up against the Bengals.

The 2009 season hadn’t gone well for the Kansas City Chiefs. With two games remaining in the season, they had gone a mere 3-11 and the offense and defense were simply unable to click at the same time.

After back-to-back blowout losses at the hands of the Chargers and Broncos, the Chiefs hosted a two-win Browns team and despite putting up the most points they had all season, still couldn’t pull off the W. They had lost three straight home games and now had to play their final two battles on the road to close out what had been a tough year.

First up was the Cincinnati Bengals, who were having a good season, sitting with nine wins and looking to clinch the AFC North if they won this game. Would the Chiefs be able to prevent the Bengals from clinching their division?

WEEK 16 VS CINCINNATI BENGALS: DECEMBER 27TH, 2009

The Chiefs allowed an average of under 70 yards passing in their past two games, which seems like a good stat, but really shows just how bad the Chiefs run defense had been. We saw them get gashed for 300+ yards last week against the Browns and for them not to think the Bengals would try to implement a run first strategy against them would be foolish.

Speaking of run game, Larry Johnson was a Bengal at this point after a dramatic season in Kansas City where. That wasn’t a storyline shoved down our throats at all during the course of this game (sarcasm of course).

The Bengals offense struggled in the first half, as did the Chiefs offense – which is nothing new. So much that the boo birds came out in the second quarter and I don’t blame their fans. There was no reason the nine-win Bengals should have been struggling against a three-win Chiefs team that was just destroyed on the ground against the freaking Browns.

What finally got the ball rolling (literally) for the Bengals was when Thomas Gafford poorly snapped the ball and Dustin Colquitt kicked the ball out of bounds to prevent Cincinnati from scoring a touchdown, which was a smart move by the long time Chiefs punter, as the Chiefs defense forced the Bengals to settle for a field goal.

The Chiefs put together a nice drive at the end of the second quarter, but they ended up having to kick a field goal, tying things at three heading into the locker room. It wasn’t the best possible result, but after an atrocious first half by both sides, a 3-3 score seemed fitting.

When the second half began, the Bengals managed to total more yards offensively on their first drive than they had throughout the entire first half. They capped their best drive of the afternoon off with a touchdown to put them ahead 10-3.

Kansas City then went on an impressive drive of their own, finishing it off with a touchdown pass to Tim Castille. The Chiefs were tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter against a playoff team. That was definitely an accomplishment for KC after what had been a rough season.

Ultimately, the Chiefs couldn’t stop the Bengals, as they’d score another touchdown before the two minute warning and the final score was 17-10. Even with this being a loss, Kansas City gave a playoff bound Bengals team everything they could handle and had their fanbase booing. That’s something, even in a lackluster season.

REMEMBER THAT GUY?

• The Bengals took a page out of other teams’ playbook by running the ball down Kansas City’s throat. Cedric Benson led Cincinnati in rushing with 133 yards off of 29 carries. Larry Johnson had just 11 yards off of four carries – Not exactly a “Look at me now” kind of performance.
• Tim Castille had the lone Chiefs touchdown – a 20 yarder that tied the game up at ten.
• Jon McGraw picked off Carson Palmer early in the game.
• Wallace Gilberry had the lone sack on Palmer.

There were glimpses of hope within this match-up, but a lingering problem continued to be drops. The Chiefs led the league with 48 drops per the broadcast. Not holding onto the football is a problem no matter what kind of offense you are, but in 2009, it killed the team week after week.

Earlier on in the broadcast, the announcers noted that the Chiefs had not won in Cincinnati for 25 years, which is baffling to think about. I looked it up and KC still hasn’t recorded a win in Cincy, meaning it’s now been 35 years since they took down the Bengals in their home stadium.

Keep in mind that these two teams really don’t play each other super often, with the Chiefs only traveling to Cincinnati once since the 2009 season. Once they go there with this current team, it should hopefully be a different story.

There’s one game to go in the 2009 season. How will the Kansas City Chiefs finish off year one of the Todd Haley era?

Next up (hopefully): Week 17 vs Broncos (8-7)