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With little else to play for, the Chiefs were bound and determined not to leave Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday without getting Priest Holmes his two touchdowns.
They ran Holmes on sweeps inside the Chicago 20. They ran him on dives. They
abstained from taking touchdowns that would have been laughably easy had the
Chiefs given the ball to someone else.
The Bears, too, knew what was at stake: the NFL single-season record for touchdowns. They did what they could to make the matter difficult, but late in the third quarter of what would be a 31-3 Chiefs win, Holmes vaulted over the line from 2 yards out for his second score of the day.
It was his 27th touchdown of the season, breaking the record of 26 set by Marshall
Faulk of St. Louis in 2000.
"I still haven't realized what I have accomplished," Holmes said after
the game. "I really haven't. I know that I have looked at Tony Dorsett
and Walter Payton… and always seen those guys on top in the record books.
It's really amazing to be able to have such a blessing given to me and to be
picked as a person to hold those records."
The final record-breaking touchdown set off a wild celebration in the end zone
and along the Chiefs' sideline because it wasn't a milestone just for Holmes
— everyone involved felt ownership of a tiny piece of history.
"As an offensive lineman," guard Brian Waters said, "you don't
get too many accolades other than what your quarterback does and what your running
back does."
That's why the Chiefs arrived at Arrowhead of a single mind Sunday. They moved
to 13-3 by beating the Bears, but they already were locked into a first-round
bye and the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs.
They will play their first postseason game at Arrowhead on Jan. 10 or 11 against
Indianapolis, Tennessee or Baltimore.
The Chiefs knew all that after New England vanquished Buffalo on Saturday. The
real intrigue Sunday was Holmes and his pursuit of Faulk's record.
"I was driving to the stadium today," said fullback Tony Richardson,
who could have been speaking for all his teammates, "thinking that I had
to do whatever was in my power to get him into the end zone."
The Chiefs were so determined to get Holmes into the record book, they ran him
on 10 of their first 13 plays inside the Chicago 20 until he scored his second
touchdown.
The Bears virtually conceded the Chiefs a touchdown in any manner but handing
or passing the ball to Holmes by stacking the line in wait, indicating their
motivation in preventing Holmes from getting the record.
"He obviously scored a lot of touchdowns on other people, so we're not
going to hold ourselves accountable for a record he breaks in our game,"
Bears linebacker Warrick Holdman said. "We didn't want to give him a touchdown,
but he got it, so congratulations to him."
Quarterback Trent Green said, "It was pretty clear to everybody they were
overplaying the run. We were kind of laughing about it a little bit because
if we ran some bootlegs or nakeds, we might have something there. But it was
more important to get him as many opportunities to get the record as we could."
The record appeared a virtual certainty in the second quarter, when Holmes scored
on a 1-yard run and the Chiefs promptly moved back into scoring position. But
the Bears stiffened, and Green threw a scoring pass to Eddie Kennison instead.
The Chiefs' next good scoring chance didn't come until late in the third quarter.
Facing fourth and 1 from the Chicago 2 with a 14-3 lead, coach Dick Vermeil
initially indicated he would send Morten Andersen on for a field-goal attempt.
"He wanted to kick it," Richardson said. "I told him we needed
to go for the touchdown. The Chicago Bears are a good team. We didn't know if
we would get back down there again. I guess he listened to me because he changed
his mind."
Holmes then leaped over the line and into the end zone, where he was embraced
first by tight end Jason Dunn, next by Richardson and the other Chiefs and,
later, on the sideline by Vermeil.
"I know that the team was definitely pulling for me," Holmes said.
"That's one of the things we talk about all week long. We make sure that
we have the opportunity to put me in the end zone. We are now all part of something
that is set in history."
Holmes had a shot at the record last year, getting 24 touchdowns with two games
left before his season ended because of a hip injury. Complications from that
injury had Holmes' status in doubt before the start of the season, but no more.
"The first of the season, everybody wanted to know, ‘Is he going
to be all right?' " Dunn said. "My answer always was, ‘He'll
show you.'
"And he did. He's in the record book now."