Moon Leads Houston to 3rd Straight, 23-20

Tony Zendejas kicked a 38-yard field goal with 14 seconds left to give the Houston Oilers a 23-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday, but quarterback Warren Moon deserves most of the credit for the win.

It was Moon who completed 24 of 35 passes for 255 yards and guided the Oilers on a 57-yard drive in the final two minutes prior to Zendejas’ field goal.

Moon hit tight end Jamie Williams with a key third-down pass and a holding penalty against Kansas City’s Albert Lewis kept the drive alive. Moon hit wide receiver Tim Smith with a 24-yard pass to set up the field goal.

Houston (4-5) won its third straight game for the first time since closing out the 1980 season with three consecutive wins. The Chiefs (3-6) extended their losing string to five.

Zendejas could have easily been the goat. He missed the extra point after Houston’s first touchdown and later in the first half he had a 39-yard field-goal attempt hit the crossbar.

But he said he didn’t get too down because his teammates provided support. “A lot of players came up to me and told me to forget that one and wait for the next one,” Zendejas said.

The Oilers took a 6-3 halftime lead on Moon’s 17-yard touchdown pass to former Ram Drew Hill and built it to 20-6 on Moon’s three-yard touchdown pass to Chris Dressel and Butch Woolfolk’s three-yard touchdown run.

But Bill Kenney rallied the Chiefs to a 20-20 deadlock on touchdown passes of six yards to Herman Heard with 13:40 to play and 18 yards to Stephone Paige with 4:34 to go.

Kansas City’s Nick Lowery kicked two field goals, including a 35-yarder in the second quarter and a 39-yarder in the third quarter.

Woolfolk finished with 101 yards rushing in 14 carries, while Mike Pruitt led the Chiefs with 82 yards in 18 carries. Kenney finished with 18 completions on 33 attempts for 271 yards.