Chiefs Tie Jets With Late Touchdown Pass, 17-17

Steve DeBerg capped a fourth-quarter rally with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Emile Harry with 51 seconds left in regulation to give the Kansas City Chiefs a 17-17 tie with the New York Jets Sunday.

Harry’s catch climaxed an 80-yard, 13-play drive. Harry had 4 receptions for 59 yards on the drive and DeBerg was 9 for 13 for 175 yards in leading the fourth-quarter surge.

The Jets were driving for the winning score in overtime when, with 38 seconds left, running back Freeman McNeil fumbled at the Chiefs’ 15. It was New York’s fourth turnover of the game.

Johnny Hector of the Jets broke a scoring slump with a pair of touchdowns. New York’s revitalized pass rush had 6 sacks, 3 by Mark Gastineau.

The tie broke the Jets’ 3-game winning streak and prevented them from moving into a first-place tie with Buffalo atop the AFC East. New York is 3-1-1, Kansas City 1-3-1.

Gastineau made things happen. The five-time All-Pro who had just 6 1/2 sacks the last 2 seasons, had 3 Sunday and has 7 in 1988. The Jets already have 20 sacks this year--9 more than their total for all of ’87.

“I want to know what Mark Gastineau is on,” DeBerg said. “They had an outstanding pass rush. This is the sorest I’ve been after any game.

“Mark was playing like he was when he was All-Pro. We didn’t expect that kind of a rush from the Jets.”

Said Gastineau: “It’s a hard outcome to accept, an ending like this after the game we played. But I’m happy with our effort. The defense played together.

“We took a gut-check out there and we came away from it a better team for it. We could have folded, but we didn’t. It’s not a win but it’s not a loss.”

The Jets went ahead, 3-0, on Pat Leahy’s 23-yard field goal that capped a 74-yard drive in the first quarter. They made it 10-0 on Hector’s 4-yard run, his first touchdown of the season after leading the AFC with 11 rushing scores in 1987.

Ken O’Brien combined with McNeil for 19 yards and Kurt Sohn for 17 on the 60-yard drive, then Hector broke a pair of tackles to get into the end zone from a yard out.

Kansas City, which allowed 4 sacks in the first half, made some blocking adjustments in the third quarter and did not surrender a sack until late in the period, when Tom Baldwin got to DeBerg.

O’Brien finished 27 of 48 for 288 yards, with Mickey Shuler catching 12 for 152.