Bengals Play Chiefs to Standstill : Kansas City Watches as Cincinnati Steals Ball, 21-17 Victory

Everybody seemed to stop, except Leon White.

White stole the ball and ran 22 yards for a touchdown with 13:11 left in the game Sunday to give the Cincinnati Bengals a 21-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

“I don’t know if they even saw the ball,” White said. “But you try to take the play as far as you can because you never know what the referee is going to call.”

The Chiefs (1-3), who committed two turnovers inside the Cincinnati 10-yard line in the third period, had a 17-14 lead when Christian Okoye went around right end on second-and-four from the Chief 19. Okoye collapsed in a pile of tacklers and blockers and players on both sides seemed to pull up.

The next thing anybody knew, White was standing in the end zone with the ball and the Bengals (3-1) had what turned out to be the only score of the second half.

“I think it was a bad call,” said Okoye, who rushed for 101 yards. “I was down. I couldn’t believe it.

“There were three of four guys tackling me. I was trying to move my legs to get more yards, then I saw this other guy pull on the ball. I was on my knee and the guy was still yanking the ball. When I was down, he pulled away the ball. I was expecting the ref to blow the whistle. But he didn’t. Then I saw the guy jogging toward the end zone and still no whistle.”

Said referee Gordon Carter: “The one judge had him still on his feet moving forward. He had the ball stolen out of his arms and Cincinnati took off and ran to the end zone with it.”

Ron Jaworski, 38, starting for the first time in nearly three years, hit 14 of 28 passes for 163 yards for the Chiefs, but had four passes intercepted--three by David Fulcher, who also recovered a fumble at the Cincinnati one-yard line.

Turk Schonert started at quarterback for the Bengals in place of Boomer Esiason, who was nursing a sore ankle. But Esiason entered the game when Schonert was shaken up on the first series.

Esiason was immediately sacked, and Bill Maas recovered his fumble for Kansas City on the 10. Three plays later, Nick Lowery kicked a 23-yard field goal with 7:32 left in the first quarter to make it 3-0.

The Chiefs made it 10-0 on Okoye’s 11-yard scoring run, but four plays later Esiason hit Tim McGee on a 40-yard touchdown pass play.

Kevin Ross intercepted Esiason’s pass on the Chiefs’ 26 the next time the Bengals got the ball, setting up Jaworski’s five-yard scoring pass to Robb Thomas for a 17-7 lead.

Cincinnati closed to within 17-14 at halftime on Eric Ball’s two-yard scoring run.