Okoye Carries Load to Pace Chiefs

After carrying the ball a team-record 33 times, Kansas City fullback Christian Okoye is still looking to hit his stride.

Okoye gained 170 yards and scored twice against the National Football League’s worst rushing defense as the Chiefs beat Dallas, 36-28, Sunday and handed the Cowboys their seventh straight loss.

“I don’t think I’m in peak form,” said Okoye. “I’m still learning. Nobody can stop learning the game.”

Okoye is the American Conference’s leading rusher at 709 yards.

The Chiefs (3-4) scored four rushing touchdowns in a game for the first time since Dec. 12, 1976 and gained 202 yards rushing, their most since Oct. 10, 1984.

The Chiefs took a 27-14 lead at halftime and went ahead, 36-14, before the Cowboys added two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

“Defensively, we didn’t play with the emotion of last week--we didn’t play well, especially against a big guy like Okoye,” said linebacker Eugene Lockhart. “We got some good hits on him and he was hurting a little bit, but we didn’t hit him enough.

“They did just what we practiced for, we just couldn’t stop them.”

The Cowboys’ 28 points were their most since Dec. 21, 1987.

“We made too many mistakes,” Coach Jimmy Johnson said. “We had a chance to win, but we’ve got so many new people. We were scrambling most of the game. Out of 47 guys, I guess 24 are new.”

Okoye scored on touchdown runs of two and 13 yards in the first quarter, but Paul Palmer answered with a 63-yard run for Dallas. Palmer is a former first-round draft choice of Kansas City signed this week by Dallas.

Former Cowboy quarterback Steve Pelluer, acquired earlier this week by the Chiefs, also played against his former team and scored on a five-yard run that gave Kansas City a 36-14 lead with 2:21 left in the third quarter.

Chief starter Steve DeBerg, who missed the third quarter with cramps in his right leg, completed 17 of 22 attempts for 237 yards.