NFL MONDAY REPORT : Chiefs Add Fire as AFC Division Races Heat Up

Make the Kansas City Chiefs the first team to spoil the fun for the NFL’s Big Six.

Unless, of course, you want to add the Chiefs to the mix and make it the Big Seven.

Entering Sunday’s games, the 49ers, Giants, Bears, Dolphins, Bills and Raiders were a combined 38-4. Moreover, those four losses had been internal--the Giants beat the Dolphins, the Dolphins beat the Bills, the Bills beat the Raiders and the Raiders beat the Bears.

Until the Chiefs beat the Raiders, 9-7, Sunday in a game akin to the old days when Buck Buchanan battled Gene Upshaw and Art Shell.

It certainly wasn’t an artistic classic, being played as it was in a 38-degree temperature with rain and sleet.

“It was everything you need for an old-fashioned game except the grass,” said Chiefs’ Coach Marty Schottenheimer, who had 38-year-old Mike Webster playing center in place of rookie Tim Grunhard, whose father died last week.

Moreover, if it did nothing else, it brought additional interest to the division races, putting the Chiefs (5-3) just a game behind the Raiders in the AFC West at the halfway mark.

While no team leads by less than three games in the NFC, all three AFC races are close. Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are at 5-4 in the Central and Houston (4-5) is a game behind. Buffalo and Miami both are 7-1 atop the AFC East.

But that doesn’t interest the Chiefs’ fans.

While 70,951 of the 77,937 who bought tickets to Sunday’s game showed up, at least a third of them had cleared out by halftime, preferring taverns adjacent to the Truman Sports Complex for their viewing rather than the raw weather at Arrowhead.

Bubby’s Back--In his first four games, the ones where the Steelers didn’t score an offensive touchdown, Bubby Brister’s quarterback rating was 41.1.

In the last five, four of them Pittsburgh wins, it’s 129.0.

And his two touchdown passes in Sunday’s 21-9 victory over Atlanta gave him 13 for this season, four more than he had last year.

When Will They Ever Learn?--The 49ers’ 24-20 victory over Green Bay gave them 16 straight wins and avenged their last loss--to the Packers, 21-17, at Candlestick last Nov. 16. That includes playoff games.

But it might not have happened if the Packers decided on a regular kickoff rather than a squib with 38 seconds left in the half. Green Bay led 10-0 at the time. The 49ers took over at their 41 and Montana had them in the end zone three plays and 27 seconds later.