Seahawks Beat Chiefs on Last Play

Linebacker Derrick Thomas set an NFL record Sunday with seven sacks, but could only agonize over the one that got away.

As time expired, Seattle’s Dave Krieg wriggled free of Thomas and heaved a desperation 25-yard touchdown pass to Paul Skansi in the end zone.

Norm Johnson kicked the extra point to give the Seahawks a 17-16 victory over Thomas and his stunned Kansas City Chiefs.

“I’m glad they didn’t call ‘in the grasp,’ ” Krieg said with a smile. “He had his hands around my hips. I just shook away from him, fortunately.”

Thomas said: “I thought I had him. He just stumbled back and caught his balance and threw the pass. That last sack I didn’t get is the one I’m going to remember.”

Skansi, who was momentarily wide open before defenders began converging on him, leaped high in the middle of the end zone to haul in the ball.

“It was just a seam pattern down the middle,” Skansi said. “They zoned it off and Dave had to scramble for a long time. If he’d thrown it on time, they might have converged on it. I was still five yards out of the end zone when he started to scramble.”

Skansi was not surprised that Krieg kept his wits about him in the final frantic seconds.

“That’s Dave Krieg,” he said. “He’s the most serious competitor I know. He can be down, but he just doesn’t give up.”

Thomas’ third sack knocked Krieg loose from the ball in the third quarter and noseguard Dan Saleaumua recovered for the Chiefs’ only touchdown in three weeks.

That made the score 16-10, and the Seahawks had one last shot after forcing the Chiefs to punt.

Starting from their 34 with 48 seconds to go, the Seahawks got 16 yards on Krieg’s pass to John L. Williams, then Krieg passed to Tommy Kane for 25 yards to the 25.

Four seconds remained when Krieg took the final snap and scrambled away from Thomas.

“I don’t know how many more of these games I can take,” Seattle Coach Chuck Knox said. “We had some troubles, we made some mistakes. But we used the timeouts the way you’re supposed to and it gave us a chance to make some plays. It was a very strange game.”

Thomas got his hands around the quarterback, but Krieg shook him off. Krieg then looked one way downfield to freeze safety Deron Cherry and passed to Skansi before the Cherry could recover.

“Everybody runs a ‘go’ route,” Krieg said after the Seahawks won in Arrowhead Stadium for the first time in nine games. “This time I got to look Deron off a little bit. I looked to one side and got Deron to go and then I went back to the other side and Paul made a great, great catch.”

Seattle (4-5) had not won in Kansas City since 1980. The Chiefs (5-4) suffered their first loss in five home games.

The Chiefs’ Nick Lowery, who had three field goals in a 9-7 victory the week before, kicked field goals of 25, 30 and 24 yards.

Seattle’s Johnson had a 43-yarder, and the Seahawks scored on a 54-yard play when Jeff Chadwick took a pass over the middle and outran safety Jeff Donaldson.