Thomas Keeps the Faith and His Perseverance Pays Off : Chiefs: With 40 seconds remaining, linebacker finally gets to Everett and comes up with game-saving play for Kansas City.

Jim Everett, who had rarely felt any pressure from Derrick Thomas all afternoon, was thinking only of locating an open receiver.

Gerald Perry, the Ram tackle who had kept the Chiefs’ sack leader away from Everett for more than 59 minutes, dared to think Thomas might be on the verge of giving up.

And, lining up across from Perry, even the Kansas City All-Pro linebacker was beginning to feel like a doubting Thomas.

But then he thought about his pregame reading material and found the inspiration to keep the faith.

So, with 40 seconds remaining and Everett dropping back to pass on a first-and-15 play from the Chiefs’ 26, Thomas dug deep and rushed at the Rams’ line at full speed one more time. He managed to slip past Perry, hook his right arm around Everett’s arm that was cocked to throw, strip the ball loose and then fall on it to preserve Kansas City’s 27-20 victory.

“It’s funny because I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever get to him,” Thomas said. “But before we went on the field, I was reading the Bible, a Scripture about keeping the faith, so I just kept coming.”

After the game, Thomas reached into his locker and pulled out his Bible, opened it at the bookmark and pointed to Hebrews 11:32. The passage was subtitled “The Many Heroes of Faith.”

“It talks about Solomon and David and all those guys keeping the faith,” Thomas explained.

In Kansas City this morning, they would like to add Derrick Thomas to the list.

Thomas, whose speed off the corner has carried him into two Pro Bowls in two years, was about to abandon the outside pass rush--his favorite path to the quarterback--and cut back to the inside.

“One time, I’d gone inside and got some pressure on (Everett), so I thought about trying that,” Thomas said. “But then I thought, ‘No, I can do it. I can beat him.’ And I went outside one more time.”

It was one too many times for Perry, who had been through the wars twice a year with Thomas when Perry was at Denver.

“I really felt like he was about to give it up,” Perry said. “I really don’t know what happened on that play. I thought I had him, but I guess he cut the corner on me.

“But that’s his type of play. When he looks like he’s been beaten, he makes the play. He’s an All-Pro player. That’s an All-Pro play.”

And it wasn’t the only time Thomas’ perseverance paid off Sunday. Less than two minutes earlier, he had given the Chiefs a 26-20 lead with a 23-yard fumble return for a touchdown.

Ram running back Robert Delpino ran a sweep away from Thomas, who had pursued the play across the field. When Chief safety Deron Cherry poked the ball out of Delpino’s grasp, Thomas was there to grab it. He picked it up and sprinted down the sideline into the end zone.

“I chased him all the way across the field and was in position when Deron hit him to pick up the ball,” Thomas said. “I waited about a 10th of second for somebody to tackle me and then I thought, ‘Geez, nobody is grabbing me, so let me run to the end zone.’

“I’d have let the ball go out of bounds before I (would) just fall on it, though.”

And that big-play mentality--the scoop-and-sprint approach over the conservative fall-on-the-ball philosophy--is part of what sets Thomas apart from the rest of an already elite NFL crowd, according to Cherry.

“Great players come up with great plays and Derrick’s one of the greats,” Cherry said. “You can hold him down for most of the game, but I guarantee you he’s going to get his. And today it came at the most opportune time. That’s why he’s one of the best at his position.”

Thomas, who led the league last season with 20 sacks and has 8 1/2 this season, had a frustrating day in many respects, but it wasn’t because Perry shackled him all by himself. The Rams had a running back or another player in position to help Perry on virtually every passing down.

Double- and even triple-teams are a game-day fact of life for Thomas, who is beginning to fully comprehend the value of never giving up, no matter what the odds. Sunday’s lesson was one he won’t soon forget.

“It proves again that if you just keep scratching and scratching, something good will happen,” he said. “In every game, there’s lots of double-team situations, but you can’t quit. And when it comes down to the end of the game, you have to make the plays.”

Thomas did let his frustration get the best of him for just a minute Sunday. He flung his helmet to the ground in disgust after the Rams scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to tie the score, 20-20.

“I was upset,” he said. “We were all frustrated. We weren’t playing anywhere near the kind of defense that we’re capable of.

“We were playing at their tempo instead of ours. We didn’t play very well on first down and that left us guessing on second down. When you’re guessing, you tend not to play as aggressively. You get caught up in that pattern.”

But the Chiefs knew Everett would be passing on that fateful first and 15 in the waning seconds, and this time Thomas was able concentrate his efforts on flinging his body at Everett’s.

Watching at home in Kansas City, many of the Chiefs’ faithful must have been muttering things such as, “Where’s Thomas?” And even Thomas admits he was wondering the same thing at times.

On the sideline, however, Coach Marty Schottenheimer continued to believe.

“There’s no doubt that Derrick made the two biggest plays of the game,” he said. “One gave us the points so we could win and the other put them in a position where they couldn’t win.

“He just keeps getting better and better every week. He has great, great skills, there’s no doubt about that, but I think the thing that gives him the chance to be one of the best ever is pride.”

And don’t forget faith.