Seahawks Break Nine-Year Curse

Last time this happened, all but eight of Seattle’s current players were still in college or high school.

Not since 1990, and only twice since 1980, had the Seahawks left Arrowhead Stadium as winners. But in this remarkable turnaround year under Mike Holmgren, everything seems to be changing for Seattle, which beat the Chiefs, 31-19, Sunday.

“Look, you’re not going to intimidate us any more,” quarterback Jon Kitna said after the victory that ended the Seahawks’ eight-game losing streak at Arrowhead. “We’re going to attack. We’re not going to sit back and let you attack us anymore.”

Ricky Watters scored three touchdowns to lead Seattle (8-2) to its fifth victory in a row and hand Kansas City (5-5) its third consecutive loss and first at home in more than a year.

“We came into a very tough stadium, a difficult place to win a football game,” said Holmgren, who was 0-2 in Arrowhead as Green Bay’s head coach. “So, for a young team that’s still figuring things out, this was important.”

The Seahawks, who have not reached the playoffs in 11 years, are off to their best start since 1984. They beat the Chiefs for only the third time in their last 17 meetings and their 31 points were the most allowed by the Chiefs at home since 1988.

Watters, who rushed for 107 yards in 24 carries, nailed it down with a five-yard touchdown run with 2:43 to go several plays after he ran 45 yards on third down.

“It’s a huge game for us, no doubt,” he said. “We had some chances to put them away and we didn’t. But we did when we needed to.”

Kitna completed 14 of 33 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns, while the Chiefs’ Elvis Grbac was 30 for 49 for 322 yards and no touchdowns.

“We did some great things passing-wise but we just didn’t score enough points,” Grbac said. “We didn’t make the big play.”

Leading 14-13 at halftime, the Seahawks went up 24-13 in the third quarter on Todd Peterson’s 38-yard field goal and Kitna’s 45-yard touchdown pass play to Sean Dawkins.

But Grbac led the Chiefs on an eight-play, 59-yard drive capped by Donnell Bennett’s second touchdown, a four-yard burst up the middle that made it 24-19 with 6:49 left.