Hasty Deserves a Kiss But Settles for Handshake and Win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —  James Hasty took a lot of ribbing last year when Coach Marty Schottenheimer gave him a big kiss for a game-winning touchdown interception return against Oakland.

When Hasty burned the Raiders again Sunday with an 80-yard fumble return for a touchdown, Schottenheimer gave him a handshake as the Chiefs posted a 19-3 victory and handed the stumbling Raiders their eighth consecutive loss.

“I went down there and I looked at him and he looked at me--and I shook his hand,” Schottenheimer said with a laugh.

Said a grinning Hasty, “He told me, ‘I’m not going to kiss you this time,’ and I told him that was cool.”

If Schottenheimer was going to kiss anybody, it probably should have been linebacker Derrick Thomas, whose two sacks of quarterback Billy Joe Hobert led to nine Kansas City points. Thomas’ first sack of Hobert knocked the ball loose for Hasty to pick up, and the second was in the end zone for a safety.

“Derrick made the play. I’m just the fortunate guy who was there,” Hasty said. “I was blitzing and they tried to man-block Derrick on one side. That’s not going to happen.”

Hasty’s third-quarter touchdown gave the Chiefs (2-0) a 14-0 lead en route to their 13th victory in the last 14 meetings in one of the oldest, bitterest and now most lopsided rivalries in the NFL. In those 14 games, the Chiefs hold a plus-25 turnover ratio

“We had a guy wide open in the end zone,” Hobert said. “I was getting ready to hit him, but I didn’t get it out fast enough.”

Every Chiefs score came as a direct or indirect result of a mistake by the Raiders (0-2), who went for the second consecutive week with Hobert in place of injured quarterback Jeff Hostetler.

With 3:12 left, Thomas again beat tackle Pat Harlow and separated Hobert from the ball. This time, Barrett Robbins recovered in the end zone for the Raiders, giving the Chiefs a safety.

“You get in the danger zone in the 10-yard line and you’re dropping back for a pass, it’s everybody to the ball and the best man wins,” said Thomas.

On Hasty’s scoring play, the Chiefs were nursing a 7-0 lead midway through the third period when Oakland faced second and goal from the five-yard line.

“I just came hard off the corner as opposed to playing the run, and the quarterback just happened to be back there,” he said.

“Year after year they come up with one or two big plays that really hurt us,” Raiders cornerback Albert Lewis said. “We have to come up with some of those big plays ourselves.”

The frustrated Raiders resorted to trickery in an effort to get moving in the third quarter and, if not for yet another mistake, it might have produced points.

Jeff Gossett went back to punt and then faked a handoff on an end-around to Dan Land. The play fooled everybody, and Gossett kept the ball for 18 yards and a first down on the Chiefs 35-yard line.

But a few minutes later, when Cole Ford lined up for a 43-yard field goal, the center snap went through Gossett’s hands, and he was tackled by Dale Carter on the Chiefs’ 45. Nine plays later, Pete Stoyanovich kicked a 23-yard field goal to put the Chiefs on top, 17-0.