ekansekans's blog: "df"

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Bengals punt team trotted onto the field midway through the first quarter Sunday, shortly after the Chiefs had kicked a field goal to take a rare lead in a game. All the momentum was going Kansas Citys way. Then the snap landed in the hands of Cedric Peerman, who was lined up to protect punter Kevin Huber. The running back raced around the side of the line, the perfectly executed fake catching the Chiefs napping, and 32 yards later gave Cincinnati a first down. New life, too. The Bengals would convert another fourth down on the same series, and Andy Dalton would hit A.J. Green with a short touchdown pass to cap it off, giving Cincinnati a lead it would never relinquish in a 28-6 victory on Sunday. "It was a momentum-swinger," running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis said. "Thats the thing about the NFL -- most of the games are decided by a few points. When you get a momentum-swinger like that where you punch them right in the gut, it swings the momentum going your way." Dalton wound up with 230 yards passing, including another TD throw to Mohamed Sanu, and also scampered for a score. Green had six catches for 91 yards, and Green-Ellis bullied his way for 101 yards and a touchdown on the ground as the Bengals (5-5) won their second straight. Cincinnati plays its next four games against teams that began the day with losing records. None of them are as bad as the Chiefs, though. Jamaal Charles had 87 yards rushing for Kansas City (1-9), but that was the only highlight for a team that lost its seventh straight amid a gloomy backdrop at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs once-raucous home venue was only about half-full most of the game, and a good portion of those who showed up were dressed in black -- a grass roots effort organized by fans who have been trying to pressure team ownership to clean out the front office. "I focus on the game. I dont get into the crowd," Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel said. Perhaps he should have let his eyes wander. What happened on the field couldnt have put him in a good mood. Dalton and Green shredded Crennels porous pass defence, Ellis pounded away at a front line that had played better of late, and a middle-of-the-road Cincinnati defence looked like an iron curtain against a Kansas City offence that has been utterly inept. The result: The Bengals are back to .500, and eying back-to-back post-season appearances for only the second time in franchise history, while the Chiefs have dropped seven straight games in a single season for the first time since Oct. 5-Nov. 23, 2008. "We felt like we gave a couple of games away," said Dalton, who had four TD passes in last weeks win over the Giants. "Now weve got momentum and weve got to keep it going. Weve had two great wins, full-team wins, with everybody doing their part, and weve got to keep that going." The Chiefs struck first for the second straight week, turning several nice runs by Charles into a 34-yard field goal by Ryan Succop, before reality set in again. Thats when the Bengals pulled off their faked punt, converted another fourth down and then saw Dalton cap the drive with a 5-yard fade pass to Green, who managed to stab the ball with one hand and then slap both feet into the end zone before falling out of bounds. Peyton Hillis fumbled on the Chiefs ensuing possession, their league-leading 31st turnover this season, but they dodged trouble when Mike Nugent missed a 50-yard field-goal attempt. Cincinnati made it 14-3 later in the second quarter when Dalton fooled the entire Kansas City defence on a perfectly executed naked bootleg. The 1-yard TD run came on fourth down after a video review showed that Gresham had been stopped just shy of the goal line on a 10-yard catch. The Bengals most impressive drive of the game came after they forced the Chiefs to punt for the third straight time, an 11-play, 78-yard masterpiece in which they faced third down once. Ellis capped that one off with a short touchdown plunge for a 21-3 lead. Matt Cassel deftly led the Chiefs to a field goal in the closing seconds of the half, but Crennel elected to put backup Brady Quinn into the game at quarterback to start the third quarter. Cassel sustained a concussion earlier this season, and then lost his job to Quinn, who was active for the first time since sustaining his own concussion Oct. 28 against Oakland. Quinn didnt fare much better leading the Kansas City offence, and the Bengals tacked on Sanus touchdown catch in the fourth quarter to seal the win. "We did good things in all three phases," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "We knew it was going to be a grind. We cant worry about things around us. We just have to take care of us." NOTES: Bengals CB Terence Newman left with a concussion. Chiefs WR Dwayne Bowe (neck) and left tackle Branden Albert (back) also were hurt. ... The Bengals were 3 for 3 on fourth down. ... DT Geno Atkins forced two fumbles, had a sack and led Cincinnati with six tackles. ... Cassel and Quinn combined to go 17 of 30 for 188 yards. Cheap MLB Jerseys . -- Caroline Wozniackis New Haven winning streak ended at 20 Friday when the four-time defending champion retired from her semifinal match with Maria Kirilenko because of a knee injury. Cheap Jerseys . Quick won the Conn Smythe Trophy while leading Los Angeles to its first Stanley Cup championship earlier this month, and the Kings rewarded him with an enormous new deal one year before he reached unrestricted free agency. http://www.azulvirtual.org/hot.html . 11 before Saturdays game against the St. Louis Cardinals, paying tribute to the Hall of Fame shortstop who led them to the 1990 World Series title.TORONTO – Don Fehr would like to get back to the bargaining table. But after Thursdays blow-up in New York City, which saw the league pull every element of its latest offer off the table, the Players Association leader isnt quite sure when that time will be. "Its up to them," Fehr said, following a speech to the Canadian Auto Workers union at a downtown Toronto hotel, one that concluded with a standing ovation from those in attendance. "Theyre the ones who called a halt to the process. "The one thing we know for certain is that you cant make agreements if youre not talking about it." Negotiations on the latest collective bargaining agreement came to a thunderous stop earlier this week, following a series of talks between players and owners. Fehr suggested early Thursday evening that the two parties were nearing a deal to solve the ongoing lockout, an insinuation that riled a fiery response from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who claimed that a large gulf still remained. Bettman stated with much frustration that while the two sides had bridged some gaps, the latest offer from the owners was a "package deal" not to be picked apart for choice issues. With deputy commissioner Bill Daly at his side, Bettman said that if Fehr and the players would not agree to the proposed term of the CBA (10 years with an opt-out after eight), term limits on player contracts (five years, seven to a teams own player) and other compliance issues, then the proposal in its entirety was off the table. He also suggested that he and the owners felt as if they were negotiating with themselves, handing the players multiple givebacks with no reciprocity.  Fehr could only laugh at the insinuation. "All I can tell you is that the way this negotiation sits," he opined, "the percentage that players get out of industry revenues – assuming that the current proposals on the tables hold – would result in massive concessions to the owners. Massiive.dddddddddddd So when they say theyre negotiating against themselves, my question is what exactly is it thats moved in the players direction? Its not salaries, its not contracting rights, its not length of contract. "So Im not sure what that means. If they mean theyre negotiating against themselves in the sense that they had a series of proposals and theyve modified those proposals, youre forgetting what the benchmarks of the agreements are. You have to have a starting point and the starting point is the last agreement." Fehr wouldnt comment specifically on the league rescinding its latest offer and maintained belief that the two sides were in fact "close" on an agreement, specifically as it relates to dollars. He was unsure though how to mend the pending gap on term limits for player contracts. The union offered eight years in their latest proposal to the league. "At the moment I dont know how to bridge it," he said. "I thought we were moving closer together." The NHL has already canceled games up until December 14 with the threat of another lost season looming. While the parties remain in contact, theyve yet to establish a time-frame for further meetings. Maintaining his now standard cool demeanor as the lockout nears its third month, Fehr clearly is bothered by yet another stoppage in talks. "Whats the next step is that one would hope that sooner or later, sooner rather than later, negotiations would resume and we figure out a way through this," he concluded. "It seemed to me that we ought to be able to move forward and try and finish it off. So far at least, they have not indicated a willingness to continue discussions. "You will notice that throughout this process the players have never made threats, theyve never threatened to walk out, theyve never done anything of the rest of this. Weve had any number of instances of that from the management side. But well see, tomorrows another day." ' ' '