Derrick Thomas’ Day of Days: Nov. 11, 1990
Aug. 1, 2009
The Chiefs were about to take the field on a glorious Veterans Day afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium when defensive coordinator Bill Cowher pulled the linebackers aside.
“This is a game you guys can do something special,” linebacker Chris Martin recalled Cowher saying before the Nov. 11, 1990, game against Seattle. “The matchups are there.”
But no one — not Cowher, not the players or any of the 71,285 at Arrowhead — anticipated just how special this day would be. On an unseasonably warm and clear autumn afternoon, Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas delivered one of the most memorable performances in NFL history.
Energized by a pregame military flyover and thoughts of a father he had never known, Thomas, in just his 25th NFL game, set a league record by sacking Seattle quarterback Dave Krieg seven times. He also forced two fumbles, including one recovered by the Chiefs for Kansas City’s only touchdown of the game.
That game, the signature moment in Thomas’ career, will be recognized with his induction on Saturday night into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The inspirational flyover included B-52 jets, the type of bomber that Thomas’ father, Robert, had flown in the Vietnam War before perishing in a bombing campaign appropriately named Operation Linebacker II.
“He was about as emotionally high as he could get for any game,” Krieg recalled.
The only blemish on Thomas’ seven-sack game was that he should have had eight. On the final play of the game, Krieg wriggled free and threw a 25-yard touchdown pass that beat the Chiefs 17-16.
“That’s the one you remember the most,” said Jayice Pearson, who started at right cornerback in the game. “Derrick came around, missed a sack, Krieg spun out of there and threw the Hail Mary pass. I was on the opposite side of the field and remember watching it in the air and the Seahawk receiver catching it. I’m in the end zone and thought, ‘Did that really happen? Did we lose that game after everything that happened?’ ”
So why was Cowher so confident that Thomas, who died in 2000 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, would have such a big day?
“I liked our plan based on their protection,” said Cowher, who left the Chiefs in 1992 and eventually led Pittsburgh to a Super Bowl championship. “I knew we were going to be able to get a situation where we would get Derrick matched up on the running back.”
Cowher had his tackles, Bill Maas and Dan Saleaumua, pinch the Seahawks’ tackles, freeing Thomas to run past offensive tackle Andy Heck and beat blocking back John L. Williams.
“The whole concept was to get Derrick on the edge against the back, and it just worked out. The biggest thing is: How many times can you just keep calling it? It became one of those things that I said, ‘I’ll keep calling it until they can block it.’
“And, it ended up being all day long.”
After nearly 19 years, memories start to fade, so The Star invited seven of Thomas’ defensive teammates from that game — Saleaumua, Maas, Pearson, safeties Deron Cherry and Kevin Porter, linebacker Chris Martin and defensive end Neil Smith — to watch video of each of the seven sacks, plus the near-miss.
The sack that got away elicited the most conversation.
Sack No. 1
First quarter, third down and 20 from the Seattle 28
Krieg was in the shotgun. Thomas went past Heck and right around Williams. He circled and took down Krieg from the back side for a five-yard loss.
Martin: “Bill (Maas) is staying inside, the ends are all crashing down, so Derrick is one on one with John L. … There’s no way John L. can block him. Derrick one-on-one with a running back is a mismatch.”
Sack No. 2
First quarter, third and 10 from the Seattle 15
Krieg was in the shotgun. Heck slid over to take Maas. Derrick put a swim move on Williams, who never touched him. Krieg saw Thomas coming inside at the 5, and Smith came in from the left. As Krieg ran away from Smith, Derrick cleaned him up at the 1 for a loss of 14 yards.
Krieg walked back to the sideline, looked over his shoulder as if to ask: Where did he come from?
Smith: “They kept sliding the offensive line toward my side, and that kept leaving Derrick one-on-one with the left tackle.”
Martin: “The way they were lining up the tackles, one was shading to the right outside. So that left Bill free. When Maas crashed in, that took an offensive tackle with him, and left Derrick by himself.”
Sack No. 3
Third quarter, third down and 17 from the Seattle 8 — after Krieg had been penalized half the distance to the goal line for intentional grounding
Krieg, seeing the safeties creeping up and sensing an all-out blitz, tried shouting an audible to switch to a running play. From the shotgun, he gestured to his wide receivers, but none of the Seahawks could hear.
Cherry: “It’s so loud in there, they didn’t get the check to another play. It shows the impact of playing at home and having the homefield advantage of the crowd. And those tackles, the worst thing in the world is: They’re in a three-point stance, and they can’t hear anything, and Derrick knows when it’s going to be a pass.”
So instead of pass blocking, the linemen pull. Williams flows to one side, and Thomas blows through untouched.
Pearson: “John L. went the wrong way. He said, ‘Heck with it, I’m not going to even try and block him.’ ”
Thomas blasted Krieg from the blind side, popping the ball loose. Saleaumua scooped it on the second bounce at his ankles and trotted through the end zone for the touchdown, giving the Chiefs a 16-10 lead with the extra point. Saleaumua handed the ball to cornerback Kevin Ross, who enthusiastically spiked it and got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Saleaumua: “All my fumble recoveries were from Derrick. He was so great at stripping the ball loose. Derrick got all the individual accolades, but if you asked Derrick, he’d say, ‘Those were team sacks.’ People said, ‘Why didn’t they double Derrick?’ But even if you double-teamed him, you had Neil on one side and Bill Maas coming up the middle. … And when they did double, Arrowhead Stadium in the 1990s was one of the worst stadiums to play in for a visiting team. Derrick knew on third and long; he took so much advantage of the home crowd.”
Sack No. 4
Fourth quarter, second and 10 from the Seattle 38
Krieg, under center, was helpless as Thomas ran right over the single block of Heck and buried Krieg for a loss of 10 yards.
Pearson: “There’s trouble right there. They moved the tight end away from him. That’s the problem. Heck’s hand is on the ground. There’s no way … no way.”
Maas: “They never changed anything. They never made an adjustment at halftime.”
Martin, upon seeing Krieg’s bloodied elbow: “He always took a pounding when he played us.”
Pearson: “That’s why he came and played for us (in 1992-93).”
Sack No. 5
Fourth quarter, first and 10 from the Seattle 35
Krieg, from the shotgun, added a count to his cadence. Thomas blew past guard Edwin Bailey, who had stepped out to block him, and as Krieg stepped up in the pocket, he found himself staring at Smith and Maas, who closed the pocket. As Krieg tried to sidestep Smith, who also had a sack in the game, Thomas crushed him from behind, sandwiching him with Smith for a loss of seven.
Saleaumua: “You have to understand, it’s only a four-man rush. We’re not blitzing anyone. We’ve got guys covering man to man and are on top of receivers. So you’re just rushing four guys against five and still getting pressure like that.”
Maas: “It’s four against six with the back staying in to block.”
Pearson: “It was a coverage sack.”
Porter: “Yeah, a coverage sack.”
Sack No. 6
Fourth quarter, first and 10 from the Kansas City 43
By now, Heck was holding on to Thomas for dear life. Saleaumua took a swipe at the mobile Krieg, who rolled right. Thomas, finally fighting off Heck, took an inside pursuit, got him around the shoulders and spun him to the turf for a loss of 10.
Martin: “That left tackle’s abilities weren’t up to par with Derrick’s abilities. So anytime you put Derrick against his guy, or John L., who didn’t show any ability to pass block, it’s a mismatch. It seemed like they weren’t going to change it. We could have kept going back to it over and over, and they didn’t change their game plan.”
Cherry: “What was Seattle thinking? You can’t single up Derrick. There’s no way one guy can block Derrick Thomas. He’s just too fast, with too much agility and speed. They tried to block him one on one, and every time he won.”
Sack No. 7
Next play, second and 20 from the Seattle 47
This time, Krieg couldn’t find Thomas. He had dropped in pass coverage on the left side, shadowing halfback Derrick Fenner. As Maas flushed Krieg out of the pocket, Thomas came up to meet Krieg and dropped him for a loss of six yards. That broke the NFL record set in 1983 by San Francisco’s Fred Dean, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Martin: “We tried to mix it up and do something different with Derrick, and he still got a sack.”
Pearson: “While you’re playing the game, in the midst of it, you’re not thinking, ‘five sacks, six sacks, seven sacks.’ You don’t realize the achievement that’s going on.”
The missed sack
Second and 10 from the Kansas City 25 with 4 seconds to play
Krieg, from the shotgun, called “90 Go,” sending all of his receivers to the end zone. He took a deep drop, and Thomas appeared to have him — his left arm around the quarterback’s waist, his right arm trying to bring him down. At that moment, the defensive players either took a step upfield toward Krieg or stopped for an instant, thinking the game was over.
But Krieg stayed on his feet, and as Thomas lost his grip and slipped to the turf, Krieg had an extra second or two and hurled a pass to the end zone. The ball sailed over the outstretched arm of Martin, who was in front of the goal line, away from dime back Stan Petry and right to Paul Skansi, who hauled it in between Cherry and Ross.
Touchdown. With the extra point, the Seahawks won 17-16.
Martin: “If I was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, I could have got that one. My deal was to stay on the goal line, so if he threw it in front of me, I make the tackle and the game’s over. He threw it right over my head.”
Cherry: “We had four (defensive backs) across the board. Lloyd came up. When Krieg was scrambling a little bit — when he looked like he was sacked — Lloyd jumped to cover (the shorter route), and the other guy came in behind. He had been sitting right in that hole.”
Maas: “You take a look at it. I think every one of us — including me, Smith, Lloyd — as soon as we saw Derrick … we stopped for a second.”
Porter: “He (Skansi) hadn’t caught a ball all day.”
Cherry: “Dave Krieg never gave up, that’s for sure.”
Epilogue
After the 1990 season, in which Thomas led the NFL with 20 sacks, he went to his second of nine straight Pro Bowls, joining Krieg on the AFC West team.
Thomas gave Krieg his helmet from the game, the one with a shield so that opposing quarterbacks could not see Thomas’ piercing eyes.
“Our blocking schemes obviously weren’t working,” Krieg has said of Thomas’ performance. “He had one of those days where everything he did worked perfectly for him.
“The only thing he didn’t count on was: I wore him out at the end of the game. He was too tired from tackling me all the other times, and he couldn’t get his arms around me. That enabled us to win the game on a dramatic finish.”
The defeat still couldn’t diminish Thomas’ performance.
“He’ll have that record for a long time,” said Smith. “I know some have come close with six. Derrick got six later in his career (in 1998). Osi Umenyiora of the Giants had six (in 2007). But no one else has seven.”
from Kansas City.com
