Afc Divisional Playoff Denver 14, Kansas City 10 -- Chiefs Fall When Grbac Makes Call

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - On the most important drive of the season, on the sequence of plays carrying the dreams of a team and its city, Kansas City quarterback Elvis Grbac flew solo . . . and crashed.

He couldn't hear the plays called in from the sideline.

Left to his own devices, Grbac couldn't lead the Chiefs to a comeback victory. The drive ended with an incomplete fourth-down pass to Lake Dawson in the end zone with 12 seconds remaining, allowing the Denver Broncos to hold off the Chiefs 14-10 yesterday in a second-round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.

Denver plays at Pittsburgh on Sunday for the AFC championship.

The Chiefs slowed Coach Marty Schottenheimer's personal playoff foil, John Elway, but they couldn't stop him when it counted most. Elway beat a blitz and connected with Ed McCaffrey on a 43-yard pass to the Kansas City 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter.

That set up Denver's final touchdown, a 1-yard Terrell Davis run, and the Broncos had rallied from a 10-7 deficit.

" `Could have, would have, should have' is not the thing you want to say year after year," fullback Kimble Anders said in an otherwise silent Kansas City locker room. "But we sure have been saying it a lot."

The Chiefs might have overcome their ghosts if Grbac hadn't heard crowd noise in his radio headset in the final two minutes when he should have heard assistant coach Mike McCarthy giving him plays.

"There was so much static," Grbac said, leaning on a wall in the locker room, head back and staring at the ceiling. "The crowd was going nuts. It got to a point where I was calling my own plays because I couldn't hear anything."

The clock was stopped with the Chiefs at the Bronco 28 with 1:51 left after they used their last timeout. The Chiefs managed only four more snaps.

Grbac tossed two passes underneath coverage to tight end Ted Popson, who made no effort to get out of bounds and stop the clock. He wouldn't talk about it after the game.

"It would have helped us, probably," Schottenheimer said. "It would have been helpful, but the young man's got the ball in his hands and he's trying to do something with it. I'm not going to fault him on that."

That set up fourth-and-two from the Denver 20 as the seconds dwindled, and Grbac said the confusion left him no choice but to try to find Dawson in the end zone. Grbac expected a blitz that never came, and Denver had plenty of defenders available to cover Dawson, who never had a chance.

In the booth, offensive coordinator Paul Hackett frantically called the fourth-down play that never reached Grbac: a short pass to secure a first down.

"It kills me," Hackett said. "Because that's my job. I call plays."

Denver 0 7 0 7-14 Kansas City 0 0 10 0-10 SECOND QUARTER

Den-Davis 1 run (Elam kick), 1:56. THIRD QUARTER

KC-FG Stoyanovich 20, 9:42.

KC-Gonzalez 12 pass from Grbac (Stoyanovich kick), :12. FOURTH QUARTER

Den-T.Davis 1 run (Elam kick), 12:32.

A-76,965.

Den KC First downs 16 18 Rushes-yards 32-109 24-77 Passing 163 226 Punt Returns 1-36 1-10 Kickoff Returns 3-71 3-69 Interceptions Ret. 0-00 0-00 Comp-Att-Int 10-19-0 24-37-0 Sacked-Yards Lost 1- 7 4-34 Punts 6-36.2 5-46.4 Fumbles-Lost 4-2 2-0 Penalties-Yards 8-64 7-65 Time of Possession 28:54 31:06 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing - Denver, Davis 25-101, Griffith 4-9, Loville 2-0, Elway 1-(minus 1). Kansas City, Allen 12-37, Grbac 4-22, Anders 3-9, Bennett 3-4, Aguiar 1-3, Hill 1-2. Passing - Denver, Elway 10-19-0-170. Kansas City, Grbac 24-37-0-260. Receiving - Denver, McCaffrey 3-56, Sharp 2-33, Smith 2-19, Carswell 1-26, Green 1-19, Davis 1-17. Kansas City, Rison 8-110, Popson 5-26, Gonzalez 3-26, Dawson 2-20, Anders 2-4, Horn 1-50, Hughes 1-13, Allen 1-8, Vanover 1-3. Missed FG - Kansas City, Stoyanovich 44 (wide left).