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Johnson, defense help Chiefs to rare win

Dec 1, 2008 - 2:52 AM OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The Kansas City Chiefs bounced back from one of the worst losses in franchise history by doing what the rest of the league has done for years - beat up on the Oakland Raiders.

Larry Johnson scored the go-ahead touchdown early in the fourth quarter and the Chiefs' defense came up big in a 20-13 victory over the Raiders on Sunday.

Maurice Leggett returned a fumble 67 yards for a TD after a botched fake field goal for Kansas City (2-10), which won for just the second time in its last 21 games. Among the many losses in that span was an embarrassing 54-31 thrashing at the hands of the Buffalo Bills last week.

That was the most points allowed by the Chiefs in franchise history. Kansas City's defense was much better in this one, holding the offensively challenged Raiders (3-9) to 271 yards and 3-of-13 on third-down conversions.

"We've been taking a lot of heat the entire year and you get a win, you feel better about yourself," Kansas City defensive end Tamba Hali said. "Hopefully we'll go into Denver and do the same thing."

Chiefs safety Jarrad Page said last week's loss did not have any residual effects.

"Last week things got out of hand for us and that was one game," he said. "And that's how we took it and we're not going to worry about that."

After Justin Fargas' 1-yard TD run tied the game at 10-10 with 11:13 left in the third, Tyler Thigpen led a 16-play, 91-yard drive that took nearly 10 minutes off the clock. Thigpen completed 15-of-22 passes for 162 yards with an interception, helping the Chiefs snap a seven-game slide and winning his first career game.

The second-year pro found tight end Tony Gonzalez three times for 51 yards on the drive. Johnson's 2-yard TD capped the long march and put the Chiefs up, 17-10, with 13:49 remaining. Johnson ran for 92 yards on 24 carries.

Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards said it made sense that the inexperienced Thigpen leaned on his safety valve Gonzalez.

"If I was a rookie quarterback I'd look for him (Gonzalez) too," Edwards said. "You got a (future) Hall of Fame tight end, I'd kinda find him."

Connor Barth tacked on a 27-yard field goal to make it 20-10 with 8:59 left. The Chiefs then withstood a late rally. Sebastian Janikowski's 51-yard field goal cut Oakland's deficit to 20-13 with 2:59 to play, but the Raiders could not get a stop and Kansas City ran out the clock.

Gonzalez finished with eight catches for 110 yards overall and, most importantly, a win.

"You have no idea how good it feels to finally get a win, it's been so long," Gonzalez said. "We are really putting some good drives together and getting some points on the board, but we haven't been able to get over that hump, so it just feels real good to come out here and get a win."

Fargas carried 18 times for 82 yards and Janikowski kicked a pair of field goals for Oakland, which has lost seven of its last eight games.

"You improve based on what you do on Sunday," Raiders interim coach Tom Cable said. "I'm very disappointed. It's a tough loss. Take your hats off to Kansas City."

"We were not able to take advantage of some things," said Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, who finished 10-of-28 for 132 yards. "We had plays where we weren't able to come away with anything and some plays that just didn't work."