With about three and a half minutes left, and the Kansas City Chiefs leading the St. Louis Rams by now only a touchdown, Jamaal Charles took a Matt Cassel hand off and sprinted 80-yards to the Rams' 2-yard line. Charles immediately called the trainers over to deal with his cramps. Without the cramps, you gotta think Charles makes it into the end zone.
On the next play, Thomas Jones punched it in behind FB/DT Shaun Smith for a touchdown. Boom. 27-13 in favor of the Chiefs. Killer Instinct. Defined. As one of the CBS announcers said, "What a response by the Chiefs!" The Rams had scored just two plays before and the Chiefs simply did not care.
Both Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones had TD runs this game. The Chiefs' other touchdown was the first of the game - a short pass from Matt Cassel to Leonard Pope. That was set up by a beautiful pass from Matt Cassel to Dwayne Bowe.
Overall, this was a great performance by the Chiefs' defense and Matt Cassel, who we weren't even sure was going to play this morning. Notable performances on defense include Wallace Gilberry (three sacks!), Eric Berry and Tamba Hali. Kendrick Lewis' two interceptions helped out a touch too. It's been nice to have him back lately.
One of my favorite aspects of the game was that the St. Louis' home stadium basically became Arrowhead East. Chiefs fans freakin' owned the dome tonight. You could tell that from the crowd shots and the eruption of crowd noise after every play that went the Chiefs way.
The Chiefs are still leading the AFC West with a record of 9-5. The Chargers are one game behind at 8-6 with two games to go. Two games left Chiefs fans. Two games.
We'll be covering the game in more detail over the next few hours. But for now, what are your biggest takeways from today's win?