Bengals Silence Chiefs

There was a sense of Irony in the air between QB for Cincinnati Carson Palmer and QB Trent Green for Kansas City. It was only last January when Palmer suffered a devastating knee injury, Green was one of the first to call the Cincinnati quarterback. They barely knew each other at the time, Green offered words of encouragement, advice drawn upon his own experience with career-threatening knee problems. Unfortunately it was Carson’s turn to return the kindness after Green was rushed to hospital. A devastating blow by Cincinatti’s Robert Geathers left Green unconscious on the Turf. There was an 11 minute delay due to the accident. The Chiefs are anticipating a review of this incident by the league. It was later reported that Green’s injuries were not life threatening.

“It’s tough in this kind of small fraternity of quarterbacks in this league, when you see a quarterback go down like that,” said Palmer. “You just start praying for him and that’s all you can do and hope for the best.”

Palmer, exactly eight months after his injury, was not sharp at the beginning. He soon got his ‘touch’ back, Rudi Johnson and Kenny Watson scored touchdowns in a 17-point second-quarter. Palmer, who was injured in the opening minutes of Cincinnati’s playoff loss to Pittsburgh last January, was 13-for-19 for 127 yards.

Palmer was 5-for-5 for 51 yards in Cincinnati’s first touchdown drive, capped by Johnson’s 22-yard scamper through a gaping hole on the right side. Then Watson made it 17-3 with an 8-yard TD run.

Shayne Graham kicked three field goals for the Bengals, the defending AFC North champs. Huard hit Tony Gonzalez with a 9-yard TD pass for Kansas City’s lone touchdown in the fourth period.

Herm Edwards the debut head coach for Kansas City was not pleased at the loss, “They’re a good football team,” . “You can’t give them a lead. You can’t turn the ball over and give them field position.” Its hard to loose your first game as a new coach,

Edwards said Huard would start next week if Green can’t. Edwards refused comment on the injury and mentioned that the league would definitely have to investigate the matter,.

Geathers on the other hand was of the opinion that Eddie Kennison (Chiefs wide receiver) pushed him into Green. He admitted that he was unaware that it was a hard hit. Geathers was remorseful if anything.

The Bengals had a 23-10 victory over Kansas City.