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Kansas City 48, Miami 30

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Published: Sept. 29, 2002 at 10:25 PM

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Trent Green passed for a career-high five touchdowns Sunday, including three to Tony Gonzalez, to lead the Kansas City Chiefs to a 48-30 victory over the Miami Dolphins.

It was the third offensive explosion of the season for the Chiefs (2-2), who scored 40 points in a season-opening win at Cleveland and 38 in an overtime loss at New England last week.

"Last week we lost to the world champions and today we beat a playoff team that won 11 games last year and was undefeated when they got here," said Chiefs Coach Dick Vermeil. "I think (offensive coordinator) Al Saunders did a spectacular job with the offense and he was awarded the game ball."

With Miami's defense keying on running back Priest Holmes, the reigning NFL rushing champion, Green took advantage of Miami's safeties to complete 24 of 34 for 328 yards. He joined Len Dawson and Elvis Grbac as the only players in franchise history to throw five touchdowns in a game.

"It's fun to have a day like this," said Green, who previously threw four touchdowns in a game twice. "Our receivers got open and the offensive line game me time to throw."

"You can't ask Trent to do any more than he did," Vermeil said. "He was in a zone and you could see he was there."

Gonzalez, a three-time Pro Bowl tight end, especially took advantage of the seams in the middle of the field, catching seven passes for 140 yards and setting a career-high for touchdowns. He caught scoring passes of nine, 42 and six yards.

"I was able to go out there and do what I do best," Gonzalez said. "We saw the middle of the field would be wide open."

"We went into the game thinking we could put Tony Gonzalez on their inside coverage," Vermeil said. "They (the Dolphins) roll the corners up and play two-deep safeties a lot. That nullifies your receivers in a high percentage of the snaps, but it also isolates a nickel back or another linebacker or combinations of them on your inside people. We elected to put Tony Gonzalez on their inside people."

Sylvester Morris was the last Chiefs player to have three touchdown catches in a Sept. 17, 2000 game against San Diego.

Miami (3-1) had a plus-8 turnover ratio in its first three games, but committed five turnovers -- four interceptions by Jay Fiedler and a fumble by Williams, who scored on a three-yard run.

"That's the story of the game. You can't committ as many turnovers as we did and expect to win," Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt said. "But give the Chiefs credit. They made a lot of plays."

Safety Greg Wesley starred on defense with a career-high three interceptions for 71 yards -- all in the fourth quarter. Albert Lewis was the last player in franchise history to record three interceptions in a game, achieving the feat in a Sept. 1, 1991 contest against Atlanta.

Williams and Holmes entered the game 1-2 in the league in rushing with 394 and 386 yards.

Williams had 66 yards on 14 carries and caught seven passes for 60 yards for Miami, but also committed a fumble. Holmes was held to 52 yards on 23 carries, including a 25-yard touchdown, and had six receptions for 63 yards.

"If you would have told me we would have held Priest Holmes to 50 yards and still lose the game, I wouldn't have believed you," Wannstedt said. "The way they had been scoring it was through running the ball, not throwing it. Against New England they ran the ball. But they have a heckuva offense and Gonzalez obviously gave us a lot of problems."

Topics: Al Saunders, Dave Wannstedt, Len Dawson, Tony Gonzalez, Trent Green
© 2002 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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