This one was truly a big man's game

KANSAS CITY, MO. - With so many plays and formations, football can be a complicated game sometimes.

The Kansas City Chiefs simplified Sunday's game in the second half.

The Chiefs beat the Vikings 13-10, with their taller pass catchers making plays against the Vikings' smaller secondary.

Receiver Dwayne Bowe, a 6-2, 221-pound rookie from LSU, made the biggest catch of the game when he hauled in a 16-yard pass from Damon Huard in the fourth quarter to give Kansas City the lead for good.

Bowe leaped over 6-foot corner Cedric Griffin in the end zone for the catch, then made a Lambeau-like leap into the stands, as if he were a kid jumping over a playground fence.

"D made a great throw, and I made a great catch," said Bowe, the Chiefs' first-round pick who has scored both of Kansas City's touchdowns this season.

"They drafted me to go out and make the big plays, and I did."

Bowe made three catches on the 12-play, 84-yard drive, including a crucial catch on third-and-short deep in Minnesota territory.

He finished the game with five catches for 71 yards.

"He has that little kid in him," Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said.

"He just wants the ball. He just wants to play football. It doesn't matter what the situation is. That's why we threw to him that time.

"When you think you've covered him, you really haven't covered him because he's going to jump up and catch the ball."

Tony Gonzalez, the Chiefs' 6-5, 251-pound Pro Bowl tight end, also made a key third-down catch during the drive. In the first half, Huard tried to connect with Gonzalez over the middle, but his passes were just out of the reach of Gonzalez, who had only one catch for 14 yards in the first half but finished with a game-high seven catches for 96 yards.

"It's recess," Gonzalez said of the Chiefs' strategy in the second half. "This guy's bigger than this guy, so throw it up in the air. Any time that ball's in the air, I'd like to think I can go up and make [the catch], no matter what.

"You can't complicate this game too much. Once you start to do that, that's when you start thinking too much. Then you get tight, you get frustrated, like we were at halftime."

Things got so testy late in the first half for the struggling Chiefs that Huard and running back Larry Johnson, who was bottled up for only 42 yards on 24 carries in the game, gestured angrily and yelled at Kansas City's coaches.

"It was just the heat of the moment," said Huard, who finished 20-for-29 passing for 206 yards. "We just got frustrated. It's just part of the game. It's really not a big deal.

"We ran into a pack of dogs in those Minnesota Vikings. They're a great defense. They got after us and put us in third-and-long situations. I think we were just pressing a little too much as a group."