After the snow and mush in Denver, and then the constant downpour against the Oilers, the Chiefs home game against Miami would be Livingston’s first game played under normal conditions. The expansion Dolphins, in their third season, were still winless, but Stram warned his team, “They have been in every game they have played. They tied Oakland last weekend and should have won the first time. They are very capable, and we have to respect them by having a good week of work.”
In the first half, it looked like it would be an easy game. Early in the contest, with the Chiefs on their own seven-yard line, Livingston connected with Otis Taylor on a post pattern. Taylor broke free but, in eluding Miami cornerback Jim Warren, pulled a muscle in his abdomen, rendering his usual graceful stride more labored. As Warren caught up with him and started to pull him down, Taylor tossed a lateral to the trailing Robert Holmes, who carried it in for a touchdown, completing a ninety-three-yard scoring pass, a new record for the Chiefs.
As the defense established superiority over the front line of the Dolphins, Miami’s young quarterback Bob Griese missed on his first nine passes.
Later, Mike Garrett added to the scoring with a nine-yard touchdown run, breaking a tackle by Dick Anderson before careening into the end zone. Then Jan Stenerud converted a field goal as time expired in the first half, with the Chiefs leading 17–0.
But the second half was a different game. The Dolphins were aided by a stellar performance from rookie Eugene “Mercury” Morris, who totaled 221 yards rushing, receiving, and returning kicks.
Livingston was less effective in the second half, partly due to a diminished offensive line, which by then was missing both starting guards. The injured Moorman had been out since the Cincinnati game, replaced by George Daney. Against Miami, Ed Budde pulled a calf muscle in the first half, and was replaced by Remi Prudhomme. With Dave Hill laboring through a pulled hamstring, the Chiefs struggled to maintain their running game, or provide Livingston the same protection he’d enjoyed in the first half. Midway through the fourth quarter, Miami rallied to make it 17–10, with Morris—who’d returned kicks for 123 yards on the day—coming in at running back and scoring on a nine-yard carry.
Suddenly, the game was on. Ahead by seven points, Livingston led the Chiefs on a long drive, from the Chiefs 20 to the Dolphins’ 19. On third-and-long, well within Stenerud’s field-goal range, Livingston made the sort of mistake that young quarterbacks make, getting picked off by Dolphins middle linebacker Nick Buoniconti.
In the waning minutes, as the Wolfpack grew more nervous, Miami drove across midfield in a bid to tie the game, Griese keeping the charge alive with a fourth-down conversion.
But the secondary, once again, came up big in the late stages. From the Chiefs 37, Griese spotted Morris running down the left sideline and lofted a pass toward him, but the veteran Robinson closed quickly to tap the ball away before it reached Morris.
Two plays later, Marsalis tipped a Griese throw and Emmitt Thomas intercepted to seal Kansas City’s win.
In the locker room, as trainer Wayne Rudy and Dr. Albert Miller tended to Taylor’s pulled abdominal muscle (he would miss the next three games) and Willie Mitchell’s cracked cheekbone, Livingston summed up the muted sense of relief the team felt. “I’m half-happy and half-disappointed,” he said. “I threw some good balls, but I threw bad ones, too. They blitzed quite a bit, and that shook me up for a while. But I’m happy. We won. We barely won, but we won.”
Four days later at the Chiefs Club luncheon, fans were still buzzing about the Dolphins’ Morris. One guest asked punter Jerrel Wilson if there was a way to keep the ball out of Morris’s hands. “You just have to have a coach like Coach Stram,” Wilson said, “who says to you at halftime, ‘If you kick it to him again, don’t bother stopping to pick up your pay check.’”
Garrett’s nine-yard touchdown run put the Chiefs up 14–0, but the expected rout never transpired.
Though he threw a costly late interception, Livingston had a strong passing day, throwing for 308 yards, including a record ninety-three-yard touchdown pass to Taylor, who lateraled to Holmes for the final fourteen yards.
