There is a way to hold onto the ball for two-thirds of the game, move it some 500 yards, get your best player in the end zone four times and still nearly lose the game.

Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs.

At the end of their wild 35-28 victory Sunday over the depleted Seattle Seahawks, the Chiefs were feeling more lucky than good, more grateful than boastful.

"That goes to show you what happens in the National Football League," Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said, "when you miss opportunities and turn the ball over in the wrong area of the field and give up big plays."

For those who might have been thinking there was something wrong with LaDainian Tomlinson, there isn't.

Tomlinson reminded everyone just how good he is when he rushed for a season-high 183 yards and scored three more touchdowns to lead the San Diego Chargers to a 38-24 win over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

“I don’t think there’s any question that the Senate race will be determined by the African-American turnout in Kansas City and St. Louis,” [Emanuel] Cleaver said in an interview. “I think everybody, Republicans and Democrats, all agree that that’s where the election is. The problem is that we didn’t start early enough perhaps. But there’s also the danger of peaking too soon, and I don’t think we have done that. We’re now on the rise.”

The spotlight was supposed to be on Shaun Alexander and Larry Johnson. Instead, it will be on quarterback Seneca Wallace when the Seattle Seahawks visit the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in an interconference game.

Alexander earned the NFL MVP award after winning the rushing title with 1,880 yards and setting a single-season record with 27 rushing touchdowns in 2005. But Alexander is not expected to play for a fourth straight game when the Seahawks face the Chiefs.

The St. Louis Rams no longer are "The Greatest Show on Turf." However, they still have plenty of offensive firepower that could pose a problem for the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.

Ranked first overall in total defense by allowing just 241.2 yards per game, the Chargers' depth will be severely tested by the Rams.

A swarming Oklahoma defense made life difficult on Chase Daniel and No. 23 Missouri, leading to a rare road win for the Sooners.

Paul Thompson threw two touchdown passes, Allen Patrick rushed for 162 yards and No. 19 Oklahoma scored all of its points off Missouri's mistakes in a 26-10 victory Saturday.

"Opportunistic, I guess," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "I don't know that this should be a surprise because we've been playing this way for several weeks now."

The fans here are patient. They are adoring and savvy and upbeat, too, but mostly patient. They waited nearly a quarter-century for Friday night, through steamy summers and frustrating autumns. They waited until a wind-whipped, frigid night in the heartland, when the St. Louis Cardinals returned to glory.

The baseball world is bathed in red again. The Cardinals won their first World Series since 1982 with a 4-2 victory against the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 at Busch Stadium. It was the 10th championship for the Cardinals, more than any other franchise except the Yankees.

When Gary Pinkel took the head coaching job at Missouri six years ago, he knew there were some "inherent barriers" to making the program successful.

The Tigers broke down one of those barriers Oct. 21, beating Kansas State 41-21 to end a 13-game losing streak against the Wildcats.

A couple more walls can come down Saturday when No. 23 Missouri (7-1, 3-1 Big 12) hosts No. 19 Oklahoma (5-2, 2-1). Missouri's only win over Oklahoma in the last 22 years came in 1998.

A win would keep Missouri in at least a tie with Nebraska atop the Big 12 North. Those two teams meet Nov. 4 in Lincoln, Neb. In 10 years since the conference was split into two divisions, Missouri has never won the North.

“I am connecting myself with Claire, hoping to create some awareness that I’m on the ballot and that Claire is desperately needed for issues of concern to African-Americans and Latinos,” [Emanuel] Cleaver said.

President Bush authorized construction Thursday of nearly 700 miles of fencing on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Bush signed the bill into law 12 days before mid-term elections, but weeks after Congress passed it.

"The bill authorizes the construction of hundreds of miles of additional fencing along our southern border," Bush said at the signing ceremony. "The bill authorizes more vehicle barriers, checkpoints and lighting to help prevent people from entering our country illegally.

"The bill authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to increase the use of advanced technology, like cameras and satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles to reinforce our infrastructure at the border."

The measure provides no money for the fence though an earlier bill signed by Bush earmarks $1.2 billion for early work on the project, including about 150 miles of fencing.

A coalition is attempting to bring attention to what it calls a "stealth plan" to merge the U.S. with Mexico and Canada to create a "North American Union."

The group, known as the Coalition to Block the North American Union, announced on Wednesday that it is supporting a House concurrent resolution opposing a NAFTA super-highway system from the west coast of Mexico through the U.S. and into Canada. The resolution is sponsored by Representatives Virgil Goode (VA), Ron Paul (TX), Walter Jones (NC), and Tom Tancredo (CO).

Members of the Coalition claim a "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) adopted by President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and former Mexican President Vicente Fox would erase U.S. borders, replace the dollar with the "amero," and lead to unlimited immigration. Jerome Corsi, co-chairman of the Coalition, says working groups within the SPP are meeting in secret behind closed doors and rewriting administrative law.

The White House Thursday issued a statement taking the media to task for its characterization of comments by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Some reports indicated Maliki had rejected the strategy of setting benchmarks for progress in stabilizing Iraq to allow for a U.S. withdrawal.

"Basically the reports said that Maliki slammed the United States military (and) diplomatic leaders for saying that -- by saying that he would reject any sort of timetables. The way that those media reports came out was that he rejected any sort of benchmarks or goals in terms of policies," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Des Moines, Iowa.

What he actually rejected, she said, was a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

"That is something that Maliki has rejected as foolhardy, and that the president fully agrees with Maliki," Perino said.

Democratic challengers in the Nov. 7 elections should beware of campaigning against a "culture of corruption," a Purdue political science expert warns.

For one thing, says James McCann, who studies public opinion, corruption appears to be a "second-level concern" for most U.S. voters, based on recent polls.

He says the main issues, according to surveys, are the war in Iraq, the domestic economy and the threat of nuclear weapons in North Korea.

Further, basing a campaign on such a broad issue could be too difficult to energize and "particularly difficult to convince voters in the Republican bloc to believe the worst about their leaders and the institutions they govern," McCann says. It also could backfire.

"The emphasis should be on should be on political competency, not morality," McCann says in his analysis, "As Voters Head to the Polls, Will They Perceive a 'Culture of Corruption?'," published in this month's PS: Political Science and Politics journal.

Almost every ball David Eckstein hit was trouble for the Tigers.

Helped by a soggy field, St. Louis' scrappy shortstop delivered two key doubles that gave the Cardinals a firm grip on a World Series that's quickly slipping away from Detroit.

Eckstein's tiebreaking double to left field glanced off the glove of a diving Craig Monroe in the eighth inning, and the Cardinals capitalized on Detroit's sloppy defense for a 5-4 victory Thursday night in Game 4.

"I just needed to find some holes," Eckstein said. "It's nice to actually have a little luck involved."

You want stars? We’ve got stars, opponents of Missouri’s proposed embryonic stem-cell research amendment seemed to say Wednesday.

A movie star, a TV star, sports stars — all to be displayed in front of the state’s World Series audience.

One of the athletes featured in a new 60-second commercial opposing Amendment 2: St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan, who was scheduled to start game four Wednesday night. The ad was supposed to air during the game, which was postponed because of rain.

Kansas City Royals player Mike Sweeney and former St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner also advocate defeat of the proposed amendment, which would prohibit state legislative interference in any federally allowed stem-cell research.

The new ad comes days after the airing of a controversial commercial featuring actor Michael J. Fox in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race. In the commercial, Fox endorses Democrat Claire McCaskill, largely because of her support for Amendment 2.