Herm defends run run pass punt
 

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/368858.html

Edwards defends conservative approach to offense

Given any other team’s offensive players, Herm Edwards might have tried harder to match Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts point for point.

Edwards is instead coaching the Chiefs, who are doing nothing consistently well when they’ve had the ball. That being the case, Edwards defended his decisions in Sunday’s 13-10 loss, saying the considerable offensive shortcomings leave him no realistic choice but to be what most fans consider ultra-conservative.

“There’s no room for error for us,” Edwards said Monday. “We have more three-and-outs than anybody in football. We have more negative plays than anybody in football. It’s hard playing that way. You put a lot of strain on the defense. So you’re trying to protect them, too. You don’t want your defense out there the whole game.

“Do I want to play that way? Heck, no. But we have to play that way. I’m trying to play the best way for the Chiefs to win the game.”

The subject obviously frustrated Edwards, who at times raised or lower his voice to make a point. He never wavered from his stance that an inability to make yards when running the ball or adequately protect the quarterback means the Chiefs are realistically squeezing every point possible from their offense.

“You have all of these great ideas that you want to use,” Edwards said. “There are a lot of things other teams are doing that we’d like to do. But we know what we are whether we like it or not. It’s been 10 weeks. You’re not going to all of a sudden evolve into something like New England. You’ve got to do what you feel you’re capable of doing.

“You know what you’re capable of doing and at the end of the day, you’re always trying to do things the players can be successful at. You can’t do things that won’t let your players be successful. You have to take some chances once in a while. I understand that. But there are (only) certain things we’re capable of doing.

“Would we like to do some different things? Sure. But you have to play to the strengths of your players. It looks like we’re conservative at times.

“We’re doing things in a way we feel we’re capable of doing them. As a staff, we’ve been with these players every day. We coach them every day. We know what they’re capable of doing. Whether everybody else believes that, it doesn’t matter. It might look conservative, but it’s a way of playing football that gives us the best opportunity to win.”

The Chiefs may have been able to squeeze more points near the end of the first half.

They took over at their 23 with 1 minute, 15 seconds and three timeouts left. The score was 3-3.

The Chiefs ran out the clock rather than try for points. Edwards ordered quarterback Brodie Croyle to hand the ball twice to Kolby Smith, once for 4 yards and the next for 5, rather than attempt a pass.

“We decided we were going to run the ball on the first play,” Edwards said. “If we got a first down, if we got 15 yards or so, then we were going to go for it. But that didn’t happen. And at that point I didn’t want to give (the Colts) momentum. They had two timeouts left. If we had taken almost no time off the clock with three incomplete passes and then we punted, we would have given the ball back to Peyton Manning with two timeouts.

“Then they get the ball back to start the third quarter. I’m not giving them two shots at me without us having even one. That makes no sense to me. I’m looking at all of that and saying, ‘Wait a minute.’ We survived the first half.

“Yeah, I was playing it conservative at that point. I guess people think we should take a chance because we were 14-point underdogs. But I’m trying to win the game. We were backed up. It was noisy. There were too many variables in that one.

“If I’m somebody else, then maybe I do it differently. But I know what I am right now.”

Against the Colts, Croyle made his first start in place of Damon Huard. Edwards made the change in part because of Croyle’s superior passing skills.

But the Chiefs declined to use those skills. His longest completion of the game was 19 yards, not counting the lateral on the game’s last play that gave him a statistical 21-yard gain.

Edwards indicated the Chiefs might try to throw more down the field in Sunday’s game against Oakland at Arrowhead Stadium.

“(The Colts) play a lot of cover 2,” Edwards said. “They’re not going to let you throw the ball down the field. They’ve only given up 10 plays of 20 yards passing. They don’t give up those plays.

“You’ll see the ball go down the field more against Oakland because they play more man to man. If we can get some one-on-one matchups we like, we’ll do it. That’s the next thing you try to do the next six weeks. This was his first game, and we had to get a feel for him emotionally and where he’s going to be. Now we can build on that.”

Kiss my ass Herm.

So he's basically saying...

We realize we can't do anything, so we're not going to try to do anything.

Did I get that right?

What a useless piece of shit head coach we have.

That's what he said.

What's really aggravating is that they were MORE aggressive with a less-talented quarterback.

BRODIE MIGHT MAKE A MISTAKE! OH NOES!

What's next, we punt on first down so there's no chance of having a negative play?

I'm afraid of what might happen, so I won't do anything.

Leader of men, my ass.

Hey coach. What's our record again? How did we get here? What's that? By not taking a risk? Gee, imagine where we could be if you took a risk every now and then when the situation called for it.

Yeah, could be worse. But the opposite side of that outweighs it my miles. I think most can live with worse if we are at least trying.

Basically.

The sad thing is him and Carl are the ones responsible for who is on this team so if the players suck I guess Herm can't evaluate offensive players then.

why oh why does herm love the terrorists and hate america?

er, why oh why does herm love the 2 yd run and hate scoring points?

oh, i forgot...

no arena ball allowed for this team...

not with herm as the head coach... :banghead:

Ummm, blocked punt. :evil:

Did you see the part about the Colts averaging giving up only 1 pass play of over 20 yards per game over 10 games. And the fact that they average 2-3 interceptions or strip-sacks per home game. Those numbers are actually amazing.

I think you nailed it, Mr. KcMizzou. Cognitive dissonance at work.

You know, if his own players (who, assumably, know themselves) think they can do more, Herm has no business accusing the "fans" of being unrealistic in thinking we should at least try to pick up first downs. Jesus.

He says that, if Kolby had run for 15 yards on first down, he would have gone for it. Hell, if Kolby could run for 15 yards, things would be entirely different for everybody. His excuses and explanations are literally ridiculous.

FAX

OMFG I really am beginning to think he's off his rocker.

When we hired Herm I was working with a Jets fan. He said, "Just wait, the guy makes BAD DECISIONS during games. You'll see."

Now I'm seeing.

“We have more three-and-outs than anybody in football. We have more negative plays than anybody in football..."

"BECAUSE THEY ARE RUNNING YOUR PLAYS!!!"

:banghead:
:cuss:

3rd and long and you hand it to your third string rookie running back? Or pass it to the line of scrimmage?

Actually we lost the most important game of the year (Broncos at home) by giving the opposition 14 quick points off our passing game. In other words, by taking a risk.

But our team can't make first downs. As coach I can't change that. Obviously you are no coach Herm.

LMAO. Yep.

I am going to die before the Chiefs put a real team together. It just not fair.

OMG! You're right, punting is waaaay too risky. Maybe we should just kneel down on 4th down. That would be the safest thing to do.

That was TOO aggressive. They passed four straight times from the shadow of their own goal line.

They went to the other end of the spectrum against Indy. No downfield passing, and continuing to run when it wasn't working for shit.

Good offensive coaches find a happy medium.

Wow!! Just wow. You are going to revert to two plays that we had the WRONG QB in the game to defend his decision? He made the decision that caused that friggin mess.

Mr. Zouk, you are likely insane.

The INT was a dumb ass mistake by Downfield. The fumble was a dumb ass mistake by Downfield. The only risk we took there was putting his dumb ass on the field.

Are you saying we should never attempt to pass at all?

FAX

Herm will just say that we were aggressive with Huard in the second half of the Denver game, and look what happened. We will never ever do anything that might be the slightest bit risky ever ever again, so help me god. By the way, I was a player.

edit -

Damnit, I keep posting right after someone makes a similar point. I hope the repost police aren't feeling too aggressive tonight.

Now you are using your noodle.

Saturday we'll see two football teams in Arrowhead who know how to win. (Not to mention WANT to)

I'm gettin' sick of you real quick-like, Herm.

There is a statement we all can agree on.

Let the kid play the damn game herm!

The same thing happened to Croyle in this game. He got blind-sided by an untouched Mathis. When we go to 7 stop drops, we consistently give the OTHER team a chance to score. That's the sorry truth Herm alludes to.

And in everyone's mind Croyle is Tom Brady, but in reality he's a QB starting his first game on the road in the toughest place to throw in the whole league. The last time he played extensively (the preseason), he threw 3 picks in 40 pass attempts. Often against second and third-stringers.

Herm's the kinda guy that would tell you what the Pats are doing isn't right and they should stop scoring after they have 20.

You can throw past the sticks without a seven-step drop.

I'll do it, since I've about been run off the board anyway. Everyone can yell at me. But I don't think our offense is good enough to take very many risks. I just don't. That doesn't mean you shouldn't throw the ball downfield a few times to keep someone honest... but I think if we want to "play to win", we probably shouldn't get too carried away on offense. I lost faith in this offense after the Denver game. That was a defense that got roasted for 40+ points by a gung-ho offense the week before, and we tried that and got totally demolished.

So? What's the point of packin it in? The Chiefs are not going to win anything this year, call a regular game plan see what he's got maybe he'll learn something.

Croyle gains nothing and the Chiefs don't either by having him throw the safest passes imaginable.

This laughable bastard is really grasping at straws.

For example, the claims that he possesses vast, secret knowledge as to his players' limitations don't really stand up.

If Herm were truly able to evaluate player strengths and shortcomings, why the hell has Drummond been on the active squad for so long? Not to mention Downfield. He needs a new writer.

FAX

Wrong - he gains something by playing in close competitive games against good teams. He learns far less in blowout losses. Things will be opened up more for him as we move on.

Herm's idiot game-decisions are like letting someone kick you in the nuts....

If Herm was smart he would just go strictly with no huddle shotgun formations.

I hadn't thought about it that way.
In his own way, it makes sense. Except for one thing, Herm. Your defense kicked the living piss out of the Peytons in the 1st half and held them to just 73 yards of total offense. Why not try and reward them with a real attempt to throttle the Colts? So what if they have given up only a few gains of 20+ yards. That's TONY GONZALES there. He is unstoppable. You have the rookie of the year who is like wise unstoppable. And you have a fearless QB with ice in his veins who PLAYS TO WIN THE GAME.

I love ya, Herm, but you have not realy convinced the Chiefs faithful on this one.

As much I wanna see more plays I have thought that the reason we don't run a screen is because our linemen can't out to block it. It was a pretty good defense by Herm but with a fresh set of downs and 7 minutes on the clock in a tie game it was time to go for it.

PhilFree:arrow:

Good to hear from you tk! Don't allow a few douchebags to run you off.

The game plan was fine. At some point with the score 10-10 you have to think we could win this game. They didn't even try. That is what is annoying. They didn't even try.

You just really love Herm don't ya......it's unfortunate that babying QB's and playing offense like that will not win you anything anymore.

What's pathetic is after having the Colts D on the field for 30 plus minutes by the 4th quarter, the Chiefs try a run on 1st and 10 on the final drive and lose 5 yards. They made Josh Thomas (Josh Thomas!) look like Jared Allen. Jason Dunn got demolished. It was stomach-turning.

Yeah man. If Jason Dunn had done his job we could have gained TWO YARDS!!!

Jesus, man. I know of no one who is comparing Croyle to Brady. If you're going to argue a point, please try and make some sense. This ass backwards logic is mind-numbing. For example, you make allowances for Croyle's first regular season start, but not his pre-season play? For better or worse, he appears to be the best quarterback on our roster. Should we take him out of the game so we don't accidentally give the other team a chance to score? Maybe it would be a good idea for Law to make a tackle. Or is that not a mistake?

Forgive me, you crazed loon, but I'll take Gonzo's opinion over anyone else's on this issue. Following your argument, we should just burn our uniforms and tell the league we're forfeiting the balance of our schedule because somebody on our team just might make an error.

FAX

The difference in that game was simple....at the end even with an offense with half their backups forced into starting roles, they had the balls to try to win it, the Chiefs didn't.

BINGO!

Sadly, you're right.

If Herm is so damned concerned about our opposition getting the ball on back to back possesions why doesn't he kick off in the first half when we win the toss? Its not like our offense is going to drive the ball anyways. Put your defense on the field and try to win the battle of field position. If you get behind which is what happens every week anyways at least you get the ball to start the second half.

Exactly. In warfare, we call it "situational awareness". Knowing where the enemy is and what the conditions are on the battlefield so that you can exploit opportunities for tactical advantage.

This was a tactical blunder as we played right into their strengths with a "play-not-to-lose" mentality that lost us the game.

I love Croyle - I want him to play. I just think expecting him to go into Indy where the Colts average giving up only 1 passing play of over 20 yards and get 2-3 interceptions or strip sacks a game and expecting him to light it up is unrealistic. Especially behind this O-line that nearly got him murdered in the 2nd quarter. Holthus is right - we played in the manner that gave us the best chance to win in overwhelmingly difficult surroundings. No one expected us to win, but we almost did by minimizing negative plays from our passing offense. It won't look like this when we're at home and playing against worse defenses.

Nah, I'm not offended by anyone. The fun is getting sucked out of this place. I just think Carl Peterson has pretty much flushed the optimism out of the fanbase, I can't blame anybody for that. We're pretty much playing for the future and I just think it's pointless to spend 100 posts about running out the clock at the end of the first half.

I don't think everything Herm's done is perfect or close to it, but I think there are far more positive things going on in this rebuilding effort than people realize because everyone's brain has been turned to mush over "mediocrity" and all that. Like Croyle... I'm a huge fan of the guy... but I really think letting him get 8 more weeks of practice snaps has made him look a lot better than he did at the end of the preseason when he looked rattled. I think Herm handled it fairly well, but he'll never get credit for that.

They were without 3 starters, not half their offense. Manning, Addai, Wayne, and Clark is still plenty good. They were up 2 scores on the Pats a few weeks ago without Harrison too.

One thing is clear: Herm will never be a popular coach. Regardless of whether he ends up winning a game here and there, his methods are absolutely maddening. I've never been as close to throwing something through my new HDTV as I was last weekend.

I have a serious question.

What other active coach in today's NFL is as conservative as Herm? I know a lot of people cite Martyball, but he's not active right now. Anyone else come to mind?

FAX

You need to get married and start a family so you can take your frustrations out on them. After all, their wounds will heal, but your TV sure as hell won't ever fix itself.

Uh.....they were missing so many WR's Thorpe was on the field as a starter.....half their Oline was down.....

When it flashed up and said Croyle 8 completions for 44 yards that's is sad....you don't have to throw it 50 yards but you should average close to 10 yards a completion.

Constantly throwing 2 yard passes to Bowe is not my idea of passing offense.

Martyball looks like the GSoT compared to this offense.

Jack Del Rio is pretty conservative but I don't even think he's as bad as Herm....

Herm was winning some support by the bye week. It all came crashing down, though. Sad.

Jack Del Rio can afford to be more conservative. His running game rewards that philosophy.

Herm's doesn't. He should adjust. In fact, he was, until they put in Brodie. Then it was back to runrunpasspunt.

No one is going to be forgiving of a coach that thinks a 6 point lead is enough to win against a team like GB, when we all see the Pats and Cowboys and even the Packers step on teams when they lead, no one is going to be forgiving about it these days.

Herm's going to bring in a boatload of young players over the summer. We are about to get MUCH younger on offense.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh.....

We had a six point lead and then the defense blew it. We never had the ball with a six-point lead against Green Bay.

Who thinks it's a good idea for Donnie Edwards to cover a slot WR running a seam?

Shit happens. The Chiefs were in Cover 2. It took a PERFECT throw to beat it.

I only wish that there was some way for this paragragh to be used in journalism classes as an example of what not to do if you are serious about a professional career in newspaper industry.

I know the statement is a nice dream, but a dream with research is worth exploring.

Hmm.. he doesnt want to put the Defense out on the field and put pressure on them if we turn the ball over. Ok, we turned it over once. Played Hermball, yet the Defense still had all kinds of pressure on them. Ok. Thx Herm.

Herm -- throwing the team under the bus.

He contradicts his self so much it kind of makes me sick.

When you have the Superbowl champs tied in the 4th quarter, you try to go for the throat. I can understand him not going for it right before halftime. I actually agree'd with that call. In the 4th quarter we played scared towards the end. What the **** does he think? that Payton Manning isnt going to eventually score? this was the first game they were held to under 20 points. A score was GOING to happen.

I know Herm wants to beleive in his defense, but he has to be ****ing realistic here.

Only on the line. We may get a blocking TE, but thats it.

BS!! If Herm were head coach of the Patriots and he'd still be running his patented runrunpasspunt offense and Brady would have as many TDs total at this point in the season as he does in one game with Bellicheat

Yep, by having Huard in there. I knwo Terry blew the tackle, but Huards will was destroyed by then. Just by watching him on the sideline. He was done. He had no desire to play the game of football at that point.

Wow...If I was a player I would never want to play for Herm. NEVER!

He summed himself up really really bad in this article. And yes Im really reading into it a lot.

Maybe you had better give that TV to me. I have grown immune to the Chiefs of late and the urge the throw things never comes into play anymore. ;)

I just laugh now and flip Herm off when they show him on tv. lol I just cant beleive we are now the 2006 Raiders on offense. :( Its sad, but i can laugh.

No shit. Rep.

come on. You play for field position.

A 2nd for a crying old man
and a 4th for an imbecle
Carl---YOU'RE FIRED

He definitely knows how to waste draft picks doesn't he? :banghead:

I think he's saying, boy do we need new o-linemen in the off season.