dirk digler
09-13-2006, 04:24 PM
Q&A with HERM EDWARDS - 9/13
Sep 13, 2006, 4:17:54 PM
HERM EDWARDS: “I thought we had a pretty good practice. For the most part, I thought the guys were focused on what we have to get done in Denver. It starts up front on offense and defense and it’s a mindset when you play those guys there. They play great at home, have a great home record. We’re walking into their first home game and their fans are excited about them playing. We’ve got to play very, very well to win.”
Q: How’s Trent Green?
EDWARDS: “He doing OK. He actually went home yesterday and is feeling a lot better. He’s out for this week obviously. From there the doctors will determine how long he’s going to be out.”
Q: What about your new starting QB, Damon Huard?
EDWARDS: “He started a couple of years back and was pretty successful. It’s good to have a veteran quarterback as the backup guy for you. He’s a real steady guy, a smart guy, knows how to handle the huddle. He’s been in that role; that’s been his role in his career so far. He accepts it well; he’s always ready to play when he’s called upon and now he’s called upon. You’ve got to help him, obviously, you can’t put it all on his shoulders. It’s a good thing to know we’ve got a veteran guy like that.”
Q: How hard is to play Denver there?
EDWARDS: “It’s difficult. It’s difficult for this football team. Denver’s played well there and they’re coming off a tough loss where they moved the ball offensively and their defense played great. They just turned it over and you know you can’t turn it over on the road and even at home you can’t turn it over and expect to win. They still had a shot at it (at the end) and that’s a credit to them. We’re walking into a tough place to play.”
Q: Do you sense there are players on this team who are running out of time to win a championship and at the same time you’re trying to retool this squad?
EDWARDS: “You have to try to win with the players you have. We have a bunch of offensive guys that are veteran guys who have done well offensively. You’re trying to win as many games as you can as a coach. I don’t think you worry about retooling or anything. That’s just the process when you take over and that takes care of itself in the draft and acquiring players, but for the most part we’ve got a pretty steady group of guys.
“Yes, there’s a group of veteran guys and there is a window and you’ve got to try and take advantage of that window.”
Q: Your thoughts on the hit last Sunday on Trent Green.
EDWARDS: “It’s one of those deals that when the quarterback goes down basically he’s surrendering himself. I think what happened – and there are a couple of things that happened – is that the guy was pursuing and trying to avoid a block and he got himself in the air and Trent was sliding and he hit him. I don’t think the guy did it purposely, but there’s a rule that you’re trying to protect the unprotected player in our league. The league feels at this point it’s not a foul. We’ve got to move on.”
Q: What about Kevin Sampson?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, he participated in everything. He practiced and he didn’t do anything that he couldn’t do. I anticipate he’s going to play. He’s off the injury report.”
Q: Is it too early to expect that Gardner will play?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, way too early. Now, he practiced and gave us more of a look. He’ll have to be a quick study, a quick read. We’ll catch him up. He’s a big receiver who can run, got good size.”
Q: What’s his role going to be when he gets up to speed?
EDWARDS: “Well, obviously we’re going to try and get him involved. He’s a big receiver who can run. We’ll see where his strengths are in this offense.”
Q: Did you go back and look at tape of the Chiefs playing in Denver the last couple of years and determine why they struggled?
EDWARDS: “Last year they got behind. It’s real simple when you look at last year. One team had 221 yards rushing and threw the ball 18 times and had four penalties. The other team rushed for 74 yards, threw the ball 44 times and had 13 fouls. That kind of sums it up. You can figure out what team won.”
Q: Did you work on stopping the bootleg this week?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, I talked about that yesterday. But that’s not the only thing they’re going to do. First of all you’ve got to stop the run. Like I said, they had 221 yards rushing. It had nothing to do with the bootleg. They ran the ball for 221 yards. It was rushing. You’d better be able to stop them from running or they won’t have to get to the bootleg.”
Q: How do you manage your quarterbacks this week? Does Croyle get more reps and is he a plan B?
EDWARDS: “He’d have to play in the game if something happened to Damon. We have nobody else. He’s going to get reps. Damon’s going to play.”
Q: You pay a lot of attention to road wins, so what is your message to your team? How do you try to get it across that it’s important and how do you do it?
EDWARDS: “You’ve got to do what (Cincinnati) did to us this week. They had the great formula. That’s how you do it. That’s how Marty (Schottenheimer) did it. You’ve got to take the crowd out of it. You can’t get behind. You can’t get behind on the road throwing the ball. You keep the game close into the fourth quarter and you’ve got a chance to win the game. That’s what you’ve gotta do.
“Denver did that (vs. St. Louis). The game was close. They kept it close in the fourth quarter even with all those turnovers. They had a chance to win. If you don’t do that and get behind early and the crowd gets involved and the game becomes a passing game it gets worse. That’s a predictable situation that you don’t want to be in.”
Q: Is it more important to get a lead and play the game on your terms?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, you’d like to get a lead on the road, but you never want to be more than one score down on the road. You have to stay out of two score situations. When you’re only one score down you’re always in the game. You’re a play or two away. As the game continues to go and you’re the road team it really works in your favor because the pressure is on the home team. Sometimes that’s just what happens; you steal a win and obviously if a team helps you by turning it over a bunch it gives you a chance to go way up. There were more teams that won on the road this week.”
Q: Why hasn’t it worked for Gardner elsewhere in this league?
EDWARDS: “Why it hasn’t worked I really don’t know. I don’t get into what happened at other places. The opportunity that he’ll have here is important and if he takes advantage of it and we can put him in position he’ll have an opportunity to make plays. From there it’s on the player. He has to be consistent if he’s going to stay somewhere. The first year he had a pretty good year and maybe they changed coaches.”
Q: How have you prepared the team for Damon Huard’s start?
EDWARDS: “I really haven’t even talked to the team about it, or to anybody. I haven’t said one thing. You don’t need to. He’s a professional quarterback. He knows his role. He’s been in it most of his career. He knows how to handle his role. This is what these guys do. When it’s there turn to play they’ve got to go in and manage the game. You’ve got to help them manage the game. You don’t put all the weight on them. That’s not fair to the player and everyone around him has to pick it up around him and play well and he has to manage the game around him.
“Just do your job and don’t worry about what he’s going to do. He’s going to give you the call in the huddle and you need to go execute the call. He’s going to throw the ball and you’ve got to catch it. You can’t do anything but do your job.”
Q: You had a terrible run on quarterbacks last year in Denver and now this year you’ve lost your starter. Is there anything you’ve learned from that experience?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, you don’t panic. It was kind of ironic that I was (in NY) for five years and I was talking to somebody and said that basically the only year I had the starting quarterback for all 16 games was the first year. The next four years no quarterback played all 16 games. I’ve been through it. You just understand you might have to play and do things a bit different depending on who your quarterback is. That’s fair to the football team.
“I’m not immune to it. It’s been five out of six (years.) You just deal with it.”
Q: How helpful is it when you’ve got a guy with experience?
EDWARDS: “It helps you and it helps you when your other players are still healthy. The thing (in NY) was very difficult to manage. (The injuries) just kept adding up and they were starters. That meant we had to start playing a lot of young guys and it took them a while to learn how to play. To their credit they played and got better. It’s too bad we couldn’t win a lot of games earlier.”
Sep 13, 2006, 4:17:54 PM
HERM EDWARDS: “I thought we had a pretty good practice. For the most part, I thought the guys were focused on what we have to get done in Denver. It starts up front on offense and defense and it’s a mindset when you play those guys there. They play great at home, have a great home record. We’re walking into their first home game and their fans are excited about them playing. We’ve got to play very, very well to win.”
Q: How’s Trent Green?
EDWARDS: “He doing OK. He actually went home yesterday and is feeling a lot better. He’s out for this week obviously. From there the doctors will determine how long he’s going to be out.”
Q: What about your new starting QB, Damon Huard?
EDWARDS: “He started a couple of years back and was pretty successful. It’s good to have a veteran quarterback as the backup guy for you. He’s a real steady guy, a smart guy, knows how to handle the huddle. He’s been in that role; that’s been his role in his career so far. He accepts it well; he’s always ready to play when he’s called upon and now he’s called upon. You’ve got to help him, obviously, you can’t put it all on his shoulders. It’s a good thing to know we’ve got a veteran guy like that.”
Q: How hard is to play Denver there?
EDWARDS: “It’s difficult. It’s difficult for this football team. Denver’s played well there and they’re coming off a tough loss where they moved the ball offensively and their defense played great. They just turned it over and you know you can’t turn it over on the road and even at home you can’t turn it over and expect to win. They still had a shot at it (at the end) and that’s a credit to them. We’re walking into a tough place to play.”
Q: Do you sense there are players on this team who are running out of time to win a championship and at the same time you’re trying to retool this squad?
EDWARDS: “You have to try to win with the players you have. We have a bunch of offensive guys that are veteran guys who have done well offensively. You’re trying to win as many games as you can as a coach. I don’t think you worry about retooling or anything. That’s just the process when you take over and that takes care of itself in the draft and acquiring players, but for the most part we’ve got a pretty steady group of guys.
“Yes, there’s a group of veteran guys and there is a window and you’ve got to try and take advantage of that window.”
Q: Your thoughts on the hit last Sunday on Trent Green.
EDWARDS: “It’s one of those deals that when the quarterback goes down basically he’s surrendering himself. I think what happened – and there are a couple of things that happened – is that the guy was pursuing and trying to avoid a block and he got himself in the air and Trent was sliding and he hit him. I don’t think the guy did it purposely, but there’s a rule that you’re trying to protect the unprotected player in our league. The league feels at this point it’s not a foul. We’ve got to move on.”
Q: What about Kevin Sampson?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, he participated in everything. He practiced and he didn’t do anything that he couldn’t do. I anticipate he’s going to play. He’s off the injury report.”
Q: Is it too early to expect that Gardner will play?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, way too early. Now, he practiced and gave us more of a look. He’ll have to be a quick study, a quick read. We’ll catch him up. He’s a big receiver who can run, got good size.”
Q: What’s his role going to be when he gets up to speed?
EDWARDS: “Well, obviously we’re going to try and get him involved. He’s a big receiver who can run. We’ll see where his strengths are in this offense.”
Q: Did you go back and look at tape of the Chiefs playing in Denver the last couple of years and determine why they struggled?
EDWARDS: “Last year they got behind. It’s real simple when you look at last year. One team had 221 yards rushing and threw the ball 18 times and had four penalties. The other team rushed for 74 yards, threw the ball 44 times and had 13 fouls. That kind of sums it up. You can figure out what team won.”
Q: Did you work on stopping the bootleg this week?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, I talked about that yesterday. But that’s not the only thing they’re going to do. First of all you’ve got to stop the run. Like I said, they had 221 yards rushing. It had nothing to do with the bootleg. They ran the ball for 221 yards. It was rushing. You’d better be able to stop them from running or they won’t have to get to the bootleg.”
Q: How do you manage your quarterbacks this week? Does Croyle get more reps and is he a plan B?
EDWARDS: “He’d have to play in the game if something happened to Damon. We have nobody else. He’s going to get reps. Damon’s going to play.”
Q: You pay a lot of attention to road wins, so what is your message to your team? How do you try to get it across that it’s important and how do you do it?
EDWARDS: “You’ve got to do what (Cincinnati) did to us this week. They had the great formula. That’s how you do it. That’s how Marty (Schottenheimer) did it. You’ve got to take the crowd out of it. You can’t get behind. You can’t get behind on the road throwing the ball. You keep the game close into the fourth quarter and you’ve got a chance to win the game. That’s what you’ve gotta do.
“Denver did that (vs. St. Louis). The game was close. They kept it close in the fourth quarter even with all those turnovers. They had a chance to win. If you don’t do that and get behind early and the crowd gets involved and the game becomes a passing game it gets worse. That’s a predictable situation that you don’t want to be in.”
Q: Is it more important to get a lead and play the game on your terms?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, you’d like to get a lead on the road, but you never want to be more than one score down on the road. You have to stay out of two score situations. When you’re only one score down you’re always in the game. You’re a play or two away. As the game continues to go and you’re the road team it really works in your favor because the pressure is on the home team. Sometimes that’s just what happens; you steal a win and obviously if a team helps you by turning it over a bunch it gives you a chance to go way up. There were more teams that won on the road this week.”
Q: Why hasn’t it worked for Gardner elsewhere in this league?
EDWARDS: “Why it hasn’t worked I really don’t know. I don’t get into what happened at other places. The opportunity that he’ll have here is important and if he takes advantage of it and we can put him in position he’ll have an opportunity to make plays. From there it’s on the player. He has to be consistent if he’s going to stay somewhere. The first year he had a pretty good year and maybe they changed coaches.”
Q: How have you prepared the team for Damon Huard’s start?
EDWARDS: “I really haven’t even talked to the team about it, or to anybody. I haven’t said one thing. You don’t need to. He’s a professional quarterback. He knows his role. He’s been in it most of his career. He knows how to handle his role. This is what these guys do. When it’s there turn to play they’ve got to go in and manage the game. You’ve got to help them manage the game. You don’t put all the weight on them. That’s not fair to the player and everyone around him has to pick it up around him and play well and he has to manage the game around him.
“Just do your job and don’t worry about what he’s going to do. He’s going to give you the call in the huddle and you need to go execute the call. He’s going to throw the ball and you’ve got to catch it. You can’t do anything but do your job.”
Q: You had a terrible run on quarterbacks last year in Denver and now this year you’ve lost your starter. Is there anything you’ve learned from that experience?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, you don’t panic. It was kind of ironic that I was (in NY) for five years and I was talking to somebody and said that basically the only year I had the starting quarterback for all 16 games was the first year. The next four years no quarterback played all 16 games. I’ve been through it. You just understand you might have to play and do things a bit different depending on who your quarterback is. That’s fair to the football team.
“I’m not immune to it. It’s been five out of six (years.) You just deal with it.”
Q: How helpful is it when you’ve got a guy with experience?
EDWARDS: “It helps you and it helps you when your other players are still healthy. The thing (in NY) was very difficult to manage. (The injuries) just kept adding up and they were starters. That meant we had to start playing a lot of young guys and it took them a while to learn how to play. To their credit they played and got better. It’s too bad we couldn’t win a lot of games earlier.”