dirk digler
01-08-2007, 08:15 AM
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2007/01/08/gretz_good_news_from_indy/
There’s nothing more devastating in pro football than losing in the playoffs. The finality of the defeat sticks to the bones for months, and depending on the situation and stakes, sometimes a lifetime.
Len Dawson has said many times that there isn’t a week that goes by that at one point or another something doesn’t bring his attention back to that legendary Christmas Day game at Municipal Stadium in 1971, where the Dolphins beat the Chiefs in double-overtime. Dawson and his teammates already had a Super Bowl ring at the time, but the way that game came down and ultimately ended left a taste in their mouths that’s never been washed away.
Maybe a team has to know the achievement of a championship to have that feeling. It’s doubtful any of the Chiefs will walk away from their loss in Indianapolis on Saturday with similar pain. This was not a classic post-season game, not with the way the Kansas City offense played against the Colts. And as we know, most of the Chiefs had little or no experience in the post-season to begin with.
By now every Chiefs fans knows the negatives of the team’s performance in the RCA Dome. But in the destruction of the defeat, there is the potential for positive. The pain of losing can help build the attitude that Herm Edwards is trying to create with this club.
It should stab deep into the psyche of every player. It should make the rest of the post-season unwatchable for them. It should lead to great bouts of introspection, moments of reflection on what might have been and what they could have done differently.
The post-game comments coming out of the Chiefs locker room, especially from some of the offensive players, indicate that many of Edwards’ players really haven’t been listening to what their head coach has been saying all year. Maybe that’s why one gets the sense that the head coach is ripe to make major alterations to the roster.
The spotlight of blame from the players was directed squarely at the offensive coaching staff, particularly for their game plan, and then their inability to adjust and react to what the Indianapolis was doing. And listen; when a team’s offense performs as poorly as the Chiefs did, nobody can duck some of the blame.
But as usual, the players directed their ire at the coaching staff rather than themselves. So many dropped passes, so many missed blocks, so many poor throws … none of that was due to the coaching staff. Again, offensive coordinator Mike Solari and the folks who help him put together the game plan do not walk away without sharing a heaping helping of blame. To single them out, however, is to ignore the fact that the players did not produce. The Chiefs large group of veterans who think they know what it takes to win a championship (see What They Don’t Know, January 3, 2007) were not up to the task when presented an opportunity to take a step towards the trophy.
However, what’s important and positive from the game is the experience it presented to guys like Derrick Johnson, Jared Allen, Tamba Hali, Jarrad Page, Bernard Pollard and Jimmy Wilkerson. It gave them a taste of post-season life. These are the cornerstones of the future of the Chiefs defense. The next time they reach the post-season, the speed of the game won’t surprise them anymore, nor will the intensity of the moment.
Little good comes out of losing, other than the pain and the determination to never feel like that again. There’s hope these young Chiefs will turn that pain into motivation, where they learn to step up in the pressure situations in the playoffs and produce.
That’s something some of their older teammates have never learned.
There’s nothing more devastating in pro football than losing in the playoffs. The finality of the defeat sticks to the bones for months, and depending on the situation and stakes, sometimes a lifetime.
Len Dawson has said many times that there isn’t a week that goes by that at one point or another something doesn’t bring his attention back to that legendary Christmas Day game at Municipal Stadium in 1971, where the Dolphins beat the Chiefs in double-overtime. Dawson and his teammates already had a Super Bowl ring at the time, but the way that game came down and ultimately ended left a taste in their mouths that’s never been washed away.
Maybe a team has to know the achievement of a championship to have that feeling. It’s doubtful any of the Chiefs will walk away from their loss in Indianapolis on Saturday with similar pain. This was not a classic post-season game, not with the way the Kansas City offense played against the Colts. And as we know, most of the Chiefs had little or no experience in the post-season to begin with.
By now every Chiefs fans knows the negatives of the team’s performance in the RCA Dome. But in the destruction of the defeat, there is the potential for positive. The pain of losing can help build the attitude that Herm Edwards is trying to create with this club.
It should stab deep into the psyche of every player. It should make the rest of the post-season unwatchable for them. It should lead to great bouts of introspection, moments of reflection on what might have been and what they could have done differently.
The post-game comments coming out of the Chiefs locker room, especially from some of the offensive players, indicate that many of Edwards’ players really haven’t been listening to what their head coach has been saying all year. Maybe that’s why one gets the sense that the head coach is ripe to make major alterations to the roster.
The spotlight of blame from the players was directed squarely at the offensive coaching staff, particularly for their game plan, and then their inability to adjust and react to what the Indianapolis was doing. And listen; when a team’s offense performs as poorly as the Chiefs did, nobody can duck some of the blame.
But as usual, the players directed their ire at the coaching staff rather than themselves. So many dropped passes, so many missed blocks, so many poor throws … none of that was due to the coaching staff. Again, offensive coordinator Mike Solari and the folks who help him put together the game plan do not walk away without sharing a heaping helping of blame. To single them out, however, is to ignore the fact that the players did not produce. The Chiefs large group of veterans who think they know what it takes to win a championship (see What They Don’t Know, January 3, 2007) were not up to the task when presented an opportunity to take a step towards the trophy.
However, what’s important and positive from the game is the experience it presented to guys like Derrick Johnson, Jared Allen, Tamba Hali, Jarrad Page, Bernard Pollard and Jimmy Wilkerson. It gave them a taste of post-season life. These are the cornerstones of the future of the Chiefs defense. The next time they reach the post-season, the speed of the game won’t surprise them anymore, nor will the intensity of the moment.
Little good comes out of losing, other than the pain and the determination to never feel like that again. There’s hope these young Chiefs will turn that pain into motivation, where they learn to step up in the pressure situations in the playoffs and produce.
That’s something some of their older teammates have never learned.