MERRIL- Coming undone (after reading this article, I hate Herm even more)
 

Coming undone
The Chiefs unraveled during their losing streak, and now their wild-card hopes hang by a thread.

By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star

A plane ticket back home to Texas was cheaper online last week, and Derrick Johnson’s mama the schoolteacher is itchin’ to see him. Johnson knows the odds, how he has a better chance of getting bitten by a longhorn, but he couldn’t bring himself to click.

“You never know what happens in the playoff picture,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of bad luck to be planning ahead.”

As a second-year linebacker in Kansas City, Johnson knows this late-December drill all too well. Leave your calendar open, your locker ready to pack, and then sit, wait and hope. Today marks the second year in a row the Chiefs are hanging by a playoff thread, only this one is so thin that the rookies were walking through the locker room late last week passing out keepsake footballs to be autographed in the traditional season’s-over ritual.

Some players are hopeless optimists. They can’t help it. They’ll eat, drink and spit the Jaguars, they’ll watch the scoreboard today to see whether the Steelers can knock off the Bengals and the Patriots can beat the Titans. Even if all that falls into place, the biggest long shot doesn’t start until later in the afternoon, when San Francisco must win at Denver.

Guard Brian Waters said he didn’t even know the scenarios and frankly didn’t care. He said the Chiefs have a hard enough time just dealing with Jacksonville.

“It’s not even an issue, man,” he said.

He may have been fibbing a little.

“I think it’s just a natural instinct that you will (scoreboard watch),” Waters said. “But you look at those matchups. … You really try not to lean too much on that because you don’t want to be disappointed. I think we’ve had enough disappointment as the season went on.”

This is the third time in the last five years that the Chiefs have gone into the final weekend needing help. Last year may have been the hardest. They hammered Cincinnati and needed one team to help. Problem was, it was Detroit, which was playing Pittsburgh.

The Steelers taunted them for much of the afternoon, almost bungling the game away. They went on to win the Super Bowl, and the Chiefs went home at 10-6. They’ve been to the playoffs just once since 1997.

Coach Herm Edwards wasn’t around for the 2005 fade, but he has some theories as to why Kansas City has had so much week 17 heartbreak.

“To me it’s a mind-set,” he said. “We might have to change the culture a little bit, too. It’s work. But it can be done. It’s got to get done, to be quite honest. We can’t keep sitting in this situation.

“It’s a process. Once you feel it … it’s similar to what happened in New York for us. They kind of got it, they understood it. That’s what this team has to come to grips with. All of us. When we get it, it’s a good thing because then you don’t have to talk about it any more. And that’s what they’re going to talk about again in the offseason, that they almost got there. It’s a sick feeling. It’s a sick feeling for everybody.”

Edwards suggested the Chiefs lack a killer instinct that permeates teams like Denver that have been there before. On Thanksgiving night, the Chiefs beat the Broncos and had the inside track to the playoffs with a 7-4 record.

What happened in December makes the average disappointment-weary Chiefs fan toss their face paint. Kansas City went to Cleveland, blew a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead, and started a spiral of three straight losses.

Hold on for that one game against the Browns, with their 3-8 record and their backup quarterback, and the Chiefs are in the playoffs with a win over the Jaguars and no outside help.

This year’s Cleveland was last year’s Buffalo. Another playoff picture in focus, another inexplicable road loss.

“We had our opportunities,” Edwards said. “We were a 7-4 football team and a fifth seed with five games left. And we didn’t handle it very well. I don’t know why that is. We prepared the same way, we did everything the same. It’s a little bit on everybody, and I guess that’s what we’ll have to swallow if we don’t get in.”

When their postseason hopes dimmed two weeks ago at San Diego, Edwards did his best to steer the team toward weekly goals. “We need to win a game,” was a phrase spouted by at least six players in the week leading up to Oakland. It was the same thing Edwards had been saying for weeks.

So now the Chiefs sit at 8-7, all geared up with probably nowhere to go. Defensive end Jimmy Wilkerson said it’s a bad feeling in his stomach, but it hasn’t affected practice. He called last week’s workouts spirited and lively.

He doesn’t dare think about whether they’ll be back on the field next week.

“I try to block it out,” he said. “I know it’s going to be hard because there’s going to be a lot of people, friends, family, who are going to be calling, ‘What are you going to do next week? Are you coming home?’

“I’ve just got to keep my mind focused on what we’ve got to do this Sunday.”

Even if that includes a little scoreboard watching and wishful thinking.

Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson instructed the scoreboard operators last year not to flash the Steelers score, though Peterson peeked and some of the players kept up with it on the sidelines.

There was no word late last week whether the scores would be blocked out again today. This year, there may be too many what-ifs to really matter.

Edwards, whose optimism could normally make Julie Andrews jealous, didn’t know want to think of where his head would be at late today if everything fell into place on the field and his fate were left somewhere on a snowy field in Denver

“Like everybody else, you’re hoping,” Edwards said. “Ahh … it’s not a good feeling at all. I don’t like being in this situation. I haven’t been in this situation a whole bunch.

“Sometimes you have to change peoples’ thoughts on how they do things.”

EXACTLY.

So make it happen. The change in emphasis on offense is obvious, the change in approach to defense is obvious, the results are yet another screaming angry last week of play.

Find a player in the offseason that will truly inspire your team or step aside for a coach that will...

doesn't sound like he has a clue


god we suck

Even if the Chiefs win there isn't much chance that the other three games can come out for the Chiefs.

The season is over if we lose and 99.99% chance if we win.

I've bought my airline tickets!

Damit Bob just can't live that way...

What? You mean riding the coattails of the coach (Parcells) who'd been there before you? Or do you mean the decline of the team while you were there? Or the miracle 10-6 year followed by the 4-12 year which culminated in your departure?

Something tells me he's hanging his hat on the the 4th year he was the coach of the Jets, when they went 10-6. Of course he forgets to mention the 4-12 record the following season. Yeah Herm...it really sounds like "They kind of got it, they understood it" in NY.

You friggin' asshat.

What about this article is so bad?

I'm sure Reerun will be around any minute to blast me for defending "my boy" but some of you guys are really searching for stuff to bitch about.

There's plenty of stuff on the field that could be picked apart without bringing this stuff up.

I mean, would any of you DISAGREE that this team's attitude needed to change?

I agree with you. Some fans can be so fickle. Herm just got his foot in the door and has some things to fix and people already want his head on a pike. We need to be focusing on some of the deadwood that needs to be launched exactly 10 seconds after the final whistle of the season. Starting with that fat ass lazy waste of money and oxygen known as cRyan Sims.

Herm should consider bringing in a mindset guru, maybe do a team chant, have a song the guys can all learn in camp.

The problem is that they need a bonding moment.

Man, it's crap that this guy wasted his entire career in KC. Seeing things like this make me hope that our good young players don't resign here so they can go be successful somewhere else.

The process by which Herm leads a team to 4-12?

It's not about offense or defense, it's about feelings. Okay, Herm. I love how Herm blames the players' feelings instead of poor coaching for the losses. The guy is perhaps the least Xs and Os skilled guy to ever be a head coach in the NFL.

or an exorcism ....

ritual sacrifice .....

scientology .....

Oprah piped into the locker room ....

or "possbily" some management changes, frankly I'm just tired of the reasons/excuses.

There are two reasons why Herm Edwards is still employed as an NFL head coach. His relationship with Carl Peterson is one of them. I'll let you guess the other...it's not hard to figure out.

Here's a theory about why your team has week 17 heartbreak, Herm.

YOU GAVE AWAY A GAME ON THE ROAD IN CLEVELAND.

You mean the Bill Parcells team that went 8-8 in 1999 and lost 3 of their last 9 in 2000 to finish 9-7? Yeah, that was a solid team. :shake:

I'm not a big fan of Herm, but give me a break.

Herm took them to the playoffs in a very competitive AFC East in 01-02, dealt with some serious injuries in 03, was back in the playoffs in 04, and dealt with a TON of injuries in 05.

Do you really think this team would be 8-7 right now if we lost Trent in the first game. Lost Damon in the second game, went to Croyle, who also got hurt... then went to Printers... who got hurt. And ended up with a 5th string QB? If so, then it's OFFICIAL... your and idiot.