Tony Gonzalez opens up on Herm with both barrels

[Hammock Parties]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/387172.html

Chiefs can’t come back against Chargers
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

The Chiefs lost their ability to make enough plays to win close games some time ago. They ran out of explanations shortly afterward.

Now they’re just plain out of gas. They trailed by a mere touchdown for most of the second half of Sunday’s game against San Diego at Arrowhead Stadium, but they might have played until midnight without getting that elusive tying score.

So they wound up losing 24-10, and the defeat pushed the 4-8 Chiefs to the brink of extinction in what passes for a race in the AFC West. They’re officially done if they lose to the Broncos in Denver next week.

The Chiefs tried their usual formula — keep things close until the fourth quarter and make the plays to win it then. It worked for them earlier in the season but again failed on Sunday when they were shut out in the final quarter for the fourth straight game.

“I’m tired of it and don’t want to play this style of football,” Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez said. “It’s not what I’m into. I don’t think Herm (Edwards) wants to. We want to win. Let’s get it over with. I don’t want to keep the game close until the second half because we’re a second-half team. That’s bull. Let’s just go out there and win a football game.

“Let’s get rid of that stress. I’m tired of it. I’m sitting on the sideline thinking, ‘Here we go again.’ You can’t help but let those thoughts creep into your mind.”

That crisis of confidence was evident Sunday. Their seven-point deficit for most of the second half felt to them like a lot more.

Things got so bad for the offense that its only touchdown was scored by defensive end Jared Allen, who played on the goal-line ostensibly for blocking purposes. And Allen had to make a great catch of Damon Huard’s fade pass to do it.

“When you’re desperate,” Edwards said, “you do desperate things.”

Edwards hasn’t been desperate enough to change his philosophy on how to win. He defended it again Sunday, saying it’s the only way the Chiefs have a chance.

“We made plays (to win some early-season games),” Edwards said, referring to wins over Minnesota, San Diego and Oakland, all games the Chiefs salvaged in the fourth quarter. “That’s how we won.

“We have to play a certain way. We try to do that to protect the quarterback and make sure we can throw the ball. You have all of these fancy ideas there at the end and there are certain things we’re stuck with because of how we have to play.

“That’s OK. You can still win games that way. We just can’t get behind like that because that just puts you in a bad, bad way.”

The burden of keeping the game close fell to the defense, which again caved in. LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.

“We know they’re going to make plays, realistically,” Allen said. “But to (heck) with that. Our mind-set has to be that they won’t make any plays. When stuff like that becomes acceptable, and all of a sudden you find yourself saying, ‘Oh, here we go again,’ that’s when the same (stuff) happens. That’s what’s been happening.

“We need to change the mind-set around here. The mind-set has got to be that this is not acceptable to lose at home. It’s not acceptable to be 10-10 at halftime and lose 24-10.”

The marvel regarding the Chiefs is not the five-game losing streak, their longest since 2000, or the five Arrowhead losses, most since they also lost five in 2001.

It’s that with this team — even with its numerous and obvious flaws — they won four of five games earlier in the season.

“Even then, we had some issues,” guard Brian Waters said. “When you look at games like Chicago and Houston, we had a couple of opportunities to come back in those games as well.

“We’ve started slowly in some parts of the season and now we’re not finishing the way we were. Really, we’re just trying to find a complete game.”

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

Probably the same place that Herm has taken that Vaunted O we used to have here in KC...

Misery loves company...

According to ESPN, we both suck!
AFC Rankings.
14 Kansas City
15 NY Jets

But that doesn't make sense. Clearly, once Herm is out of the equation, the offense should be great. Why haven't the Jets turned it around like the Chiefs suddenly would if we had a different coach? It can't be talent, obviously.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by Zouk

This is ridiculous. The Chiefs did everything on offense today. They play actioned, they ran spread, they threw on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd downs. They tried to run a reverse pass. People on this board were posting in the 1st half that this was the kind of play calling they had been waiting for all year.

But the offensive line cannot win 1 on 1 blocking assignments. Period. It's proven over and over again. And if your O-line can't block, there's no sequence of play calls you can come up with over the course of 60 minutes to overcome getting your ass beat physically.

This team today was starting 3 offensive linemen, 1 blocking tight end, and 1 starting receiver who will be out of football next year. They are no longer NFL caliber.

Tony G is understandably frustrated by playing around incompetence. He fights and gives 100% all the time, and his tremendous efforts have been routinely turned to **** by the rest of the offense all year. All he said is that he doesn't want to continue to play this way and he doesn't think Herm wants to either. He's right. Which is why this offseason they will dump all the leftover relics of the Vermeil era that can't play anymore, and bring in replacements.

I don't think you will get any disagreement on any of that zouk.

My only problem is that either Herm is stupid or incompetent if he thought this O-Line was half way decent. Either way he should be fired for it.

[doomy3]

Originally Posted by GOATSE

That's not true. Larry Johnson has pass blocked and caught tons of passes quite often in the past. Horrible example.

Are you kidding me? Now you don't remember DV pulling LJ out on passing downs???

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by doomy3

Are you kidding me? Now you don't remember DV pulling LJ out on passing downs???

Yes, that happened. But not all the time.

When Sippio is in the game, they run. 100 percent of the time. He plays wide receiver, but Herm has created a new position for him: Wide Blocker!

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I don't think you will get any disagreement on any of that zouk.

My only problem is that either Herm is stupid or incompetent if he thought this O-Line was half way decent. Either way he should be fired for it.

There was nobody out there to get, unless you buy into a couple of tweeners that most teams didn't.

If we fired and released everyone as this board wants them to, we'd have a new coach every season and turn the roster over every other year.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by doomy3

LJ. He came out of the game all the time when we were going to throw, and everyone knew it.

That is true gochiefs.

[splatbass]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

You're observant I didn't even know Sippio was on the field.

They scaled back the O so much that it is way too predictable but that is what Herm wants to do and that is why I have 0 respect for him. He came to KC and said he wants a complete team but he has alienated half the team with his BS

He scaled back the offense because they don't have the talent to run a more complicated offense.

Al Saunders couldn't win with this offensive line.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by doomy3

But that doesn't make sense. Clearly, once Herm is out of the equation, the offense should be great. Why haven't the Jets turned it around like the Chiefs suddenly would if we had a different coach? It can't be talent, obviously.

Stop making logical deductions. It just gets in the way of the Herm-hating fest.

Not to mention, Mangini is the product of Belichick..who is nothing short of an offensive genius. Surely he'd have their O playing better than 14th in the AFC.

The only talent this team is truly, sorely lacking is offensive line play. We have Brodie starting, with Kolby Smith running the ball and TG and D-Bowe playing behind our 2005 line, we're probably in the division lead.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by doomy3

But that doesn't make sense. Clearly, once Herm is out of the equation, the offense should be great. Why haven't the Jets turned it around like the Chiefs suddenly would if we had a different coach? It can't be talent, obviously.

Who said the Jets offense should be great?

All I said is that we are running the same offense Herm has ran his entire head coaching career, I also said that his players are losing faith in his ability to give them the confidence to succeed as a offensive unit. Herm has zero faith in "his" offense and its players.

[Hammock Parties]

now Herm needs to realize that TG is prety much all our offense has got, so he'd better work with him to satisfy him.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by Cochise

There was nobody out there to get, unless you buy into a couple of tweeners that most teams didn't.

If we fired and released everyone as this board wants them to, we'd have a new coach every season and turn the roster over every other year.

How many OL did we draft this year = 1 (6th round)
How many OL did we sign in FA = 1

That tells me they weren't concerned except at LT. Obviously we need a center, guard, RT and LT.

So do you have faith in Herm and Carl to turn this team around because I sure don't?

[Zouk]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I don't think you will get any disagreement on any of that zouk.

My only problem is that either Herm is stupid or incompetent if he thought this O-Line was half way decent. Either way he should be fired for it.

No question that thinking Welbourn and Terry/Turley were okay enough to get through the season as the starting right side was a monumental blunder. There should have been better players there. But it's hard to turn over every position in a single offseason. It'll be dealt with this offseason.

[Silock]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

I look at it very simply if Herm knew going into the season that our O-Line was going to suck then it is his fault for not trying to fix it. If he didn't know then everyone should question what the **** was he looking at during practice.

Because if he fixed the O-line, then we would have holes elsewhere, and you'd be bitching about those. Herm inherited a sinking ship. He's plugging the leaks, but it takes time.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by GonzoRox88

Stop making logical deductions. It just gets in the way of the Herm-hating fest.

Not to mention, Mangini is the product of Belichick..who is nothing short of an offensive genius. Surely he'd have their O playing better than 14th in the AFC.

The only talent this team is truly, sorely lacking is offensive line play. We have Brodie starting, with Kolby Smith running the ball and TG and D-Bowe playing behind our 2005 line, we're probably in the division lead.

So you are saying Mangini is an offensive genius? I dont think I would go that far.. But if you say so...

I agree with your last statement, just sad that Carl and Herm didnt have the foresight to see that 5 30 year old linemen isnt really the way to go right now... Its a pity....

[Silock]

Originally Posted by tk13

This thread is exactly why this board is almost unreadable anymore.

I agree. Tony didn't "open up on Herm with both barrels." He didn't even open up on him with *1* barrel. He just said that this style of football sucks and neither he nor Herm wants to play it.