Herm Edwards Press Conference - 9/11

[Donger]

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2007/09...nference__911/

HERM EDWARDS: “David Rayner we signed as a kicker. He’s a kid out of Michigan State and was with Indianapolis in ‘05. Most of his kicks were kickoffs and he went to Green Bay last year and then this year was beat out by a draft pick.

“Right now, [Justin] Medlock is going to be put on the practice squad. We just felt at this point and time due to the fact that we are very marginal and don’t have any room for error or are not getting points, we had to go in this direction. We still have high regard for Medlock, a kid we drafted. He’s been good in practice and good in pre-game but has been a .500 kicker during the game. We decided to go with this change this week and we’ll see where we’re at.

“Obviously, [Rayner] has kicked in Soldier Field. He’s a weather guy; he’s played in bad weather. He’s played outdoors. He came in here for a workout when we had about ten hundred kickers here [last week].

“[Bobby] Sippio is going to be moved up to the active roster. He will be active this week due to Eddie Kennison’s injury. We had to do some adjustments. He’s going back to Chicago where he played in the Arena League. It’s kind of good for him.

“He’s a guy that we liked in the pre-season. We got him in the Rams game and he did some good things. He’s been good practicing and is excited about his opportunity. He’s worked for it and now he’s going to get a chance.

“The Bears I know because I know the coach pretty well. I rode with him night every night [in Tampa] going home for five years. He’s built that team a little bit like the model we had in Tampa. They built it through defense. When you watched them play last year they took the ball away 44 times – a third of their points were set up by the defensive football team.

“They’ve drafted well defensively. Seven of their starters were draft picks, two were trades and one by waiver. They’re about [an average of] 26 years old on defense. They’re young. They play defense; they have a mindset to play defense to set the game up for their offense. That’s how they play. They give the offense a short field. They don’t allow you a lot of points. They’re very active as far as running to the ball. They’re not very complicated.

“They have an identity. They know what they want to do defensively. They know they play well on special team. On offense they pound the ball at you and by play-action.

“Their defense keeps them in the game because they keep the scores down. Last week what happened is they played a heck of a football team in San Diego. If you watched the game it was a heck of a tough football game – a rock ‘em-sock ‘em-hit ‘em-in-the face football game for the first half. Chicago did what we did. They turned the ball over-four times. Out of those four times it was 14 points and that was the game. They gave up 14 points on turnovers. That was basically the game. San Diego ended up possessing the ball 37 minutes and Chicago only had it 22 [minutes].

“If you look at the stats, on offense they had about the same amount of offense we had last week. San Diego has a very good defense. They’re 0-1 and defending Super Bowl participants. They’re playing at home – they play well at home – and their fans will be excited. We’ve got our hands full.

“You can’t turn the ball over. You can’t turn the ball over. It could be a kicking game. You never know, especially if we can play defense.”

Q: Hindsight is 20/20, but should you have brought in a kicker in training camp to create some competition?

EDWARDS: “People always say that and I’ve done it a couple of ways. The thing you run into right away it’s OK if they’re both right-footed, but the problem you run into is when you get a left-footed kicker. Then all of sudden you get a right footed kicker and all of a sudden the holder’s splitting time with the left footed and right footed kicker. The problem is our holder is new. He only started holding two years ago and he was just getting used to holding for a right footed kicker. Now he had to switch back.

“Here’s the thing you know about kickers: if it doesn’t work out, there’s always another kicker out there. A lot of kickers who come in and make an impact the first time they come into the league are rare. We drafted a kid in New York from Ohio State and he struggled early and then he got going. Some kickers struggle and you don’t why or how or when. Sometimes you can live through it and sometimes you can’t.

“I just think at this point we haven’t been very productive on offense and haven’t scored a lot of points. We wanted this kid to be our kicker and we gave him every opportunity, every chance to kick the ball. Now, we didn’t get into position a lot in the pre-season to kick kicks. But when you look at everything this kid went through in college when you look at his ranking, he was the best as far as percentage to any other kicker. He was there in the fifth round and we drafted him and it hasn’t worked out yet. But I think this kid will kick in the league.”

Q: What was the difference between him and Crosby, the kid in Green Bay from Colorado [University]?

EDWARDS: “Percentage. He was 88 percent and Crosby was 70-something. He was the best last year in college football. You look at the numbers, at the kicks. You have to pick. It’s apples or oranges. Their guy has worked out so far for one game. That’s one game. For one game he’s done good. There are 15 games left. Our guy has struggled some, but I think it’s all mental for our guy right now. I really do. Sometimes that happens. Adam Vinatieri went through this. There are a lot of great kickers who have gone through this their rookie years. They find their way out of it and end up being kickers for a long time.”

Q: Was the snap or hold a factor for him?

“We did everything we could do to allow this kid to be successful. It just didn’t work so far for him.”

Q: Offensively, Brian Waters said after the game it was all fundamentals. What do you have to do as a head coach to right the ship and make up for the mistakes?

EDWARDS: “We just have to be focused. There’s only so much you can do as a coach. We had five penalties, one on special teams and four on offense, so it wasn’t like there was a bunch of penalties. There was five, four on offense and they all come at the wrong time as they generally do when you get fouls.

“Dropped balls. We dropped some balls. We dropped some balls and one comes out and they score a touchdown on us, another comes out and they kick a field goal. You can practice all that stuff and talk about it but at the end of the day the players have to go play. It’s on them when they get on the field.

“The great thing about it – and Brian makes a great point – it’s all correctable. It’s not like we have to get a new player here or there. Play the game. You couldn’t have started that game any better for us going on the road. You go on defense and it’s three plays and they’re out. That was the plan - whoever was on the field. Offense it was go on the field and get a drive going. They get a nice drive going: 15 plays on the road and right down the field. We don’t score any points and from there we turn the ball over a couple of times and go three and out and it’s 10-0. But we’re still in the football game.

“The second half we come out and we have the football. We have the football. We fumble it and we’re down 17. Now here we go. You can’t do that especially when you’re playing close to the vest on offense where we’re not making a lot of plays. We’ve got some playmakers that can make plays. They’ve done it in the past and they’ve got to start doing it.”

Q: Was there any time in the game where you thought about opening it up and going down the field?

EDWARDS: “We went down the field. Samie Parker made the big play; Bowe makes the catch down the field. We actually threw the ball 33 times. We only ran it 17. You lose sight of that. You don’t want to get into that game. Now all of a sudden you’re throwing the ball 33 times. That’s not a very good balance because, now all of a sudden, you’re playing into the hands of the defense because you’re going back and throwing the football down the field. We hit one to Samie and tried to come back to it and they changed coverage. Yeah, we want to do that but we’ve got to score points. We’ve got to score touchdowns. Period.”

Q: How did your offensive line play?

EDWARDS: “For the most part they did pretty good. We ran the ball fairly decent early. In the second half we had to pass. In the second half we picked up a couple of stunts a little late, but Damon was protected pretty good. But if you go back 33 times you’re going to get hit a couple of times especially when you know you have to pass.

“This will be a good test for us this week because these guys won’t allow you to run the ball. I think San Diego ran for about 2.1 yards a carry [last week.] They had to go back and throw and they got after the quarterback. But they don’t blitz a lot. They rush four guys. They come off the edges and come off fast. Their linemen get up field. You’ll see it. You’ll have a front seat.”

Q: Are you going to be careful with Larry again or is the game going to dictate how you use him? Do you want him to be fresh in the fourth quarter?

EDWARDS: “He’s got a game under his belt now. He touched the ball 17 times. He had 10 runs and seven catches. We’ve got to run the ball better. We have to run the football as an offense 30 times. He caught the ball which is good and that’s good for him. That’s going in the right direction. But we have to get him some more carries. In the second half we got into the passing game.”

Q: Are you at a point where you are comfortable getting Sippio into the game for a significant amount of time?

EDWARDS: “Well, I don’t know if it’s significant, but I know he needs to get in the game. One thing you should know about me by now is if you’re on that 45 [man roster] you’re going to play. I’m going to get you into the game. If you’re a young player you’re going to play.

“You look at our defense and 18 out of the 21 guys we dressed all played. The young rookie Brackenridge caused a fumble. A free agent runs across the field and hits 80 in the jaw and the ball comes out. We get the ball. Those young guys are going to play; they have to play.”

Q: The book on Sippio is he’s a tad too slow, so how does he make up for that?

EDWARDS: “He has great hands. The thing I’ve learned and I’ve been taught by coaches that the number one thing you have to do as a wide receiver is catch the ball. That’s a true statement and he can catch the ball. He has very strong guy. He’s a very physical guy; he can go inside. He’s a little bit like Bowe; he can go inside and catch the ball. He’s fearless. He’ll get hit and hold onto the football.

“Most of the time in this league most passes are contested. You’re in tight quarters when you have to catch the ball unless the coverage is blown. A quarterback understands that and that’s why a quarterback is always looking for a spot – a little window to throw it in. When he throws it there you have to hold onto it and this is what this kid can do.

“It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts when he gets in the game. He did well in the pre-season. I don’t think it will be too big for him. It’s his personality and the way that he carries himself. He’s over here today studying film with Eddie [Kennison]. You’re talking about a guy that’s from the Arena League. We bring him over here and now he’s up.

“That’s what I talked to all these young players about this week: you’re one play away from being off the practice squad, on the 53 [man roster], maybe on the 45 [man roster] and maybe having to go in the game. So you need to understand you’re just not here for practice, you’re here to learn what we’re trying to do and prepare yourself to go in the football game. See, I will give a young guy an opportunity if they’re mentally ready to play. But they’ve mentally got to know what to do. So, we’ll give him something to do and he’ll be good on special teams. He was good on special teams. He’s going to play and it’ll be fun to watch him play.”

Q: You talk about the Bears having an identity as a defensive team. Are you trying to find your identity?

EDWARDS: “When you look at our defense, six of them are drafted, four of them are free agents, and one is through a trade and we’re about 27 years old. So, we’re getting to that mold of where these guys are at.

“We’ve got a bunch of new guys: six new starters on defense. They’re starting to understand that this is what we want to be, what we want to become. It’s a mindset. [Chicago head coach] Lovie’s [Smith] been there now a couple of years with these guys. They understand that. This is my second year with these guys.

“18 new players on defense since I arrived here. This is our philosophy; they’re starting to understand this is our philosophy, how we’re going to play. You have to get the right guys to understand that. When you do it kind of takes over.

“They’ve got to understand that in our last game you can’t give up a big pass play when the game’s that close. You can’t. You can’t give up one big play. But that’s hard, that’s emotionally and mentally hard because they’re sitting out there every game, saying, ‘you know what, we can’t give up a big play. We can’t allow it.’ And, we’ve got to take the ball away. We took it away two times but that’s not enough. We’ve got to take away three times and we might have to take it away another time and score a touchdown. That has to be the mentality. You have to build that. It just doesn’t come in a year with some players. When you draft them and they’re yours they understand that this how we’re going to do it. The more you get guys like that the more you build that mentality. That’s kind of what happened in Chicago. They built it and where they’re at.”

Q: Were you surprised when your offense had trouble scoring touchdowns?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, because we scored a lot last year. We didn’t score a lot in the playoffs but in the game before that we scored 35 against a pretty good defense in Jacksonville. We moved it. But we were slow offensively last year early. The first game we scored 10 and in the second game we scored the mighty six [points]. We found our way and scored 41 points or something against the 49ers. A lot of it had to do with a lot of players not playing a lot on offense.

“Now we’re going on the road against a pretty good defense that doesn’t give up a lot of points. It could be ugly. But we have to play defense and when we have an opportunity to score we’ve got to score. We will. We’ll get going.

“This will be interesting for us. You better have all your screws tightened up on your helmet when you play this one. This is one of those jaw wrenchers.”

Q: There are obviously some teams around the league on offense and defense that you like better than others. Do you like the identity Chicago has and is it one you would like here?

EDWARDS: “Oh, we’re going to get that here. There is no doubt. The way they play defense? Oh yeah, that’s going to happen. No doubt. There is no doubt that’s going to happen.”

Q: Doesn’t there have to be a balance though?

EDWARDS; “Oh yeah, there has to be a balance. Tony Dungy had the same thing up in Indy: he’s building a defense and he has a great offense. But who are you playing with. Everybody wants all these bells and whistles. They want this and that, like its Christmas. You play with the players you have first of all. From there you find out what they can do well and then you play.

“Would I like to have an offense that scores 30 points a game? I sure would. I would love it.”

Q: But you said that’s Arena football last week?

EDWARDS: “I would like to have an offense that scores 30 points a game but most offenses don’t do that. My goal is if we could score 24 points a game we could win a lot of football games. If you look at all the games and you score 24 points a game you can win a lot of games in this league. I’m not saying that I don’t want to score points because if I can score points do you know what that does? It helps my defense because then my defense can unleash on them. We can knock the quarterback down and take the ball away.

“But the defense has to take the ball away and give your offense a short field. When you look at the games we won last year. When you look at the turnovers this team was 6-1 when we took the ball away one or more times - when we gave them a short field. The San Diego Chargers came in here and we took the ball away three or four times in the first half. We scored points on a short field. The 49ers, we took the ball away three or four times in the first half. They’re down at halftime before they can wake up. We’ve taken the ball away. They can’t catch you.

“But then when we take it away the offense has to score. We took it away twice last week and kicked a field goal. We turned the ball over twice and they scored twice. If you turn the ball over it doesn’t matter how good you are. You’re giving the offense a short field. All offenses are not going to go 80 yards every [series.] That’s why you have to have a good defense, good special teams. We’ve got a good punter. If you can punt the ball down there every time and make them go 80 yards [to score] they’re not going to do it. It’s difficult. That’s how we have to play.

“If we had scored 24 points every game last year do you know what we would be? 14-2.”

Q: I know you’ve got to change but why would you change a successful offense that you’ve had?

EDWARDS: “The last two years it’s been declining. You go back three years it’s been really declining in point totals.

“Here’s the problem: you can’t have an offense that goes out and takes 45 seconds off the clock because you threw three incomplete passes. You can’t do that. You can’t do that. You’re going to kill your defense. That’s the problem. It looks good that you threw a bunch of passes and you go incomplete, incomplete and incomplete, stop the clock, and you put your defense back on the field. By the fourth quarter guess what? If your defense has played 50 plays you’re in trouble. If you played 60 or more you’re in trouble. You can say we scored real fast but then the game becomes real long. It looks like a lot of fun but it ain’t no fun.

“When the weather changes and you go outdoors and you play that way it eventually catches up to you. In November and December when it’s rainy and cold and you can’t throw it all over the yard and your defense never gets tough because it gets worn out because you never run the ball in practice because you try to run.. That’s what I know.”

Q: Your return game has to be on the lookout this week going up against Hestor.

EDWARDS: “Last week the team we played had very good return guys in Jones and Mathis and I thought we covered it very well and I thought the punter punted it well. That was scary and this week these have a very good one who can take it to the house every time he touches the ball. He can change the momentum of the game.”

[Zouk]

Originally Posted by Mecca

I think Zouk is related to Herm, he will seriously defend the guy to the end. If you can't see the guy is a total idiot I don't know what to say.

Herm is someone I'd like to have a drink with but he shouldn't be coaching our team.

1 playoff appearance and 0-1? We're nowhere near "the end".

And although I will defend Herm, I've never met the man. I'm personally stone cold psyched about the prospect of building a Bears-like team.

[the Talking Can]

blah blah defense blah blah blah defense blah blah defense blah blah offense is bells and whistles blah blah blah defense defense defense blah blah blah

[Micjones]

Originally Posted by Mecca

I think Zouk is related to Herm, he will seriously defend the guy to the end. If you can't see the guy is a total idiot I don't know what to say.

Herm is someone I'd like to have a drink with but he shouldn't be coaching our team.

I'd take him as a Defensive Coordinator.

[the Talking Can]

we didn't try to go downfield, you liar

[Mecca]

Herm's never been a coordinator before, you are aware of that right? He totally sucks at X's and O's....he's like a motivational speaker and nothing more.

He didn't build "Bears like D's" in his time with the Jets...

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I stopped when he said Rayner "is a weather guy".

WTF?? Is he a fucking meteorologist.

Give me a fucking break.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Zouk

Jacksonville preferred John Carney even though he hasn't kicked off in 5 plus years (they signed him today).

Good for them. Jacksonville has been pretty good lately at playing the patchwork game the Chiefs play, and they've got the same number of postseason wins to show for it.

[Micjones]

Originally Posted by Mecca

Herm's never been a coordinator before, you are aware of that right? He totally sucks at X's and O's....he's like a motivational speaker and nothing more.

He's been a position coach in the past.
I think he's capable.

[Mecca]

The difference in the Jags and us is, their kicker is hurt so Carney will only be there for a couple weeks.

[2112]

Everything is ''we'' when we're losing, and ''I'' when we're winning. interesting.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Bill Parcells

Everything is ''we'' when we're losing, and ''I'' when we're winning. interesting.

Gunther did that to a certain extent.

Only when we were losing, it was because "*I* wasn't involved in [XX facet] of the game".

[Extra Point]

The reed blew in the wind, bending, not breaking. Yet.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Micjones

Sounds like he must've gotten chewed this past week. He's singing a different tune about what he wants to accomplish offensively.

I hope he really is seeing the light.

Surely you are kidding?!

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Zouk

I'm personally stone cold psyched about the prospect of building a Bears-like team.

That was the funniest part of the article IMO. I live in Bears territory. It was just a couple years ago they hired our QB coach and signed a couple of our free agents trying to build an offense like the Chiefs.
The Chiefs were the offense model, now we want to be the Bears.

[Mecca]

Yea we can be the Bears we just need 2 of the best LB's in the league an an all word Dline that includes Tommie Harris who looks like Warren Sapp in his prime.