Teicher: Chiefs' Haley not changing approach to preseason

[Tribal Warfare]

Chiefs' Haley not changing approach to preseason
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

ST. JOSEPH | The Chiefs looked unprepared for Friday night’s exhibition opener compared with their opponents, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The fact the Chiefs were dominated in a 25-0 defeat was perhaps inevitable given that they spent the previous two weeks of training camp working more on conditioning than football.

They may be in for more of the same Friday night when the preseason schedule continues with a game against the Ravens in Baltimore. Coach Todd Haley said he won’t alter the approach this week as camp resumes at Missouri Western.

The Chiefs returned to practice Sunday afternoon.

“I feel really good about the plan,” Haley said. “I said it after the game, it was the first one and not the last one, and I’m going all the way to the last one of the season. We’re in training camp, and as I keep telling the players, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Each and every day counts for us and for them to getting this team where it needs to be to start the season.

“I feel good about what we’re doing. We have a plan for this week. We’re going to have another game Friday at Baltimore. But the plan is again going to revolve more about us than anything else right now.”

The Chiefs were in full pads Sunday for the entire practice for the first time at camp. There was some contact but not to the normal standards for a padded practice at camp.

Haley said he is preparing for the Chiefs for the regular season, which begins Sept. 11 against Buffalo at Arrowhead Stadium. He indicated the route he’s taking for the Chiefs is best given the lack of offseason practice and conditioning sessions because of the lockout.

The Chiefs didn’t practice in pads or hold as many contact drills as several other NFL teams during the first two weeks of camp. Haley said he wants all players on equal footing with regard to physical conditioning before he turns them loose in practice.

“I don’t think we’re out of the woods as far as where we are physically,” Haley said. “We’ve got a couple of new, new guys on the roster in addition to some guys that weren’t quite there as last week wound down. That’s still the No. 1 thing for us and for me as the head coach is to get this team taking every day possible to physically get these guys into a position to succeed and hold up for what we hope is a good, long season.

“This time of year, you’re used to being in pads a little more and you’re used to doing things a little differently but (this year) it’s a different set of circumstances. The goal is to be ready for Sept. 11. That’s all really that I’m focused on, and these other things will take care of themselves.”

Haley said some of his assistants had been pushing him to do more in practice. At least one member of the staff, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel, said he understood the situation because it’s been such a strange year for both players and coaches.

“Every team is doing things different,” Crennel said. “Everybody is trying to figure it out. You do what you feel like is best and you go from there. That’s what we’re doing. We think we can be ready Sept. 11.”

Haley resisted the urging from his assistants to bring the Chiefs along faster.

“As the head coach, you have to look at the big picture all the time,” Haley said. “I’ve been an assistant coach and I know how assistant coaches think … they have their area or their agenda that they have to worry about first and foremost, but it’s my job to look at the big picture.

“We’ve got a great, experienced coaching staff. We have great conversations, but there hasn’t been a time when we’ve left any meeting or gone to spread the message to the players that we’re not all on the same page.”

Haley said that after watching the video of the Tampa Bay game, the situation wasn’t as bad as it looked at first glance. On offense, the Chiefs had just 137 yards and had trouble blocking for their quarterbacks.

On defense, the Chiefs missed some tackles. Both are symptoms of when a team hasn’t adequately prepared, at least from a physical standpoint.

“When you watch a game live, when there’s a jailbreak offensively and the quarterback is under great duress, you tend to think it’s everybody,” Haley said. “But it was one guy here, one guy there. It wasn’t three or four guys all with breakdowns.

“It was the same defensively. Our defense only works if everybody is doing their job first. We had some instances where one guy got out of place, and that then made a lot of guys look like maybe they weren’t doing that they’re supposed to.”

[philfree]

What exactly Haleys approach anyway? To read Teicher you'd think that Haley's plan is to not have any hitting in practice and no starters(Alot of them anyway.) play in any preseson game. That's what he's done so far so that must be his plan all the way up to the season opener.

[BossChief]

1 Sep 11 BUF @ KC
2 Sep 18 KC @ DET
3 Sep 25 KC @ SD
4 Oct 02 MIN @ KC

If we can get to Stafford...we could probably win 3/4 of our first stretch of games on talent and coaching alone.

If the gamble pays off, we should be able to really start to catch fire going into the tough stretch to close the year and hopefully have momentum going into the playoffs...especially if we stay relatively healthy and other teams that look strong on paper catch the injury bug because they are pushing too hard.