Teicher says it's Brodie time, Huard ruled out next week

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Huard injured in Chiefs’ 17-7 loss to the Jaguars
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star
The Chiefs can only hope it’s not an omen that the Brodie Croyle era officially began on an afternoon as gloomy as any in recent memory.

The skies were dominated by gray clouds that dumped rain in the final moments of a 17-7 loss to Jacksonville at Arrowhead Stadium, but the dark mood had a lot more to do with a feeble offense that did little right and imparted a helpless feeling on the locker room.

The Chiefs narrowly avoided their first home shutout since 1994 on Croyle’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Samie Parker on the game’s final play from scrimmage.

Croyle replaced Damon Huard at quarterback in the fourth quarter. Huard left the game because of what the Chiefs described as a right shoulder injury. They weren’t more specific with details but have ruled Huard out of next week’s game against Cincinnati at Arrowhead.

That means Croyle will start against the Bengals. Knowing coach Herm Edwards’ affinity for Croyle and his skills, the job is probably Croyle’s for the foreseeable future.

Quarterback changes are weird by nature. On some, the earth moves, and others catch people by surprise.

This one falls into the latter category. It caught by surprise some offensive players who weren’t aware of Huard’s injury.

A different voice in the huddle told them everything they needed to know.

“I wasn’t sure what happened with Damon,” Chiefs tackle Damion McIntosh said. “Brodie comes in and tells us the play and said, ‘Let’s get it done here,’ and that was it. There’s no heroic speech he came in there with. We weren’t expecting Joe Montana to walk in there.

“He came in and did what he had to do. We scored a touchdown.”

In the longer term, the Chiefs might need Croyle to do a Montana imitation. Their offense, the second half of last week’s game in San Diego notwithstanding, is that bad.

Croyle takes over at quarterback for a team coming off a historically lousy rushing performance. The Chiefs rushed for 10 yards, the second-lowest total in team history and fewest since they gained zero in a 1965 game against the Broncos.

Their passing game worked a little better but still couldn’t do enough to get them into scoring range more than twice. Dave Rayner missed a 31-yard field-goal attempt on the first possession, and that was it until Croyle guided the touchdown drive in the final moments.

By then, the Jaguars had backed off and were willing to yield the shorter gains as long as they didn’t give Croyle and the Chiefs a big play.

Still, the Chiefs scored a touchdown, and they’ll cling to that as an indication of momentum

“It’s better than a goose egg,” McIntosh said. “But whether it carries over or not, I don’t know. We sure didn’t get any carryover from last week’s game.”

Huard probably would have kept his job if not for the injury. The Chiefs didn’t appear ready to blame him for the offensive mess. But a change at quarterback probably can’t hurt.

Croyle has superior passing skills that make him a decidedly different option from Huard. In theory, those skills will give the Chiefs the chance to expand their offensive repertoire.

If there was ever a team in need of that, the Chiefs are it.

“It’s just a matter of doing it for four quarters instead of for 8 minutes,” Croyle said. “It’s still the same mind-set. You want to go out there and score. You don’t want to go out there and hope we get a field goal or hope you get some good field position. It’s a matter of going out there and wanting to score. If we do that, maybe we can build on it.”

But, as the Chiefs learned in the preseason when Croyle failed to win the job, the ride will be bumpy. He threw three interceptions then, all coming when he forced the ball into places it never should have gone.

He was a wild-eyed risk-taker, something a conservative coach like Edwards couldn’t live with. The Chiefs detected signs that Croyle has mellowed in his fourth-quarter playing time in last month’s game against Chicago and again against the Jaguars.

The Chiefs went three plays and out on Croyle’s first series Sunday, but he methodically worked his way down the field on his second. He fumbled the rain-slicked ball on one play but otherwise operated the Chiefs with a sense of urgency they have sadly lacked most of the season.

“We played that last drive like we wanted to score,” he said. “We were clocking the ball. We weren’t conceding the loss.”

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