Hammock Parties
08-13-2006, 01:18 AM
Houston’s bootleg befuddles first-team defense early in preseason opener.
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star
HOUSTON - The day, some would say later, was just plain weird. Unnatural, almost. Herm Edwards felt different on the sidelines in Chiefs red. Quarterback Trent Green got a message Saturday morning from Dick Vermeil, the old coach wished him luck, and that, along with the changed pregame rituals, was strange.
The Chiefs getting burned on the bootleg? Now that seemed natural.
The Edwards era started with a vanilla defense, a wobbly backup offense, and a quarterback who burned Kansas City on the bootleg. Had it not been a preseason game, this 24-14 loss to the Texans in front of a half-empty stadium could’ve really raised questions about the millions Kansas City plunked down to resurrect its defense.
Instead, Edwards flashed a fatherly grin and gave the young players high marks for effort. The older ones will need to be better on Sept. 10, when the Chiefs open the season against Cincinnati.
“The boot hurt us,” Edwards said. “There’s no doubt about it. We couldn’t get the end to get back upfield to stop the quarterback, and a couple of those quarterbacks are faster than our ends. I hate to say that, but now they weren’t our starting ends.
“I’m excited about these young guys. I really am. I thought they put a good effort forth in the game. We watched a lot of young players play, and that’s what you’ve got to do. You look at the tape and you’ll be disappointed, but you’ve got to get the good things out of it and then correct the things that are correctable. The great thing about it is we can correct it.”
It should be noted that when the first units left the game after the first quarter, the score was tied 7-7. It should also be noted that the defense gave up 85 yards in two series during that time. Against a Texans team that finished 2-14 last year. And a quarterback that was used as a human tackle dummy.
But David Carr, rejuvenated from the addition of new coach Gary Kubiak, looked like Jake Plummer on Saturday night.
He rolled out, ran and directed a 13-play, 65-yard touchdown drive with 3:36 left in the first quarter. Kubiak, the former offensive coordinator at Denver, obviously took a few pages from his playbook on how to beat his old AFC West rival.
And without rookie end Tamba Hali, the team’s first-round draft pick, the Chiefs struggled. The first play of the Texans’ touchdown drive, Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Surtain almost picked off a Carr pass. But the Texans clicked off runs of 4 and 5 yards, then lined up the punt team on fourth and 1 at their own 45.
They called timeout, went for it, and Carr bobbled the ball. He picked it up and plunged forward for the first down. Carr had 20 yards rushing in the first quarter, and the Texans piled up 325 total yards for the night.
The Chiefs haven’t won a preseason game since 2004, just before they started their defensive rebuilding project. It started with the acquisition of Pro Bowlers Surtain, Sammy Knight and Kendrell Bell in the 2005 offseason.
Last month, the Chiefs picked up what some considered to be the final piece of the puzzle, five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Ty Law.
The defense was on the field nearly 36 minutes, way too long for Edwards’ taste, but it was mainly the rookies and the backups who logged in most of the work.
“When we went into this game, we didn’t have a lot of defense in,” defensive tackle Lional Dalton said. “There were some things we could’ve done better, I could’ve done better. It’s a preseason game, you want to win all of them, but you have to watch the film and learn.
“Obviously we didn’t do what we came to do because they won the game.”
Edwards came to Kansas City in January vowing a revamped defense and a ball-control offense. At least the offense part of it worked in the meaningful snaps Saturday. Just after the Texans’ first touchdown, the Chiefs No. 1 unit chewed up 7:12 off the clock with a couple of short passes from Trent Green and some tough running from Larry Johnson.
“What I liked about it is that the offense rallied back and got the 7,” Edwards said. “Then my young guys got in there. They played hard, but they didn’t play smart.”
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star
HOUSTON - The day, some would say later, was just plain weird. Unnatural, almost. Herm Edwards felt different on the sidelines in Chiefs red. Quarterback Trent Green got a message Saturday morning from Dick Vermeil, the old coach wished him luck, and that, along with the changed pregame rituals, was strange.
The Chiefs getting burned on the bootleg? Now that seemed natural.
The Edwards era started with a vanilla defense, a wobbly backup offense, and a quarterback who burned Kansas City on the bootleg. Had it not been a preseason game, this 24-14 loss to the Texans in front of a half-empty stadium could’ve really raised questions about the millions Kansas City plunked down to resurrect its defense.
Instead, Edwards flashed a fatherly grin and gave the young players high marks for effort. The older ones will need to be better on Sept. 10, when the Chiefs open the season against Cincinnati.
“The boot hurt us,” Edwards said. “There’s no doubt about it. We couldn’t get the end to get back upfield to stop the quarterback, and a couple of those quarterbacks are faster than our ends. I hate to say that, but now they weren’t our starting ends.
“I’m excited about these young guys. I really am. I thought they put a good effort forth in the game. We watched a lot of young players play, and that’s what you’ve got to do. You look at the tape and you’ll be disappointed, but you’ve got to get the good things out of it and then correct the things that are correctable. The great thing about it is we can correct it.”
It should be noted that when the first units left the game after the first quarter, the score was tied 7-7. It should also be noted that the defense gave up 85 yards in two series during that time. Against a Texans team that finished 2-14 last year. And a quarterback that was used as a human tackle dummy.
But David Carr, rejuvenated from the addition of new coach Gary Kubiak, looked like Jake Plummer on Saturday night.
He rolled out, ran and directed a 13-play, 65-yard touchdown drive with 3:36 left in the first quarter. Kubiak, the former offensive coordinator at Denver, obviously took a few pages from his playbook on how to beat his old AFC West rival.
And without rookie end Tamba Hali, the team’s first-round draft pick, the Chiefs struggled. The first play of the Texans’ touchdown drive, Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Surtain almost picked off a Carr pass. But the Texans clicked off runs of 4 and 5 yards, then lined up the punt team on fourth and 1 at their own 45.
They called timeout, went for it, and Carr bobbled the ball. He picked it up and plunged forward for the first down. Carr had 20 yards rushing in the first quarter, and the Texans piled up 325 total yards for the night.
The Chiefs haven’t won a preseason game since 2004, just before they started their defensive rebuilding project. It started with the acquisition of Pro Bowlers Surtain, Sammy Knight and Kendrell Bell in the 2005 offseason.
Last month, the Chiefs picked up what some considered to be the final piece of the puzzle, five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Ty Law.
The defense was on the field nearly 36 minutes, way too long for Edwards’ taste, but it was mainly the rookies and the backups who logged in most of the work.
“When we went into this game, we didn’t have a lot of defense in,” defensive tackle Lional Dalton said. “There were some things we could’ve done better, I could’ve done better. It’s a preseason game, you want to win all of them, but you have to watch the film and learn.
“Obviously we didn’t do what we came to do because they won the game.”
Edwards came to Kansas City in January vowing a revamped defense and a ball-control offense. At least the offense part of it worked in the meaningful snaps Saturday. Just after the Texans’ first touchdown, the Chiefs No. 1 unit chewed up 7:12 off the clock with a couple of short passes from Trent Green and some tough running from Larry Johnson.
“What I liked about it is that the offense rallied back and got the 7,” Edwards said. “Then my young guys got in there. They played hard, but they didn’t play smart.”