Chiefs Pantalones
11-20-2006, 10:14 PM
HERM EDWARDS: “Obviously, it’s a short week for everybody. But I think it’s a great opportunity for the National Football League and especially for Lamar Hunt to have this Thanksgiving game come to fruition. He’s been kind of hammering the table about it and they finally figured out if you’re going to do it for anybody you do it for Lamar Hunt. He’s well deserving to have this game.
“You have a short recovery time for your players. You don’t get much rest as a staff. But I think once you walk on that field Thursday night you’ll feel the adrenaline of playing in a Thanksgiving Day game that the NFL Network is covering. That’s a first and there are a lot of firsts in this game.
“That being said, there is a lot that goes into this game. You have players and coaches mentally trying to grasp what we want to do offensively, defensively and special teams going into this game. It’s that way for both teams.
“I told our players that basically it boils down to this: it’s the team that mentally grasps the game plan and doesn’t make a bunch of mental errors because you don’t have preparation and time. Players like short weeks because they don’t have to practice that much, but it’ll be a mental load for everybody.”
Q: What’s the latest with the injured guys: Brian Waters, Tony Gonzalez, and Derrick Johnson?
EDWARDS: “Right now, we had a walk through and they made it through. So, that’s one step. It was kind of a fast walk, so that’s good. We’ll see tomorrow. I anticipate some of those guys will be back but what their status is at this point, I really don’t know. I anticipate they’ll going to play but I’ll know more once we get on the practice field.”
Q: Anybody you’ve ruled out?
EDWARDS: “No, no one, haven’t ruled anybody out.”
Q: Do you see a different type of game than the first one you played up in Denver?
EDWARDS: “Oh, the first one where it was a baseball score. Obviously, it’ll be a little bit different for us. We’re playing at home; we’re still playing against a very good team with a very good defense. What they do is they don’t allow a lot of points. They do a good job of taking the ball away. They can run the ball very, very well on offense and the quarterback is a waggle-and-boot guy, and they have some veteran receivers that are playing pretty well and some excellent runners.
“Yeah, I would anticipate it’ll be a little bit different.”
Q: That run/pass balance yesterday is something you probably wouldn’t like Thursday. How much of that was protecting your quarterback making his first start in a while?
EDWARDS: “I don’t now if it was so much protecting Trent. It was more looking at what we could do to be successful against them. Some of it was to get Trent going and not to put it all on his shoulders. Really, it was to get the running game going again because we kind of lost sight of that last week, I thought.
“We went into the game feeling we had some runs we could achieve and get some yards. Then we got going on the one drive and kept running. There’s nothing wrong with that. The whole game we never lost track of that even when we got behind. But then I thought after the game got going and Trent got real familiar and comfortable in the pocket, I thought at the end it was good to see him when we had to go down on a drive that he orchestrated. He made some good throws; we made some good catches and we blocked them pretty well.”
Q: Without Gonzalez, did that alter what you thought you could do in the passing game?
EDWARDS: “It takes away a weapon that has been very good for us. Not so much for Trent because Trent hadn’t played with him. He played one half for him. It was good for our team to get Tony involved. But when you take a guy like that out of your offense it’s a little tougher. But for the most part we were able to runt the ball well. It helped our play action, it helped us really take advantage of situations when we had to throw the ball.”
Q: Do you think nine points will be enough this time?
EDWARDS: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think field goals – my favorite deal – won’t work this week.”
Q: Being a former defensive player and you were watching those missed tackles and sacks by your team, what were you thinking?
EDWARDS: “First thing you say is we’re not wrapping up and the second thing you say is we’ve got to get it corrected if we’re going to win. I thought the second half we played a lot better; we tackled better. We didn’t get the quarterback down, but we tackled better. That’s what the game is about on defense. If you don’t tackle well and you miss opportunities to sack the quarterback, then all of a sudden the quarterback and a guy like (Brooks) gains more confidence when you can’t get him down. He’s moving and running and throwing where, if you get him early and you sack him, his accuracy is not as good. That’s what sort of happened the first half.”
Q: You could see that possibly with Jake Plummer and the bootleg this week?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, if we can’t tackle him he’ll get outside and he’ll make some plays ‘cause he can do that with his legs and he has a good enough arm to get the ball down the field. I thought the first time we played I thought we handled the boot fairly well. But that was the first game, and that’s all I heard of when I first took the job. That wasn’t a big factor and last night he didn’t run a lot of boots. So that being said, this will probably be the week he runs a lot of boots.”
Q: What about Kyle Turley going in as a tight end? How did he grade out?
EDWARDS: “He did a good job at the tight end position and that was a formation and personnel group we wanted to use to run the ball. We felt we had some big people over there where we could get some push. He did a good job and is feeling good now and he was into the game yesterday. He was into ball and you could see it in his eyes as he came off the field. I think he was more excited about playing the tight end position where he might actually get a pass. I told him you aren’t ready for that yet.”
Q: He catches everything in practice?
EDWARDS: “They all catch them in practice.”
Q: The schedule makers didn’t do the Broncos any favors having to play on a short week after a night game. As a head coach and you were the Broncos how would you prepare your team to come back that fast especially after playing a tough game against a division rival?
EDWARDS: “Really, when you think about it the travel’s not that far. When you really think of a schedule like this you can look at it two ways. You can say, ‘well, we’ve got to travel but then when we get there we have to stay in a hotel on Thanksgiving Day, but what are the Chiefs going to do? Are they staying in a hotel?’ Yeah, we’re staying in a hotel, but Denver doesn’t have family and guests in Kansas City. Our team has family and guests and that’s what you have to make your players understand. Now is not the time to worry about family and the guests at home. It’s time to stay in a hotel and really prepare yourself mentally.
“But the travel is not that far for them. That’s the key. If they were travleling three of four hours that would be a tough deal. That would be difficult. But these guys have won a lot of football games and are a mentally tough football team and that’s how you win on the road like they do.”
Q: Can you talk about the playoff implications of this game and how big a win this game would be for your team?
EDWARDS: “Every game from here on out – and I said last week that this is a seven game season and the more you can win you stay in the race. That’s the whole key to November. That’s moving month in our league. If you win in November you generally have a great opportunity to participate in the playoffs because it gives you momentum going into December. You know that, that’s historically how it works in this league. November is a big month. You want your team playing well.
“Games become a lot tighter, too, the later part of the year. Teams that maybe weren’t playing as well early get better, injuries become a big factor in November and December. All of a sudden, you get a key two or three guys hurt and that affects how you play. All those things in November when you get into weeks nine and 10 become very competitive. I think teams have a familiarity with who they are; they identify what kind of team they are by then.
“Teams get better and all of a sudden you see some teams winning games in a row. When you’re a head coach and you didn’t start off the season too well you want to finish it off well to build momentum for next year. So, you catch some teams that didn’t have a good record the first eight (games) they all of a sudden get on a little roll. People look at it and say they haven’t won a lot of games but when you watch them on tape, like the Raiders, they play pretty good, play pretty good defense.”
Q: Did you watch the game last night and what did you think?
EDWARDS: “I thought it was an entertaining game. San Diego came back in the fourth quarter.”
Q: Were you surprised that Denver playing at home gave up that big lead like they did?
EDWARDS: “It was kind of like our game. That’s what the Chargers have done the last couple of weeks in the fourth quarter. They’ve come running back and for three weeks they’ve come back. It’s a credit to them; it’s a credit to Marty. They believe they can do that; that’s the whole key.
“Now, they believe they can come back and win in the fourth quarter and that’s what I was telling our football team today. We’ve played actually seven games that in the fourth quarter the game was in the balance and we’ve won five out of those seven. That’s why we’re in the spot we’re in right now because when you continue to play and play fairly well and keep the points down it’s a pretty even game and it’s going to get down to the fourth quarter. The teams that win in the fourth quarter generally continue to play when the season’s over.”
“You have a short recovery time for your players. You don’t get much rest as a staff. But I think once you walk on that field Thursday night you’ll feel the adrenaline of playing in a Thanksgiving Day game that the NFL Network is covering. That’s a first and there are a lot of firsts in this game.
“That being said, there is a lot that goes into this game. You have players and coaches mentally trying to grasp what we want to do offensively, defensively and special teams going into this game. It’s that way for both teams.
“I told our players that basically it boils down to this: it’s the team that mentally grasps the game plan and doesn’t make a bunch of mental errors because you don’t have preparation and time. Players like short weeks because they don’t have to practice that much, but it’ll be a mental load for everybody.”
Q: What’s the latest with the injured guys: Brian Waters, Tony Gonzalez, and Derrick Johnson?
EDWARDS: “Right now, we had a walk through and they made it through. So, that’s one step. It was kind of a fast walk, so that’s good. We’ll see tomorrow. I anticipate some of those guys will be back but what their status is at this point, I really don’t know. I anticipate they’ll going to play but I’ll know more once we get on the practice field.”
Q: Anybody you’ve ruled out?
EDWARDS: “No, no one, haven’t ruled anybody out.”
Q: Do you see a different type of game than the first one you played up in Denver?
EDWARDS: “Oh, the first one where it was a baseball score. Obviously, it’ll be a little bit different for us. We’re playing at home; we’re still playing against a very good team with a very good defense. What they do is they don’t allow a lot of points. They do a good job of taking the ball away. They can run the ball very, very well on offense and the quarterback is a waggle-and-boot guy, and they have some veteran receivers that are playing pretty well and some excellent runners.
“Yeah, I would anticipate it’ll be a little bit different.”
Q: That run/pass balance yesterday is something you probably wouldn’t like Thursday. How much of that was protecting your quarterback making his first start in a while?
EDWARDS: “I don’t now if it was so much protecting Trent. It was more looking at what we could do to be successful against them. Some of it was to get Trent going and not to put it all on his shoulders. Really, it was to get the running game going again because we kind of lost sight of that last week, I thought.
“We went into the game feeling we had some runs we could achieve and get some yards. Then we got going on the one drive and kept running. There’s nothing wrong with that. The whole game we never lost track of that even when we got behind. But then I thought after the game got going and Trent got real familiar and comfortable in the pocket, I thought at the end it was good to see him when we had to go down on a drive that he orchestrated. He made some good throws; we made some good catches and we blocked them pretty well.”
Q: Without Gonzalez, did that alter what you thought you could do in the passing game?
EDWARDS: “It takes away a weapon that has been very good for us. Not so much for Trent because Trent hadn’t played with him. He played one half for him. It was good for our team to get Tony involved. But when you take a guy like that out of your offense it’s a little tougher. But for the most part we were able to runt the ball well. It helped our play action, it helped us really take advantage of situations when we had to throw the ball.”
Q: Do you think nine points will be enough this time?
EDWARDS: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think field goals – my favorite deal – won’t work this week.”
Q: Being a former defensive player and you were watching those missed tackles and sacks by your team, what were you thinking?
EDWARDS: “First thing you say is we’re not wrapping up and the second thing you say is we’ve got to get it corrected if we’re going to win. I thought the second half we played a lot better; we tackled better. We didn’t get the quarterback down, but we tackled better. That’s what the game is about on defense. If you don’t tackle well and you miss opportunities to sack the quarterback, then all of a sudden the quarterback and a guy like (Brooks) gains more confidence when you can’t get him down. He’s moving and running and throwing where, if you get him early and you sack him, his accuracy is not as good. That’s what sort of happened the first half.”
Q: You could see that possibly with Jake Plummer and the bootleg this week?
EDWARDS: “Yeah, if we can’t tackle him he’ll get outside and he’ll make some plays ‘cause he can do that with his legs and he has a good enough arm to get the ball down the field. I thought the first time we played I thought we handled the boot fairly well. But that was the first game, and that’s all I heard of when I first took the job. That wasn’t a big factor and last night he didn’t run a lot of boots. So that being said, this will probably be the week he runs a lot of boots.”
Q: What about Kyle Turley going in as a tight end? How did he grade out?
EDWARDS: “He did a good job at the tight end position and that was a formation and personnel group we wanted to use to run the ball. We felt we had some big people over there where we could get some push. He did a good job and is feeling good now and he was into the game yesterday. He was into ball and you could see it in his eyes as he came off the field. I think he was more excited about playing the tight end position where he might actually get a pass. I told him you aren’t ready for that yet.”
Q: He catches everything in practice?
EDWARDS: “They all catch them in practice.”
Q: The schedule makers didn’t do the Broncos any favors having to play on a short week after a night game. As a head coach and you were the Broncos how would you prepare your team to come back that fast especially after playing a tough game against a division rival?
EDWARDS: “Really, when you think about it the travel’s not that far. When you really think of a schedule like this you can look at it two ways. You can say, ‘well, we’ve got to travel but then when we get there we have to stay in a hotel on Thanksgiving Day, but what are the Chiefs going to do? Are they staying in a hotel?’ Yeah, we’re staying in a hotel, but Denver doesn’t have family and guests in Kansas City. Our team has family and guests and that’s what you have to make your players understand. Now is not the time to worry about family and the guests at home. It’s time to stay in a hotel and really prepare yourself mentally.
“But the travel is not that far for them. That’s the key. If they were travleling three of four hours that would be a tough deal. That would be difficult. But these guys have won a lot of football games and are a mentally tough football team and that’s how you win on the road like they do.”
Q: Can you talk about the playoff implications of this game and how big a win this game would be for your team?
EDWARDS: “Every game from here on out – and I said last week that this is a seven game season and the more you can win you stay in the race. That’s the whole key to November. That’s moving month in our league. If you win in November you generally have a great opportunity to participate in the playoffs because it gives you momentum going into December. You know that, that’s historically how it works in this league. November is a big month. You want your team playing well.
“Games become a lot tighter, too, the later part of the year. Teams that maybe weren’t playing as well early get better, injuries become a big factor in November and December. All of a sudden, you get a key two or three guys hurt and that affects how you play. All those things in November when you get into weeks nine and 10 become very competitive. I think teams have a familiarity with who they are; they identify what kind of team they are by then.
“Teams get better and all of a sudden you see some teams winning games in a row. When you’re a head coach and you didn’t start off the season too well you want to finish it off well to build momentum for next year. So, you catch some teams that didn’t have a good record the first eight (games) they all of a sudden get on a little roll. People look at it and say they haven’t won a lot of games but when you watch them on tape, like the Raiders, they play pretty good, play pretty good defense.”
Q: Did you watch the game last night and what did you think?
EDWARDS: “I thought it was an entertaining game. San Diego came back in the fourth quarter.”
Q: Were you surprised that Denver playing at home gave up that big lead like they did?
EDWARDS: “It was kind of like our game. That’s what the Chargers have done the last couple of weeks in the fourth quarter. They’ve come running back and for three weeks they’ve come back. It’s a credit to them; it’s a credit to Marty. They believe they can do that; that’s the whole key.
“Now, they believe they can come back and win in the fourth quarter and that’s what I was telling our football team today. We’ve played actually seven games that in the fourth quarter the game was in the balance and we’ve won five out of those seven. That’s why we’re in the spot we’re in right now because when you continue to play and play fairly well and keep the points down it’s a pretty even game and it’s going to get down to the fourth quarter. The teams that win in the fourth quarter generally continue to play when the season’s over.”