Tribal Warfare
09-24-2008, 01:30 AM
Herm Speaks Vol. #3 (http://www.bobgretz.com/chiefs-football/herm-speaks-vol-3.html#more-2884)
September 23, 2008 - Bob Gretz |
From Arrowhead Stadium
Herm Edwards remains committed to what he started with the Chiefs. As he met with the media on Tuesday, carrying a 0-3 record, there was no panic in his voice or manner.
The Chiefs head coach believes the team’s plan to rebuild the franchise is sound and he won’t be knocked off-course.
No real news from the press conference other than it sounds like Damon Huard will replace Tyler Thigpen as the team’s starting quarterback this Sunday against Denver.
Here’s some Herm speak:
ON DECISION TO START HUARD THIS WEEK OVER THIGPEN
“You can’t win if you keep turning the ball over. We have given up 30 points on turnovers. You can’t do that. We are too fragile right now. That’s one thing you cannot do. When you are in that situation and you are struggling, you don’t want a guy who is going to turn the ball over and he’s (Thigpen) turned the ball over … we can’t afford that … It comes to a point there where you need some calmness. Sometimes veterans provide that, because they have been there. At that position it’s critical … That’s one of those positions, when you are struggling and you are struggling there too, it compounds it.”
Translation: Herm really doesn’t have much confidence in either quarterback. That’s generally the case when a coach makes changes at the position that are not driven by injury. Right now, he’s picking Huard because he thinks the veteran will take better care of the football. Now the question is will Huard be able to get through the game. There’s probably a good chance both quarterbacks will play in the next two games before Brodie Croyle comes back for the October 19th game against Tennessee.
ON WHETHER HE’S FEELING PRESSURE BECAUSE OF THE TEAM’S POOR START
“When you lose like we’ve been doing, everything gets magnified. You know that. When things start getting magnified what you want to do is let’s change this, let’s change that, let’s do this different, let’s do that different. Then all the sudden the plan you had is not really a plan at all. Our plan is to get these young players better, to win with them, to win right now with them. We are going to keep coaching them; we are not going to change what we do with them. You can’t. It’s unfair to everybody. It’s unfair to the organization, it’s unfair to what we decided to do in the spring, and now all the sudden it’s becoming difficult because we are playing games and we are not winning. We are going to get better. That’s all you can do is keep coaching them and make them get better.”
Comment: Herm believes in what he’s doing. That’s not going to change. There will not be a lot of backtracking here. He’s staying on message.
WHETHER HE HAS THE SUPPORT OF THE ORGANIZATION
“This organization is all in the same boat, we are all going down the same road. That’s the way it was when we talked about it. We knew it was going to be tough. Did some people maybe think it wasn’t going to be this tough, maybe? But it’s tough.”
Comment:
Right now, Herm doesn’t have to look over his shoulder.
ON WHETHER HIS VETERAN PLAYERS WILL CONTINUE TO BE SUPPORTIVE
“That’s why these guys are the remaining guys. They are professionals. They are helping these young guys. When you do something like this, the first thing you have to realize is who are the holdover guys that you are going to keep and what do they bring to the table for these young guys. They see what I see every day. These kids come to work. They work their tails off. They are in the classroom working, they are on the field working, and they see them competing in the game. There is no quit in these guys, ever. They see that. They appreciate that. They see where we are going. They are OK with that.”
Analysis: Right now, guys like Tony Gonzalez and Brian Waters are saying the right things. They understand why the changes were made with the team and they both know they were necessary. But like the fans, they will lose their patience if there’s no improvement shown. They’ll change their tune if they don’t see improvement. Now, those improvements may not be visible to the fans or media, but they’ll throw up the red flags if the effort falls.
ON THE PLAY OF HIS DEFENSE
“They’ve played in spurts. Their problem is they have given up big plays. That’s the problem. They’ve given up big plays. That’s where the yardage comes from, that’s where the scores come from. They’ve got to learn how to play together. They’ll play well for a series. They get going. The first two games, its 7-3 and 6-0, that’s pretty good defense. At the end of the day, if you could do that every week, you know you would say that’s pretty good. They’ve given up 30 points on turnovers. 30. If you take 30 away, and I know you can’t do that, that’s an average of about 16 points per game scoring defense. There are a lot of things going on.
Translation:
As bad as the defense has looked at times, Edwards feels the offensive problems are compromising his defense.
STATISTICS, NUMBERS AND STUFF
“Offensively we have only three plays in the passing game over 20 yards and eight runs over 10 yards … Defensively we have allowed 16 plays in the running game over 10 yards and eight pass plays over 20 yards … We have turned the ball over and given up 30 points … we have caused five turnovers and we haven’t scored a point … on third down and six or more, we have had 28 offensive plays and converted 21 percent of the time … on defense we have put the opponent in third and six or more 33 times and they are 50 percent on conversion … we’ve been sacked 11 times and that’s not good … we had 10 missed tackles (against Atlanta). We had only one against New England.”
Translation: Those are some ugly numbers and really capsulize the problems the Chiefs have had in three games. Big plays are killing them, the lack of on offense and the abundance on defense. The defense can’t get off the field and thus its overall tackling goes down the tubes. When they do force a turnover, the offense can’t do anything with the ball. Those 11 sacks ranks them tied for the fourth most so far. Chiefs overall third down defense is among the worst in the league, allowing a 47.5 conversion rate.
September 23, 2008 - Bob Gretz |
From Arrowhead Stadium
Herm Edwards remains committed to what he started with the Chiefs. As he met with the media on Tuesday, carrying a 0-3 record, there was no panic in his voice or manner.
The Chiefs head coach believes the team’s plan to rebuild the franchise is sound and he won’t be knocked off-course.
No real news from the press conference other than it sounds like Damon Huard will replace Tyler Thigpen as the team’s starting quarterback this Sunday against Denver.
Here’s some Herm speak:
ON DECISION TO START HUARD THIS WEEK OVER THIGPEN
“You can’t win if you keep turning the ball over. We have given up 30 points on turnovers. You can’t do that. We are too fragile right now. That’s one thing you cannot do. When you are in that situation and you are struggling, you don’t want a guy who is going to turn the ball over and he’s (Thigpen) turned the ball over … we can’t afford that … It comes to a point there where you need some calmness. Sometimes veterans provide that, because they have been there. At that position it’s critical … That’s one of those positions, when you are struggling and you are struggling there too, it compounds it.”
Translation: Herm really doesn’t have much confidence in either quarterback. That’s generally the case when a coach makes changes at the position that are not driven by injury. Right now, he’s picking Huard because he thinks the veteran will take better care of the football. Now the question is will Huard be able to get through the game. There’s probably a good chance both quarterbacks will play in the next two games before Brodie Croyle comes back for the October 19th game against Tennessee.
ON WHETHER HE’S FEELING PRESSURE BECAUSE OF THE TEAM’S POOR START
“When you lose like we’ve been doing, everything gets magnified. You know that. When things start getting magnified what you want to do is let’s change this, let’s change that, let’s do this different, let’s do that different. Then all the sudden the plan you had is not really a plan at all. Our plan is to get these young players better, to win with them, to win right now with them. We are going to keep coaching them; we are not going to change what we do with them. You can’t. It’s unfair to everybody. It’s unfair to the organization, it’s unfair to what we decided to do in the spring, and now all the sudden it’s becoming difficult because we are playing games and we are not winning. We are going to get better. That’s all you can do is keep coaching them and make them get better.”
Comment: Herm believes in what he’s doing. That’s not going to change. There will not be a lot of backtracking here. He’s staying on message.
WHETHER HE HAS THE SUPPORT OF THE ORGANIZATION
“This organization is all in the same boat, we are all going down the same road. That’s the way it was when we talked about it. We knew it was going to be tough. Did some people maybe think it wasn’t going to be this tough, maybe? But it’s tough.”
Comment:
Right now, Herm doesn’t have to look over his shoulder.
ON WHETHER HIS VETERAN PLAYERS WILL CONTINUE TO BE SUPPORTIVE
“That’s why these guys are the remaining guys. They are professionals. They are helping these young guys. When you do something like this, the first thing you have to realize is who are the holdover guys that you are going to keep and what do they bring to the table for these young guys. They see what I see every day. These kids come to work. They work their tails off. They are in the classroom working, they are on the field working, and they see them competing in the game. There is no quit in these guys, ever. They see that. They appreciate that. They see where we are going. They are OK with that.”
Analysis: Right now, guys like Tony Gonzalez and Brian Waters are saying the right things. They understand why the changes were made with the team and they both know they were necessary. But like the fans, they will lose their patience if there’s no improvement shown. They’ll change their tune if they don’t see improvement. Now, those improvements may not be visible to the fans or media, but they’ll throw up the red flags if the effort falls.
ON THE PLAY OF HIS DEFENSE
“They’ve played in spurts. Their problem is they have given up big plays. That’s the problem. They’ve given up big plays. That’s where the yardage comes from, that’s where the scores come from. They’ve got to learn how to play together. They’ll play well for a series. They get going. The first two games, its 7-3 and 6-0, that’s pretty good defense. At the end of the day, if you could do that every week, you know you would say that’s pretty good. They’ve given up 30 points on turnovers. 30. If you take 30 away, and I know you can’t do that, that’s an average of about 16 points per game scoring defense. There are a lot of things going on.
Translation:
As bad as the defense has looked at times, Edwards feels the offensive problems are compromising his defense.
STATISTICS, NUMBERS AND STUFF
“Offensively we have only three plays in the passing game over 20 yards and eight runs over 10 yards … Defensively we have allowed 16 plays in the running game over 10 yards and eight pass plays over 20 yards … We have turned the ball over and given up 30 points … we have caused five turnovers and we haven’t scored a point … on third down and six or more, we have had 28 offensive plays and converted 21 percent of the time … on defense we have put the opponent in third and six or more 33 times and they are 50 percent on conversion … we’ve been sacked 11 times and that’s not good … we had 10 missed tackles (against Atlanta). We had only one against New England.”
Translation: Those are some ugly numbers and really capsulize the problems the Chiefs have had in three games. Big plays are killing them, the lack of on offense and the abundance on defense. The defense can’t get off the field and thus its overall tackling goes down the tubes. When they do force a turnover, the offense can’t do anything with the ball. Those 11 sacks ranks them tied for the fourth most so far. Chiefs overall third down defense is among the worst in the league, allowing a 47.5 conversion rate.