Whitlock: I LOVE YOU HERM

[BigRock]

I was so looking forward to the reaction to these columns. But nobody's posting them! So I figured I gotta get on that.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/col...ry/882946.html

Chiefs are heading in the right direction

Bad news for devout Herm Haters:

In losing 20-19 to San Diego on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs played a near-flawless game and gave the strongest testimony to date Herm Edwards might deserve at least one more season to lead the Chiefs.

Sorry. I absolutely loved Sunday’s game, especially the decisive decision to go for two points and the victory in the final minute rather than a game-tying extra point. And, to be totally honest, I loved the fact the two-point conversion failed.

The Chiefs’ single mission this season is improvement. As fans, we should have two missions: 1. Improvement; 2. Securing a draft pick high enough to pluck the best quarterback in the 2009 draft (Ball State’s Nate Davis if we’re lucky).

For the third week in a row, the Chiefs demonstrated dramatic improvement without jeopardizing a shot at the league’s No. 1 pick. Only the irrational would argue the Chiefs aren’t making progress.

“Yes, yes, I think we are,” Edwards said.

“As a team we feel like we’re going the right direction,” Tyler Thigpen added.

“We feel like we’re going the right way,” Brian Waters said.

Playing with its junior-varsity defense due to injuries to Turk McBride, Derrick Johnson, Brandon Flowers and Tamba Hali, Kansas City throttled San Diego’s LaDainian Tomlinson-powered running game, baffled quarterback Philip Rivers, produced two turnovers and forced the Chargers into a critical three-and-out with the game on the line late in the fourth quarter.

Safety Bernard Pollard starred, grabbing an interception and delivering pulverizing hits throughout the afternoon.

Offensively, Kansas City’s playmakers — Dwayne Bowe, Tony Gonzalez, Mark Bradley and Chan Gailey — made plays.

Yes, I put offensive coordinator Chan Gailey in the same classification as KC’s receivers. Gailey’s a playmaker. His spread offense is the innovation of the season. More than a quarterback, the Chiefs have discovered a style of play since losing Brodie Croyle to an injury and Larry Johnson to thuggery.

Bowe, Gonzalez, Bradley and the spread should be a permanent part of Kansas City’s offensive philosophy. When/if Larry Johnson returns, he’ll need to make far more adjustments than KC’s playbook. Obviously he can no longer be the centerpiece of the Chiefs’ offense.

Gonzalez (10 catches, 113 yards and two TDs), Bradley (nine for 81 yards and a TD) and Bowe (six for 72) key the Chiefs’ offense this season and next.

As for Tyler Thigpen (266 passing yards and three TDs), I like what he’s doing, but I’m far from sold on him as anybody’s quarterback of the future. He’s not Rich Gannon. He’s a good backup. The ability to improvise and an instinctive swagger define starting NFL quarterbacks. I don’t see those qualities in Thigpen.

On the two-point conversion, he momentarily froze when the Chargers took away his primary target, Gonzalez, and then Thigpen floated a duck in Gonzalez’s direction. Nope. I can be convinced otherwise, but right now he’s a good No.2 at best.

A bogus defensive pass-interference call put the Chiefs in position to win the game, setting the Chiefs up at the 2.

The fortunate PI, KC’s one-win record and the injuries on defense made Herm’s decision to go for two points a no-brainer. There was no reason to throw Kansas City’s banged-up defense out on the field for overtime.

It was the perfect loss.

The last three weeks make me wonder how much of a role Johnson’s poor attitude and big contract played in Kansas City’s horrific start to the season. What we’ve witnessed since his absence is a clear case of addition by subtraction. With Johnson out of the lineup, Gailey was free to use his full imagination in reshaping Kansas City’s strategy. With Johnson either out of the locker room or demoted to scout team, it’s clear, too, that Herm has the attention of his young team.

We all need to take a step back and re-evaluate Edwards’ performance. He is not perfect. But he’s been hamstrung by a set of problems not his own making. He’s beginning to dig out from those problems.

The Chiefs are building an identity. We can afford to look at these final seven games with a fresh set of eyes. We have nothing to lose.

[007]

Originally Posted by RINGLEADER

Don't disagree. Hopefully Herm is smart enough not to meddle.

Herm and smart in the same sentence?

[007]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

How many times did we run the ball during that stretch? And how many times were we running plays out of the shotgun?

During the punts? quite a few.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by Guru

Herm and smart in the same sentence?

That is illegal and should carry a 2 day ban from posting...

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by GoReerun_KC

Another thing, IF Herm is so great, why did it take this long to see that the talent is not suited for his offense he wants to run? Why did it take the whole offseason, preseason and 5 regular season games to realize that his right side of the Offensive line sucks? Did he have to kill 2 QB's to realize that?

Just asking?

You think that's a long time? That's pretty quick to me. It took Vermeil/Saunders over a year to figure things out. People slam the Chiefs for experimenting with Marcus Hagans. My response was all along that at least Chan was trying something different and, guess what, it was his "different" version of the spread offense that has worked... big time. Given how many new pieces were put together, the lack of chemistry between the players, the number of new players inserted in and out of the lineup, i think the Chiefs have been incredibly quick to adapt.

5 games is really good. Recall that for the past 5 years, we've clung to worthless players like McCleon and Eddie Drummond. Rather than criticize for not finding the right mix quick enough, I can only compliment Chan for his willingness to try new things and Herm for his commitment to playing the best players and not just the ones tied to nice contracts and veteran experience.

[007]

Originally Posted by GoReerun_KC

That is illegal and should carry a 2 day ban from posting...

Crap, I did it too. But at least I did as a put down to Herm and that was obvious. heh

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Guru

During the punts? quite a few.

7 passes, 2 runs. Does that sound like an offense herm runs?

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

You think that's a long time? That's pretty quick to me. It took Vermeil/Saunders over a year to figure things out. People slam the Chiefs for experimenting with Marcus Hagans. My response was all along that at least Chan was trying something different and, guess what, it was his "different" version of the spread offense that has worked... big time. Given how many new pieces were put together, the lack of chemistry between the players, the number of new players inserted in and out of the lineup, i think the Chiefs have been incredibly quick to adapt.

5 games is really good. Recall that for the past 5 years, we've clung to worthless players like McCleon and Eddie Drummond. Rather than criticize for not finding the right mix quick enough, I can only compliment Chan for his willingness to try new things and Herm for his commitment to playing the best players and not just the ones tied to nice contracts and veteran experience.

Oh so now its all Chan... Dude you flip around more on people that anyone on this board.. Stay consistant...

Yes the offseason, training camp, preseason and 5 regular season games is enough to see if he was failing. Hell Marty messed around with players as well, remember William White? JC Pearson? That big signing of a DL from Denver that flopped bigtime, cant thank of his name... Chester McGlockton... Dude the list is long and dirty...

Herms commitment for playing the best players? JFC he didnt have the balls to blow this up last year and tried to sell a playoff run with Huard... Dear God man, stop massaging his sack and take a look at what he has done here...

[xbarretx]

i dont think hes overly harsh on tyler, i just think that he wants him to continue getting better before he takes 3 - 4 games as proof that he's "arrived" as QBOTF. thiggy is doing one hell of a job and not even jason can take that from him.

great article though! if i knew Whitlocks login on here id give him rep!

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

7 passes, 2 runs. Does that sound like an offense herm runs?

Funny most passes wherent pass the first down marker.. I saw alot, yes alot of passes late in the game that were for very short yardage. Hell on the last play alone, there was a completion to Bowe for no gain..

[Priest4Prez]

Originally Posted by PhillyChiefFan

I'm happy they went for it, fuck it, what have we got to lose?

I'm impressed with Thigpen, he played great yesterday and so did the rest of the offense, save a rather blah running game. But good nonetheless.

If Thigpen plays the way he has been, why draft a QB #1? I think we need a pass rushing DE and a solid MLB before another QB IF Thiggy keeps playing the way he has. Draft a QB in 2nd round and address piss poor pass rush.

Every single passing play it seemed was Gates over the middle...and NO one was on him, Achilles heal yesterday was the middle of the field.

thank God there is somebody with sense on here. I understand that we are "rebuilding," but honestly this team should be 3-0 in confrence and should have beat the Jets, Bucs, and possibly the pats. All these losses in the past 3 weeks have frustrated me so so so much. 1st half is all emotion when it comes to the youth. 2nd half is your coach keeping the players modivated. I don't understand his decision to go for two in that situation. It is totally out of character. The chiefs had the momentum, go to OT. The chiefs need a coach who can coach, fire Herm. Even if they convert the 2pt conversion, i hate the choice to go for two.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by Priest4Prez

thank God there is somebody with sense on here. I understand that we are "rebuilding," but honestly this team should be 3-0 in confrence and should have beat the Jets, Bucs, and possibly the pats. All these losses in the past 3 weeks have frustrated me so so so much. 1st half is all emotion when it comes to the youth. 2nd half is your coach keeping the players modivated. I don't understand his decision to go for two in that situation. It is totally out of character. The chiefs had the momentum, go to OT. The chiefs need a coach who can coach, fire Herm. Even if they convert the 2pt conversion, i hate the choice to go for two.

You cant argue with that....

[oaklandhater]

Originally Posted by PhillyChiefFan

If Thigpen plays the way he has been, why draft a QB #1? I think we need a pass rushing DE and a solid MLB before another QB IF Thiggy keeps playing the way he has. Draft a QB in 2nd round and address piss poor pass rush.

If Stafford is there when we pick and we draft some one else it will be the stupidest move in franchise history.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by GoReerun_KC

Oh so now its all Chan... Dude you flip around more on people that anyone on this board.. Stay consistant...

Yes the offseason, training camp, preseason and 5 regular season games is enough to see if he was failing. Hell Marty messed around with players as well, remember William White? JC Pearson? That big signing of a DL from Denver that flopped bigtime, cant thank of his name... Chester McGlockton... Dude the list is long and dirty...

Herms commitment for playing the best players? JFC he didnt have the balls to blow this up last year and tried to sell a playoff run with Huard... Dear God man, stop massaging his sack and take a look at what he has done here...

I have always said that the offensive scheme is all chan. The decision to commit to the type of players they have is on herm. You have refused to give herm any credit whatsoever and are finding a way to even use the offense's success to slam herm. What is that?

You should probably be a head coach in this league, because you apparently think it's really easy to come up with a scheme that best fits the strengths of 4 new lineman, a new fullback, 3 different QBs, etc.... And you can obviously spot in a preseason game which players are playing well, where players like Tyler Thigpen are throwing up INTs against third string defenses.

Player evaluation is hard. Coming up with a scheme is hard. It is absolutely unreasonable to expect any coach to be that perfect in their scheme/talent evaluation. I don't care if you're Herm Edwards or Marty schottenheimer. The key is, they got it right and they got it right quickly. Most of the moves I complained about the team making (i.e. sticking with Darling, Sams, etc...), the coaches got right in the end. They gave both of those guys a chance to succeed and then very quickly cut the cord when they didn't like what they saw.

I don't deny that the team should have been blown up last year. But let me again ask you how we would have blown it up, given that 5 years of bad drafting under Carl Peterson's direction gave us pretty much no youth to work with. Let's be clear that a major reason we were able to rebuild this year was because we had 10 draft pick rookies to work with.

[burt]

Originally Posted by GoReerun_KC

So when our D was heathly and getting gashed earlier in the season or up as recently as 2 weeks ago.

Funny how people have very short selective memories...

We ran the option with Marcus Hagans against the Raiders at HOME who beat us down.... Please people....

Reading is such a lost art. I stated that we have had marked improvement in the last 3 weeks. Did we play the Raiders in the last 3 weeks?

[burt]

Originally Posted by GoReerun_KC

Another thing, IF Herm is so great, why did it take this long to see that the talent is not suited for his offense he wants to run? Why did it take the whole offseason, preseason and 5 regular season games to realize that his right side of the Offensive line sucks? Did he have to kill 2 QB's to realize that?

Just asking?

Now that is a valid question........damnit!