Hermy Q&A 10-31

Chiefs Pantalones · 10-31-2007, 06:09 PM

Q: How was the effort after being gone a week? How did they come back?

HERM EDWARDS: “Good. They moved around well. They really did. They were into practice. Good focus.

“These guys know where they’re at right now as a football team. There’s no doubt about it. There are nine games left and we’re sitting in a position now where we don’t need anyone to help us. We don’t have to worry about what other teams are doing. We just have to continue to win. They understand that.

“Is it difficult? Yeah, it’s going to be difficult. We’re playing some good teams. We’re playing a lot of good teams here at home which is good. With that being said, they had good focus; they know the team that’s coming in here has played well on the road. We have to play well if we’re going to win.”

Q: Did Kennison do any more today?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he did a little. Not a full blown practice but he did some things on the scout team running routes and stuff. He did some team stuff.”

Q: What is his status for Sunday?

EDWARDS: “Ah, it’s yet to be determined. I’m going to wait on that.”

Q: Can you talk about going back to River Falls for training camp for another year?

EDWARDS: “I’ll put it this way: I was actually on the first trip to River Falls when they had fire engines and they had the parade for us.

“I’ll enjoy driving up there again this year on that seven hour drive in my car. The good thing about it [HBO’s] Hard Knocks will not be a part of it and it will be OK. I can stop at a couple of places I’ve generally stopped at before that I couldn’t this year.

“We’ll be fine. The guys are used to the venue and we’ll do whatever we can do to make it work. It’s worked for 18 years and it’ll work again.”

Q: Where do you stop on that drive?

EDWARDS: “You’ve got to stop in Iowa.”

Q: In Ames?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, they’ve got a great barbecue place right by the college. When I was scouting I always stopped there with [late player personnel director] Whitey Dovell. When I went with Whitey he showed me the spot. When I would drive that would be the first stop I would make.

“You just kind of drive. I couldn’t go this year and I was heartbroken about it. We had to leave at night; it was a television deal. The next year I’m dialed in.”

Q: Priest gets to play a home game this year. How do you think he will be greeted?

EDWARDS: “Oh, when he goes in the game they’ll be excited for him. But I think at the end Priest has done a lot already by showing he could come back after a long absence. He survived the Raiders game and you’re pulling for the guy. We’d like him to touch the ball some but there are a lot of guys on offense. I said that yesterday. That’s important to us: to stay on the field offensively and to create some drives and get a flow.”

Q: Do you see this Priest thing as going beyond this year?

EDWARDS: “I don’t even know. You’d have to ask Priest those kinds of questions of what he wants to do.”

Q: I think he wants to. Is there a role for him in the future here?

EDWARDS: “We’ll see. If you’re a productive player that’s great. That’s how you always look at it. What do you do when you’re asked to play?”

Q: Some of your players are saying they’d like to get an autographed ball from Brett Favre. Would you rather not have them saying things like that, being loose?

EDWARDS: “Well, you can’t play tight. You never can do that. There’s no need to. They’re a good football team. We know that. We’ve played a couple of good football teams. I think you can’t get caught up in Brett Favre. Brett Favre’s is Brett Favre. He’s a heck of a quarterback. He can win the game with his arm. You know that. He can win the game on the last play. All those things can come to fruition. But you can’t worry about that, you’ve got to go play. I think you have to have some confidence in who you are as a player. You’ve got to go play.

“This team has gone through a lot already in a short time of the season. The thing I like about them the most is they have tremendous will. They just keep bouncing back. When it doesn’t look real good they just keep finding a way to fight. That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to keep fighting. Some time’s it’s pretty and some time it’s not. But we’ve been able to win four games and we’ve got win a lot more if we’re going to go where we’re trying to go.”

Q: Is it important to forget the first seven games and go on.

EDWARDS: “You let ‘em go win, lose or draw. You have to have the ability to let ‘em go and play the next week. That’s what these guys have been able to do. We’re coming off a bye and are really trying to restart our engines and get going again because now it’s a nine-game stretch.

“The bye did us good this year. It really did. I’ve had a lot of them in the past and this is probably the best one for me personally as a head coach because of how you look at your football team. You get a feel for what your team needs at that point in time. It hit us at a good time.”

Q: You’ve got a record of playing well the week after the bye. Is there anything special that you do?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, there are some things you try to do and I tried to do them this bye. We’ll see if they continue to work. I’m not giving my secrets away to other coaches. There are certain ways you go about doing things.”

Q: Everyone is talking about Favre, but what about their defense?

EDWARDS: “Don’t lose sight of that. They’ve got a very good defense. One of the kids – Al Harris – was one of my guys [at Tampa Bay] I coached – a free agent. They’re very aggressive, play a lot of man-to-man. They make you hold the ball as a quarterback because they play tight coverage. That’s going to put pressure on the quarterback. If we’re going to be successful in the passing game we’re going to have to beat man coverage because they’re going to play up in our face. It’ll be interesting to see how we react to it. We got a little bit of that in Oakland. Oakland’s a little bit similar but these guys play a little bit more. Their linebackers can run and their defensive linemen play with great effort.

“They don’t give up a lot of points. That’s good. That means you’re always going to be in the game and they’ve got a potent enough offense they’re scoring 25 points on the road and only giving up about 14 on the road.”

Q: Napoleon Harris said today it’s time to put a transmitter in a linebacker or some [defensive player’s] helmet. Are you in favor of that?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, we voted for that and knew it wasn’t going to pass. Too many offensive head coaches. They weren’t going to let the defense have a chance. I can see that but I have a feeling that this year if they vote on it it’s probably going to get passed.”

Q: It’s a competitive disadvantage not to have it for the defensive player isn’t it?

EDWARDS: “It’s tough especially when you get teams going no huddle. You’re in a tough spot because there are only so many calls you have while they have their whole offense, wrist bands and the whole deal. You’re sitting there with your hands tied. You can’t get guys in and off the field.

“But this whole thing is always generated by one thing: offense. People want to see points. That’s what we do. In sports today we want to see points. People want to see scoring. They want to see touchdowns; they like that. There’s nothing wrong with that.

“When you look at all the rule changes over the last five or seven years…. I understand. I’m the head coach, so I don’t get into that it does or does not help the defense. It doesn’t matter. I have an offense too and we have to use it to our advantage. But it comes to a point where it gets to be a little bit tough but I think defensive players know that. This league is built for scoring.”

Q: Same with other sports.

EDWARDS: “Yes, but at the end of the day and you look at all the teams that are successful – and there are exceptions every once in a while – go look at their defense. At the end of the day you look at how they play defense and it adds up.”

Q: Is your offense a little hacked off that no one is talking about your offense? Does it put a little chip on their shoulder?

EDWARDS: “I don’t think Brett Favre is going to put a chip on them because Brett Favre doesn’t work here. We can’t worry about Brett Favre. We’ve got Damon Huard and he’s fine. We’ve just got to score some points. We know that. Whether it’s Brett Favre, the Raiders or Denver, it doesn’t matter. We have enough weapons on offense but we’ve got to be more productive and we’ve done that in certain games. Certain games we have not. We have to be more consistent. As I’ve said before, our whole goal is simple: score 24 points. If we score 24 points or more we’ve got a great chance of winning.

“You look back at our schedule right now and we score 24 points: wonder what our record would be?”

Hammock Parties · 10-31-2007, 06:10 PM

Man, go watch the video. They left out a lot of stuff. Herm goes off on this tangent about how he picked off Joe Namath in his first pro game, and then when he got to be a veteran he picked off John Elway.

CoMoChief · 10-31-2007, 06:26 PM

Kinda sounds like Herm doesn't want Priest around anymore than he has to.

Hammock Parties · 10-31-2007, 06:27 PM

Watch it...he just isn't going to pander to Priest's legend. He expects production.

Chiefs Pantalones · 10-31-2007, 07:16 PM

GC, what's this about Brett Favre's autograph?

Hammock Parties · 10-31-2007, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vanilla Thunder

GC, what's this about Brett Favre's autograph?

Ty Law has never picked off Brett. If he does, he wants it John Hancocked.

ISUJeff · 11-01-2007, 03:29 PM

Q: Can you talk about going back to River Falls for training camp for another year?

EDWARDS: “I’ll put it this way: I was actually on the first trip to River Falls when they had fire engines and they had the parade for us.

“I’ll enjoy driving up there again this year on that seven hour drive in my car. The good thing about it [HBO’s] Hard Knocks will not be a part of it and it will be OK. I can stop at a couple of places I’ve generally stopped at before that I couldn’t this year.

“We’ll be fine. The guys are used to the venue and we’ll do whatever we can do to make it work. It’s worked for 18 years and it’ll work again.”

Q: Where do you stop on that drive?

EDWARDS: “You’ve got to stop in Iowa.”

Q: In Ames?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, they’ve got a great barbecue place right by the college. When I was scouting I always stopped there with [late player personnel director] Whitey Dovell. When I went with Whitey he showed me the spot. When I would drive that would be the first stop I would make.

“You just kind of drive. I couldn’t go this year and I was heartbroken about it. We had to leave at night; it was a television deal. The next year I’m dialed in.”

I hope Herm knows that Battle's has moved. Still near campus, but not the same spot. Also very impressed that he skips the overrated Hickory Park for the true BBQ place in Ames.

10-31-2007, 06:09 PM
Chiefs Pantalones GO CHIEFS!!!!!! Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $7898717	Hermy Q&A 10-31 Q: How was the effort after being gone a week? How did they come back? HERM EDWARDS: “Good. They moved around well. They really did. They were into practice. Good focus. “These guys know where they’re at right now as a football team. There’s no doubt about it. There are nine games left and we’re sitting in a position now where we don’t need anyone to help us. We don’t have to worry about what other teams are doing. We just have to continue to win. They understand that. “Is it difficult? Yeah, it’s going to be difficult. We’re playing some good teams. We’re playing a lot of good teams here at home which is good. With that being said, they had good focus; they know the team that’s coming in here has played well on the road. We have to play well if we’re going to win.” Q: Did Kennison do any more today? EDWARDS: “Yeah, he did a little. Not a full blown practice but he did some things on the scout team running routes and stuff. He did some team stuff.” Q: What is his status for Sunday? EDWARDS: “Ah, it’s yet to be determined. I’m going to wait on that.” Q: Can you talk about going back to River Falls for training camp for another year? EDWARDS: “I’ll put it this way: I was actually on the first trip to River Falls when they had fire engines and they had the parade for us. “I’ll enjoy driving up there again this year on that seven hour drive in my car. The good thing about it [HBO’s] Hard Knocks will not be a part of it and it will be OK. I can stop at a couple of places I’ve generally stopped at before that I couldn’t this year. “We’ll be fine. The guys are used to the venue and we’ll do whatever we can do to make it work. It’s worked for 18 years and it’ll work again.” Q: Where do you stop on that drive? EDWARDS: “You’ve got to stop in Iowa.” Q: In Ames? EDWARDS: “Yeah, they’ve got a great barbecue place right by the college. When I was scouting I always stopped there with [late player personnel director] Whitey Dovell. When I went with Whitey he showed me the spot. When I would drive that would be the first stop I would make. “You just kind of drive. I couldn’t go this year and I was heartbroken about it. We had to leave at night; it was a television deal. The next year I’m dialed in.” Q: Priest gets to play a home game this year. How do you think he will be greeted? EDWARDS: “Oh, when he goes in the game they’ll be excited for him. But I think at the end Priest has done a lot already by showing he could come back after a long absence. He survived the Raiders game and you’re pulling for the guy. We’d like him to touch the ball some but there are a lot of guys on offense. I said that yesterday. That’s important to us: to stay on the field offensively and to create some drives and get a flow.” Q: Do you see this Priest thing as going beyond this year? EDWARDS: “I don’t even know. You’d have to ask Priest those kinds of questions of what he wants to do.” Q: I think he wants to. Is there a role for him in the future here? EDWARDS: “We’ll see. If you’re a productive player that’s great. That’s how you always look at it. What do you do when you’re asked to play?” Q: Some of your players are saying they’d like to get an autographed ball from Brett Favre. Would you rather not have them saying things like that, being loose? EDWARDS: “Well, you can’t play tight. You never can do that. There’s no need to. They’re a good football team. We know that. We’ve played a couple of good football teams. I think you can’t get caught up in Brett Favre. Brett Favre’s is Brett Favre. He’s a heck of a quarterback. He can win the game with his arm. You know that. He can win the game on the last play. All those things can come to fruition. But you can’t worry about that, you’ve got to go play. I think you have to have some confidence in who you are as a player. You’ve got to go play. “This team has gone through a lot already in a short time of the season. The thing I like about them the most is they have tremendous will. They just keep bouncing back. When it doesn’t look real good they just keep finding a way to fight. That’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to keep fighting. Some time’s it’s pretty and some time it’s not. But we’ve been able to win four games and we’ve got win a lot more if we’re going to go where we’re trying to go.” Q: Is it important to forget the first seven games and go on. EDWARDS: “You let ‘em go win, lose or draw. You have to have the ability to let ‘em go and play the next week. That’s what these guys have been able to do. We’re coming off a bye and are really trying to restart our engines and get going again because now it’s a nine-game stretch. “The bye did us good this year. It really did. I’ve had a lot of them in the past and this is probably the best one for me personally as a head coach because of how you look at your football team. You get a feel for what your team needs at that point in time. It hit us at a good time.” Q: You’ve got a record of playing well the week after the bye. Is there anything special that you do? EDWARDS: “Yeah, there are some things you try to do and I tried to do them this bye. We’ll see if they continue to work. I’m not giving my secrets away to other coaches. There are certain ways you go about doing things.” Q: Everyone is talking about Favre, but what about their defense? EDWARDS: “Don’t lose sight of that. They’ve got a very good defense. One of the kids – Al Harris – was one of my guys [at Tampa Bay] I coached – a free agent. They’re very aggressive, play a lot of man-to-man. They make you hold the ball as a quarterback because they play tight coverage. That’s going to put pressure on the quarterback. If we’re going to be successful in the passing game we’re going to have to beat man coverage because they’re going to play up in our face. It’ll be interesting to see how we react to it. We got a little bit of that in Oakland. Oakland’s a little bit similar but these guys play a little bit more. Their linebackers can run and their defensive linemen play with great effort. “They don’t give up a lot of points. That’s good. That means you’re always going to be in the game and they’ve got a potent enough offense they’re scoring 25 points on the road and only giving up about 14 on the road.” Q: Napoleon Harris said today it’s time to put a transmitter in a linebacker or some [defensive player’s] helmet. Are you in favor of that? EDWARDS: “Yeah, we voted for that and knew it wasn’t going to pass. Too many offensive head coaches. They weren’t going to let the defense have a chance. I can see that but I have a feeling that this year if they vote on it it’s probably going to get passed.” Q: It’s a competitive disadvantage not to have it for the defensive player isn’t it? EDWARDS: “It’s tough especially when you get teams going no huddle. You’re in a tough spot because there are only so many calls you have while they have their whole offense, wrist bands and the whole deal. You’re sitting there with your hands tied. You can’t get guys in and off the field. “But this whole thing is always generated by one thing: offense. People want to see points. That’s what we do. In sports today we want to see points. People want to see scoring. They want to see touchdowns; they like that. There’s nothing wrong with that. “When you look at all the rule changes over the last five or seven years…. I understand. I’m the head coach, so I don’t get into that it does or does not help the defense. It doesn’t matter. I have an offense too and we have to use it to our advantage. But it comes to a point where it gets to be a little bit tough but I think defensive players know that. This league is built for scoring.” Q: Same with other sports. EDWARDS: “Yes, but at the end of the day and you look at all the teams that are successful – and there are exceptions every once in a while – go look at their defense. At the end of the day you look at how they play defense and it adds up.” Q: Is your offense a little hacked off that no one is talking about your offense? Does it put a little chip on their shoulder? EDWARDS: “I don’t think Brett Favre is going to put a chip on them because Brett Favre doesn’t work here. We can’t worry about Brett Favre. We’ve got Damon Huard and he’s fine. We’ve just got to score some points. We know that. Whether it’s Brett Favre, the Raiders or Denver, it doesn’t matter. We have enough weapons on offense but we’ve got to be more productive and we’ve done that in certain games. Certain games we have not. We have to be more consistent. As I’ve said before, our whole goal is simple: score 24 points. If we score 24 points or more we’ve got a great chance of winning. “You look back at our schedule right now and we score 24 points: wonder what our record would be?”
Posts: 26,630

10-31-2007, 06:10 PM	#2
Hammock Parties I'll be back. Join Date: Nov 2002 Casino cash: $4690478	Man, go watch the video. They left out a lot of stuff. Herm goes off on this tangent about how he picked off Joe Namath in his first pro game, and then when he got to be a veteran he picked off John Elway. __________________ Chiefs game films
Posts: 277,964

10-31-2007, 06:26 PM	#3
CoMoChief Mahomes Dynasty Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Parts Unknown Casino cash: $8052254	Kinda sounds like Herm doesn't want Priest around anymore than he has to. __________________
Posts: 39,156

10-31-2007, 06:27 PM	#4
Hammock Parties I'll be back. Join Date: Nov 2002 Casino cash: $4690478	Watch it...he just isn't going to pander to Priest's legend. He expects production. __________________ Chiefs game films
Posts: 277,964

10-31-2007, 07:16 PM	#5
Chiefs Pantalones GO CHIEFS!!!!!! Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $7898717	GC, what's this about Brett Favre's autograph? __________________ Don't be fooled by my username, I'm white.
Posts: 26,630

11-01-2007, 03:29 PM	#7
ISUJeff Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Minneapolis Casino cash: $9402634	Q: Can you talk about going back to River Falls for training camp for another year? EDWARDS: “I’ll put it this way: I was actually on the first trip to River Falls when they had fire engines and they had the parade for us. “I’ll enjoy driving up there again this year on that seven hour drive in my car. The good thing about it [HBO’s] Hard Knocks will not be a part of it and it will be OK. I can stop at a couple of places I’ve generally stopped at before that I couldn’t this year. “We’ll be fine. The guys are used to the venue and we’ll do whatever we can do to make it work. It’s worked for 18 years and it’ll work again.” Q: Where do you stop on that drive? EDWARDS: “You’ve got to stop in Iowa.” Q: In Ames? EDWARDS: “Yeah, they’ve got a great barbecue place right by the college. When I was scouting I always stopped there with [late player personnel director] Whitey Dovell. When I went with Whitey he showed me the spot. When I would drive that would be the first stop I would make. “You just kind of drive. I couldn’t go this year and I was heartbroken about it. We had to leave at night; it was a television deal. The next year I’m dialed in.” I hope Herm knows that Battle's has moved. Still near campus, but not the same spot. Also very impressed that he skips the overrated Hickory Park for the true BBQ place in Ames.
Posts: 189