QB Damon Huard

Chiefs-Chargers Postgame Quotes - Players

Video Herm Edwards Postgame Comments - Real | Windows | Audio

Chiefs Head Coach Herm Edwards
On the game: “It was a game of field position and turning the ball over. At times we made some errors on defense and didn’t cover some guys and blew some coverages. But our offense kept coming and I had told our offense this week ‘You need to score 30 points’ and they did. When you think about that, it’s against a good defense. We got on a bit of a roll at the end and football is about will when you play games like this. I thought we grew together as a team. There was a lot of adversity today at times. It didn’t look good; it didn’t look pretty. It doesn’t matter. It was kind of ironic. Our kicker was struggling early but I didn’t say anything to him. I leave those kickers alone, but I trusted at the end he was going to make it and he not only made one, he made two [one was cancelled by a penalty]. That’s a credit to his mental strength.

“This game was similar to the Denver game, for me. We were tied up, had a chance to win and against Denver we didn’t. This time we did. That’s something we can grow on.”

On your advice to Tony Gonzalez who’s been waiting for a day like this: “I told he and Larry that we were going to get them the ball this week. Now, you can say that as a head coach, but the only way I can get both of those guys the ball is we have to make first downs. We can’t go three-and-out because it’s hard for a coordinator to call a game when it’s three-and-out. He made some big time catches but what he did also was make some big-time runs after the catch – he and Larry both. We talked about that last night. I thought the offensive line did a pretty good job against a very stout defense that could rush the passer and I thought Damon [Huard] made some throws. We got after them early on defense and got some turnovers which we needed. We got a short field early. It was a matter of getting Larry the ball, too. We really concentrated on some runs and believe it or not, we played a 3-4 defense last week and this week we had another 3-4 we were playing. I think two weeks in a row, playing against that same front, you’ve got a pretty good idea of how to block.”

On getting 30 points against this Chargers defense: “You can kind of see it. The offense needed a breakout day and I just felt that for some reason. This is one of those teams that you know you have to play at a high level and they’re going to score some points. So, we needed to score. We left some on the board. But for the most part it was a complete game.”

On the confidence in his offensive line: “We’ve had some inconsistency and that’s what has hurt us the most and we haven’t done Jordan [Black] justice moving him around at guard and tackle. Now, we’ve got him at tackle.”

On putting pressure on Chargers QB Philip Rivers: “Yeah [we put on some pressure], but we let some third downs get away from us – some third-and-longs. It kept them on the field. He’s a good quarterback and he’s very accurate. What they do on third-and-long is they protect with seven and only send three guys out. Those guys will chip and release late, so they will get protection at times.”

On the difference between last week’s performance and this week’s performance: “You don’t [really see the difference]. You never see it coming. There’s confidence and momentum and we didn’t have any momentum last week. Hopefully, this will build our confidence back up.”

On moving the ball down the middle of the field, late: “The critical thing for us was we saved our timeouts. We had two left and we were able to throw the ball anywhere. Defensively, you have to play a little bit different. There were 33 seconds and that’s a lot of time with timeouts. You know the mark [for kicking] is about the 30 [yard line]. Between the 30-35 you feel like Lawrence [Tynes] can make those kicks. We were in a funny position because I knew Marty was going to call a timeout. Most people thought we should have gone back and tried to get another play. You can say all that but generally that doesn’t work real good. We had no more timeouts left and they were going to defend the sideline. You have no option ‘cause they’re defending the sideline and the endzone.”

Chargers Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer
On the game: “We are disappointed, as you well would imagine, at the outcome of our football game today. We had too many errors: too many errors on defense, too many errors on offense. Turnovers certainly hurt us, but we didn’t get the job done in any phase and that includes coaching. It’s disappointing, but it is what it is. We have some work to do, we’ve talked about that; everybody is aware of it and we are going to keep working to get better. I was proud as hell of the way they fought back to get into the thing and get it to tie. But when you come out of the box 14-0 and you’re down, it’s a long hill to climb and we just didn’t get far enough up the mountain.”

On San Diego’s breakdowns: “You have to look at the whole thing because it’s all a part of the outcome and we didn’t really play the type of run defense today that we feel we are capable of playing. TE Tony Gonzalez got wide open on us a couple of times and that’s a problem. We turned the ball over. The one area that was pretty good was the kicking game.”

On RB Larry Johnson’s success against San Diego: “He’s had quite a bit of success. Like I said earlier this week, don’t for one minute think that because he’s struggled for a couple of weeks that he isn’t capable. They committed themselves to do it and as I said at the time, our hope is that he doesn’t all of a sudden have a break-out game against us and that’s exactly what happened. He did have a break-out game against us. ”

On the Chargers offensive line play: “They had a couple of situations where they brought a bunch of people, more than we’ve got. Our deal is to throw the ball quickly and a couple of those balls went awry, got batted up into the air, were throws that were the direct result of the pressure, but when you look at it in its entirety we need to play better.”

On not being able to get off the field defensively: “I’ve got to look at the tape, you know. It appeared to me that they had a good play, but it wasn’t things that we weren’t aware of. We got behind the eight-ball early and spotted them 14 points. That’s a recipe for losing in this business if there ever has been one.”