Kansas City Chiefs - Herm Edwards Press Conference

Herm Edwards Press Conference - 11/20

Nov 20, 2007, 3:48:38 PM

HERM EDWARDS: “The Raiders strength is in their defense. They make it very difficult to score a lot of points on them, play very tight man-to-man coverage. Pretty good front and their linebackers are their strength. They’re very, very fast. They can make a lot of plays on defense.

“Offensively, they’re running the ball fairly well for about 128 yards a game. Last time we played them it went down to the wire and the last time we played them here it went down to the wire. So, we anticipate the same type of football game.

Q: Any update on Larry Johnson’s injury? Has he been reevaluated?

EDWARDS: “Same thing. He’s getting rehab, is going to be out this week. Feeling a little better.”

Q: Did he see somebody yesterday and what were the results of that?

EDWARDS: “Same and they said keep doing what you’re doing.”

Q: What has been found?

EDWARDS: “That he’s rehabbing it.”

Q: No breaks?

CARL PETERSON: “We said from the onset that we’re not going to get into any medical terms.”

Q: All right. How’s Will Svitek?

EDWARDS: “Will Svitek is out and he’s getting better.”

Q: What’s his injury?

EDWARDS: “Sore foot.”

Q: Is that what Larry’s injury is?

EDWARDS: “Sore foot. We’ve already explained it. It’s his foot. It’s what it has been all along.”

Q: Why is the play-calling so conservative?

EDWARDS: “You try to play to the strength of your football team and there are certain things we feel we can do and the players can do well and that’s what we try to do when we orchestrate a game plan.

“People think it’s conservative probably because they think I’m a conservative game coach. But you try to play to the strengths of your players and there are certain things you can do and there are certain things you don’t want to try to do because you don’t want to put people in harm’s way.

“People have to realize one thing right now: our strength is in our defense. It’s not in our offense right now. We’re losing sight of that. We keep wanting to dwell on the past but we’re not in the past. We’re in the present and the present says the way we have to play is defensively to give our offense a short field. We can take some chances but we can’t take a lot of chances doing some things that we are incapable of doing right now. So, that’s how we’re playing.

“That’s not going to change over the next six weeks with Brodie Croyle playing quarterback. We want Brodie Croyle to be successful. I thought he had a successful outing against Indianapolis in a very tough situation for any quarterback to go into, especially a young quarterback who’s never started.

“We can’t lose sight of that and I think we are. We want to dwell on what this team was three or four years ago. It’s not the same offense. Sorry. That’s gone, long gone and it isn’t going to come back in six weeks with Brodie Croyle playing quarterback. We’re limited in some things that we can do right now, so be it. We’re going to have to do things we feel we can do well. That’s the story.”

Q: Are your offensive players frustrated with this because I got a sense of that after the [Indianapolis] game?

EDWARDS: “They’re frustrated and so am I. That’s good because they care. But I always found out this about players: they play the positions, they’re not really orchestrating the game plan. They don’t look at the whole game and how it’s being played out. They look at their position and go, ‘I wish we could have done this or that.’

“Well, that’s easy for them to say. But then when you look at the film they might look at it a little bit different. They don’t look at it through a coach’s eyes. They look at it through their position, like ‘They should have tried this; they should have tried that.’

“It’s like anything else. It’s like when you play cards. You’re dealt a hand and we’ve got a hand we’ve been dealt right now and we’re playing it the best way we can to win games. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to win a football game and how do you do that? Well, you orchestrate some things during the course of the week and as the game is playing out things change, but for us to think that we are the Kansas City Chiefs of 2002 and 2003, we’re not offensively. This team’s strength right now is on defense and we can’t lose sight of that.”

Q: Do you not have the personnel right now to do what you want to do on offense?

EDWARDS: “We’re struggling; we’re struggling in a lot of ways. All you have to do is look at our offensive stats and I won’t go over them. Just look at the offensive statistics in football and see where we’re at. I think some people think just because we have Brodie Croyle in there we’re going to change dramatically. We’re not.

“We’re not going to change dramatically with Brodie Croyle in there. We’re going to change a little bit, do some things he can do well, but we’re a long ways away from being a top offense at this point. I know that. That’s a fact.

“We’ll do some things a little bit different with Brodie in there. Our goal is always to score touchdowns and we’ll try to do that but we’re not going to just go out there and try to throw passes and entertain people to see how Brodie can run around and not get sacked and throw the ball up for grabs. We’re trying to win. There’s a plan you have every week to try and win.”

Q: You’ve got the 31st ranked rushing team against the 31st ranked rushing defense, so what’s the game plan this week?

EDWARDS: “Obviously we’re going to try and run the ball. But we’re not running the ball very well either when you look at our running. We’re 30th if you look at our rushing in the league.

“People have watched us play10 games. Why do you think it’s going to change all of a sudden? It’s not going to change a whole lot. We have to play a certain way right now…to win games. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Q: You’ve said it’s the same offense, but have you come to this conclusion that it will take a while to do that or is this what you are now, or did you think that this offense was what you thought it would be this year?

EDWARDS: “No, I thought it was going to be a lot better than it is. It hasn’t come to fruition. Maybe they’ll continue to get better. It needs to. But right now you watched us play for 10 games. You know, I don’t know what’s so alarming. We act like we’re not watching what we’re watching. We just changed quarterbacks. Our job is to get this quarterback through the next six games where he can be successful in winning games.

“That’s the key. It’s about the quarterback. How can we make this guy successful? I’m not going to put him out there and get him beat up and destroy his confidence. It does no good for this organization and no good for that quarterback. I’ve seen a lot of quarterbacks put in positions where you know they can’t be successful and now you’ve got a disaster on your hands. We’re not going to do that to this kid; we’re not going to do that to this football team. We’re trying to win and there is a way you win games. We’ve got to win a certain way right now and that’s just the cards you were dealt.”

Q: How do you feel Jeff Webb did on kickoff returns?

EDWARDS: “He did OK. We got one out to the 32 [yard line] finally and we got a cheer from everybody on the sideline. But the problem was they only kicked it to the 10. He did a fairly good job and we’ll see where that’s at.”

Q: How about Eddie Kennison on punt returns?

EDWARDS: “He did OK. I mean, the one he fumbled didn’t cost us anything. The guy hadn’t been back there a whole lot and he did a fairly decent job. He was a little antcy, but we’ll see what we do there.”

Q: What was your snapshot of the quarterback’s play?

EDWARDS: “I thought he did a good job. I thought he made some plays in the pocket and when he had to move and when he was under duress. He made some throws. He handled some things when he saw eight guys in the box to make some yards. He did a good job for his first outing.

“This game for us was really no different than last year’s game at Denver with Damon Huard. We went into that game knowing that this was the first time Damon’s going to start in five years and we’re going into a hostile environment. You don’t want to all of a sudden do things where it’s going to be difficult.

“We did that with Brodie and at halftime it was 3-3 against the world champions. Neither team was functioning well on offense. They had three first downs the whole first half and we had five. That’s the way the game was being played. So you kept playing that way and I thought as the game got going I thought he had the one nice drive for a touchdown. Now we’ve got to grow on that.”

Q: OK, now you’ve got two home games and that’s got to be a little better and play in his favor?

EDWARDS: “It does in that we’re at home and it helps especially the defense when the crowd gets noisy. But here again there are some things we’re going to do with him that we didn’t do with Damon. But we’re not going to go crazy. We’re going to try and win. I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to throw 50 passes.”

Q: What’s happened to home field advantage here?

EDWARDS: “It’s not a home field advantage when you don’t win.”

Q: How do you recapture that?

EDWARDS: “Win, win a game. You’ve got to win.”

Q: You had trouble coming in here with the Jets.

EDWARDS: “Denver’s lost three at home, so I think that just because you come home you’re going to automatically win. It gives you a great opportunity if you get ahead and you play well. We’ve had two that got away from us that we had an opportunity to win. We get another chance to win another home game.”

Q: Has a sense of urgency crept over your team and the coaching staff as a result of losing three in a row, so you try and make the playoffs?

EDWARDS: “We’re just trying to win a game. Period. We need to win a football game. All the other stuff will take care of itself. Unless you start winning you’re not going to go anywhere anyway. It’s important to win this game. It’s a division game and a team we beat earlier in the road. They’ve lost a number of games in a row, so they’re going to try and win a game.

“It’s going to be a tough game. It’s going to go down to the wire like it did in Oakland. We anticipate we have to make the plays at the end of the game if we’re going to win the games in the [fourth] quarter that we haven’t done in the last three games.”

Q: Any thoughts about the condition of the AFC West?

EDWARDS: “It’s not what people anticipated. They probably figured Denver and San Diego would have at least maybe nine wins by now. They don’t. They have five. We have four and are still in it.

“But you’re only in it if you win. If you don’t win you’re really not in it. It looks good on paper, you know, we’re only one game out. But you’ve got to win.”

Q: It makes this game huge, really the next three games.

EDWARDS: “Forget three. It’s just one. Until you win one you can’t two. We have to find a way to win a football game.”

Q: How about your placekicker? Where does he stand right now?

EDWARDS: “He’s our kicker right now. He’s going to continue to kick and hopefully he can make some. If we have to get closer for him we’ll have to get closer to him.”

Q: Are you going to watch the college game this Saturday?

EDWARDS: “No, I’m going to get out of here. But I think it’s good for Kansas City. I know Lamar had wanted this for a long, long time. It’s good for college football. Good for the people from Kansas and Missouri that they get two teams that are playing fantastic. It’s going to be a great venue for a college event.”

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