Chiefs-Raiders Postgame Quotes - Edwards

Sep 14, 2008, 5:02:32 PM

On the game: “Damon Huard had a little dizziness when he got hit, so we took him out. He really couldn’t go back in the game and he was in a position where he didn’t feel real good going back in the game.

“We knew exactly what these guys were going to do. They came off an embarrassing loss. We knew they were going to come in and try to run the ball on us. That was their mindset. We had to stop the run and we had to try to run the ball and try and protect our quarterback. We didn’t get any of those things accomplished. They came out and knocked us off the ball and ran the ball down our throat. We got embarrassed at home in our home opener. We’re a much better team than that. We didn’t do it today. I don’t know why but we’d better get it fixed in a hurry. We’ve got to go to Atlanta and Atlanta can run the football also.

“If you can’t run the ball or stop the run you know it’s going to be a long day for you and that’s what it was. It was a one score game at half and you still feel you have a chance and then we get it within eight points and couldn’t get off the field defensively. Offensively we didn’t do anything the first half at all – a lot of three-and-outs, unable to move the ball.

“You’ve got to give the Raiders credit. They came in here and did exactly what they needed to do: run the football and stop the run.”

On what happened defending the run: “It looked like at times there were gaps and we didn’t fill them. They’re a downhill running team and they cut us at times. They cut the backside off at times and we couldn’t get over the top. We didn’t do a good enough job, period. We knew what they were going to do. They ran it and kept the ball away from us. We couldn’t move the ball offensively early in the game - too many three-and-outs. The defense stayed on the field and they wore us down some.

“But we had some opportunities after halftime when you look at the score. It’s 6-0, a one-score game. So as bad as it was we still had an opportunity and couldn’t do it. They ran the ball – especially the second half. They hit some big runs and that’s what they do if you’re not filling the gaps.”

On how much you wanted to use Tyler Thigpen in the game, initially: “We wanted to use him in some series but not the whole game. That wasn’t our plan at all but we couldn’t put Damon back in.”

On Thigpen’s performance: “A young quarterback – green. You know that. He’s got a pretty good arm. He was put in a tough spot. I thought he did a good job in the two-minute at the end where he took the team down and made some throws. But it’s a work in progress and it puts a burden on him when you can’t run the ball. That’s too difficult for anybody. But he did some good things and made some throws.”

Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin
On the game: “You win by doing three things, in my opinion. You win with playing great defense. I thought our defense played physical all day. We kept (Chiefs RB) Larry (Johnson) in check and made him run sideline-to-sideline. I thought we had a good day against their receivers as well. I’m really proud of the way our coaches game planned for this game.”

“The second way you win is to play great special teams. Special teams are so valuable on the road. A perfect example of this is, they go down and score and get the two-point conversion. (KR) Johnnie (Lee Higgins) and the kick return bring it back to midfield and then we fumble. That brings it back to the 20 if we don’t have the return we had.”

“The third way you win is you run the ball. For our guys to come in here today and run the ball for 300 yards with (T) Mario (Henderson) the first time ever playing in the NFL, I’m very, very proud of that.”

On pulling RB Darren McFadden and running RB Michael Bush in the closing series: “Darren had turf toe during the game. At halftime I told the team ‘I think Michael Bush can win this game.’ I said the only way we’re going to lose this game, with the way their quarterbacks are playing, is if we turn the ball over. I don’t think you saw how fast Darren can be on that big run he had, but he made up for it on the touchdown.”

Were you waiting to spring McFadden to the corner? “They started playing a little different defense than what they had. The come in here as a big time cover 2 zone team and they played a bunch of man-to-man today. That kind of shows a lack of respect for our passing game and they had eight guys in the box all the time.”

On the difference between this week and last week’s loss vs. Denver: “Well, It’s like I said, one game doesn’t define you as a team. I mean we’re not going to the Super Bowl, so we have to take it one game at a time. We’re going to go prepare for a real good team next week [at Buffalo]. One game doesn’t define you as a player.”

How surprised were you with the effectiveness of the running game? “I’m not surprised at all. We have a really good running attack. We need to get long series’ for the most part.”

On his concern, or lack of, about his job status: “That’s not my decision. I’m going to prepare my staff for the game next week.”

On K Sebastian Janikowski’s approach here. He seems to kick really well here: “Well they play soccer here. See the lines? They just played last night. He must feel a little more comfortable with the lines. For the really long ones he’s in the circle at midfield, I don’t know what they call it. He can really kick it, especially in that direction. If we were going the other direction, we may not have kicked it. He was warming up that way and I guess he just really felt comfortable.”