Herm’s Weekly Speak: Vol. #2

From Arrowhead Stadium

Herm Edwards held his weekly press conference right on schedule Tuesday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium. The coach hustled to the conference after watching a couple of quarterbacks work out at the team’s facilities.

Here’s some commentary, analysis and translation of what the head coach had to say about several topics.

ON DAMON HUARD STARTING OVER TYLER THIGPEN THIS WEEK

“He’ll (Thigpen) get some opportunities. There’s no doubt. He’s going to play in some games. He’ll get his chances, there’s no doubt about that. But for this week’s game, I just think it’s not fair to him (Thigpen). He played some in the pre-season, he didn’t play last week. I just think Damon, he got us some momentum going and hopefully we can build on that. It’s just not fair to the kid, opening up at home; you know it’s not fair. He’s going to get his chances, though. Believe me. Trust me. He’ll get his chances like all the rest of these young guys.”

Translation: Huard may start against the Raiders, but Thigpen is going to play. Herm doesn’t blow smoke on playing time, at least not publicly. In that 30-seconds transcript, he left little doubt that Thigpen is going to get on the field. How the Chiefs pull this off should be interesting. Will Thigpen get every third series, or will he actually get a quarter to play? The starting job could have been Thigpen’s after the first pre-season game against Chicago. But in the four weeks after that, things didn’t go so well for him directing the offense. In the final three games he was a combined 17 for 38 with 169 yards passing and two INTs. He also became quick to pull the trigger on leaving the pocket and taking off on the run. The head coach left little doubt that Thigpen’s going to be on the field here in the next few weeks. I can’t wait to see how he and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey orchestra Thigpen’s appearances.

ON BUILDING AN OFFENSE AROUND A QB WHO KEEPS GETTING HURT

“When you build your offense, you’re building around that guy. You try to build a system that he can handle and the he can be successful in. So when they miss time, that’s bothersome … when he comes back, he’s got to stay healthy. That’s key for him and key for us. If he can stay healthy we feel like we can win with him and we can do some things in our offense to make it go.”

Analysis: Herm’s patience is wearing a bit with the health of his starting quarterback. There’s no greater supporter of Croyle at Arrowhead than the head coach. But as I’ve written many times, the greatest ability a player can have is availability. That’s especially true from your starting quarterback. This is the third time in the last seven games that an injury has sidelined Croyle. When Edwards says “when he comes back, he’s got to stay healthy” that sounds very much like a coach giving his player one more chance to stay off the injured list and on the field.

ON DWAYNE BOWE’S PERFORMANCE, WHICH THE COACH SAID WAS NOT UP TO EXPECTATIONS

“When you are young, you press, you don’t let it come to you. If you watch him play, and I’ve watched him a lot, he presses sometimes. He tries to make things happen without getting the first thing done. That’s catch the ball. That’s his anxiety of wanting to make a big play. Sometimes when you try to make a big play, you end up making a bad play. You just have to let the game come to you.”

Commentary: Tony Gonzalez had the same problem early in his career with dropped passes. His problem was he thought too much, over-analyzed everything. Bowe isn’t necessarily thinking too much; he’s just in a hurry to get to the end zone and sometimes he forgets that to get there he must have the ball in his hands. Now, he has to guard against trying to make big plays to make up for four bad drops against New England. If this gets in his psyche, he could have the wide receiver version of yips … that dreaded disease golfers get where they can’t make a five-foot putt. Bowe needs to drive a stake through this thing against the Raiders.

ON THE CHIEFS RUNNING GAME AGAINST NEW ENGLAND

“When you run it’s always ugly; it’s never pretty. Sometimes you are making two-yard runs and people say, why are you doing that? You’ve got to keep pounding it because eventually in the third and fourth quarter, that two-yard run becomes a 22-yard run like Larry (Johnson). You’ve got to just keep pounding it. You’ve got to keep your offensive line so they aren’t always in a pass set. When you are run blocking you get after the defense, rather than them coming at you (in the pass rush.) It’s like in boxing, you are belly punching them. You are trying to take some steam out of them so they just can’t come off and rush the passer. Sometimes when you run, they stop you for a one-yard gain. That happens. What I liked was we didn’t have any negative runs. Sometimes you only make a yard. You’ve got to show them you will run the ball because eventually that’s going to open up some passing lanes and eventually they are going to make an error, and we are going to hit it. It’s not going to be a one-yard run; it’s going to be a five-yard run.”

Analysis: Last week, the Chiefs had a fairly good balance in the first half, run to pass; they ran 14 times and threw 17 passes. They finished the game with 27 running plays and 35 passing plays. That’s not what Edwards wants to see. If the Chiefs are going to have 62 offensive snaps, he’s rather it would be the reverse of that, 35 runs, 27 passes, or more like 40 runs and 22 passes. They must be more successful than the 3.8 yards per carry they got against New England when it comes to running the football. Last year, the Chiefs hit the Raiders for 100-yard rushing performances in both games: Larry Johnson had 112 yards in Oakland while Kolby Smith ran for 150 yards in Arrowhead. The Chiefs must find that type of success again running the ball. In the team’s last 10 games, Smith’s performance against the Raiders is the only time they’ve had a runner go over 100 yards.