Here are a few snippets from Peter King‘s MMQB that I thought might be of interest to Chiefs fans:
On Herm Edwards‘ decision:
I think it would seem to be easy to rip Kansas City coach Herman Edwards and label him my Semi-Goat of the Week. But I eschewed the goat thing, because I understand why Edwards did what he did, though I do not agree with it. On fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter at Arrowhead, with the Chiefs trailing the Raiders 20-17, Edwards passed on a 41-yard field-goal attempt by kicker Dave Rayner (15-of-22 at this point, 5-of-9 from 40 and beyond) to go for the first down. Kolby Smith lost a yard, and the Raiders hung on to win. Edwards said he went with his gut, which is what a coach is paid to do. My feeling is Edwards had no faith in Rayner, plus he feared the foot of Sebastian Janikowski on the other side (Janikowski made a 54-yarder earlier). Edwards went for it. The loss could keep the Chiefs out of the postseason. Even though I would have kicked the field goal, I understand Edwards’ reasoning, though he purposely wasn’t specific after the game. That would have shown a lack of faith in his kicker, as well as a lack of faith in his defense’s ability to stop the Raiders from taking the ball downfield for the winning score in the final four minutes.
On Kolby Smith (his co-offensive player of the week):
Kansas City RB Kolby Smith. On the Chiefs’ second possession, Smith, making his first NFL start, ran the ball for 5, 3, 0, 19 (on a fourth-and-one with Herman Edwards getting gutsy and going for it), 16, 2 and 10 yards, the last one for a lunging touchdown. In one drive, we saw a better Kansas City running attack than we’d seen all season. By the half, he had 16 carries for 94 yards; for the day, he finished with 31 carries for 150 yards. A great debut — even if he didn’t get the one yard he needed in the fourth quarter to give the Chiefs a first down that could have won them a must-win game.








