And Keep My Tab Open

Well we do have more young players than anyone I think, you dont hear the rebuilding talk about the Rams just how much they suck. The young players are going to give uneven performances.

If one more person says that pile of crap that Herm Edwards had for a game plan was "good" or "perfect" for the New England game I am going to throw up. What is the matter with you people? Just because Herm says it does not make it so. We lost the game. Jeez, we are eleven games into the LONGEST LOSING STREAK IN CHIEFS HISTORY!!!!! Every one of those game plans was a pile of crap. Get over your infatuation with MR. Sweater Vest. The guy can't coach, he can't game plan, he can't call the plays and he is currently presiding over the worst disaster in the history of the franchise.

Nice posts from DD and Butter. I agree that the game plan might have been a very good one, but some of the play calling was not so great. Good point about the screens xxxlp, but I'm not sure that Thiggy can stand in there and deliver when the linemen are bearing down on him because he is so short. Hopefully when Brodie comes back our play calling will improve and we can start winning a few.

I remember watching that game randy5k. Leaf came into town like a conquering hero and left a big fat zero. He was never the same again. The chiefs showed the rest of the league how to defeat him and they went out and did it. Hope springs eternal and maybe , just maybe, we can do the same for Ryan.

Go Chiefs

You know Im not sure but it seems like Ryan Leaf started with a couple of good games before he met the CHIEFS!! Is that in store for Matt Ryan?

Butter.. when your line is getting beat, a screen can often become a huge play. A shovel pass also would be handy, as they're rushing for the QB, pass up the already free back, and voila. Another play that COULD theoretically be used when your line is getting beat is a flea-flicker, if executed fast enough. A bubble screen, WR hitch. Hell, a reverse worked for Baltimore versus the Bengals and they had 38 guys in the backfield. There are alot of plays you can try when you're still getting dominated, and you'll have arguably more success than we had just pounding the ball up the gut.

DD, yes, quick outs and slants and whatnot wear down and tire opposing defenses, especially if they're aging, but so do tosses, sweeps, quick pitches, etc etc. Did we execute those? No. Run LJ up the gut. Run LJ up the gut. Quick pass for 4-5 yards, when we have 3rd and 8-10. Punt. That has been our offense so far, for the most part. No playaction, no creative plays.. If this were the child of our 2003 league-leading offense, I'd have to say that our cheating wife did something with the mail-man. Or Herm.

The good thing here is we are going to get better, we can't get any worse than eleven in a row. Wait, I shouldn't have said that should I?

Lots of 0 and 2 teams out there guys

I've read this blog for awhile and have just now signed up to be able to post. Regardless of how I feel about Carlo and Hermy , part of the fun for me in being a fan is in second guessing and disagreeing with the stuff that the front office and management set about doing. There is a saying that I've heard before, "Don't quit before the miracle happens". I see this team as what it is, a definitive work in progress. I know that the funk can't last forever. Those youngsters on that field are going to be around quite a bit longer than C&H. I , as a Kansas City Chiefs fan, am willing to watch them come into their own and gel. Even if I have to buy stock in Pepto Bismol.

WHAT THE F*CK IS THIS IS HEAR ABOUT HERM DECIDING THAT HE'S NOT GONNA PUT LJ IN GOALINE SITUATIONS!!?? THIS IS BULL-SHIT!

Butter,

Great comments. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Running plays and quick outs are exactly how you try to wear down an aging LB corps such as the Pats have. That indeed represents part of a sound game plan. Yes, I too would have loved to seen a deep pass or two downfield but I didn't see anybody getting separation and frankly I don't think Huard even has the arm for it even if they did.

It was Charles, not LJ, who missed the block on Adalius Thomas btw.

The pass to Devard Darling does not constitute testing the secondary down field. That was once, and guess what, it went for a big gain. Too often, the Chiefs were throwing quick outs which were almost laterals. As far as conservative play calling being the only way to beat the Patriots, that is a heaping helping of Oscar Meyer. We don't know who was or wasn't covered downfield, because the Chiefs simply never sent the ball that way. You can try to spin it any way you want, but it is still a loss for Herm and another spectacular failure on his part. The play in which Brodie Croyle went down was a designed screen (Herm's own words) which was supposed to go to LJ. LJ tried to block the uncovered man, and missed it. That's where that's at! (to borrow a goofball phrase)

Regarding the Pats game....I couldn't agree more that the playcalling and game plan were good, if not perfect. The fact of the matter is the Pats offense is high powered, Tom Brady or not. You honestly thing airing it out with OUR offense, the same offense that didn't score on and getting into a shootout with the Pats, quite possibly the most prolific offense in the history of the NFL, an offense that won every single regular season game just a single year ago, many of which by simply outgunning the opposing team with offensive firepower, trading shots with the 2008 Chiefs offense? Thats laughable! If someone has bigger and more guns than you you don't line up and try to beat them at your own game. The fact is, running the ball, even mostly ineffectively, took time off the clock, took the posession count down, gave our defense a better shot at containing the pats, and our team a batter shot at winning the game. It was a good gameplan, and it had us in the game at the end, a feat that I personally did not think we had a chance at.

Regarding the Raiders game....our lines got beat. Plain and simple, neither one did their job. If your line is routinely getting beat up, tell me 1 single play that is going to work? I am not saying the playcalling or the coaching has been perfect, because it hasn't, but if players are just plain getting beat, there isn't a whole lot you can do. Run to the left, run to the right....how can you even tell where the runs were meant to go at all when lj gets hit behind the line of scrimmage or right at it.

I do not agree with everything Herm does, trust me, and he needs to shake up the O-Line Continuity be damned if you ask me. McSack needs replaced, its hard to evaluate Jones next to him because he is so horrible if you ask me. I think our young d line will learn alot from the raiders game, they showed their youth over and over that game.

Games like this are going to happen, it sucked, I spent good money going to that game and it was hard to watch. But at the end of the day, I still love my chiefs, and am going to support them this year. Games like this are going to happen, its what I signed up for when I said I wanted them to tear up the roster and go young. Now come on chiefs, show us SOMETHING, some glimmer of hope, at this point, the fans are suffering, we need a win!

In my book, Herm and Chan have this season. The SEASON to show us they can mold and teach these kids to get better and win games.

Adam,

If Herm Edwards ends up leaving, then be prepared to commit to another 3 or 4 years of rebuilding under a new regime. After seeing the attendance last Sunday, I honestly have my doubts about whether the greater fanbase is up for that.

Suspect secondary or not, you simply can't throw it deep if your receivers are covered. That's called wasting a down and wasting any down against a team like New England is called making a huge mistake. But just for the record, Huard did manage to throw a downfield strike to DVD. It's not Herm Edwards fault when his halfback misses a key block that results in losing your starting QB.

The reality is that because the Pats have a very tough and talented defense, the only way to play them is conservative.

Bottom line, it's not Herm's fault when D Bowe drops a pretty basic but nevertheless game-changing pass in the end zone. That, along with a 2 point conversion would have been all that was needed to claim a big fat "W" in the won/lost column. Damn near happened too.

Double D,

Love the post and agreed with much of it, but...Herm Edwards has to go. Last Sunday's gameplan was one of the worst I have ever seen at any level. I think Herm would be better off as a defensive coordinator. But we all know where I stand on Herm.

I was also more than a little disappointed in our fans. The Chiefs have two seasons--one for the team and one for the fans. Every year we need to prove that we are the best fans regardless of what our team does. Take some ownership in the 'Head, even if our boys can't manage to. That crowd was pathetic.

Dub,

I said on various posts before the New England game that I thought we had a definite shot at winning the game if the play calling did not degenerate into ultra conservative plodding nothingness, which it did. We had everything to win and nothing to lose in that game. The players on the field played well enough to possibly win the game. The VERY suspect Patriots secondary was never tested. No offense was generated, not enough points were scored, and it basically sucked. Herm Edwards was the head suckee, because he couldn't find a way to win a game which was basically ripe for the picking. How you could call that mess a success of any sort is beyond me. We lost, man. Thats a big fat "L" in the won/lost column.

I guess I should correct myself to avoid further confusion. Earlier (post #7) I used the term "playcalling" when what I technically meant was "game planning." Hope that makes sense.

Not saying I 100% agree with all of the play calling. I consider game planning and play calling to be separate things. I thought the game plan against New England was about as close to being perfect as you can get.

When it comes to actual plays, as a coach, what gets called is the result of things you see that cause you to believe it will work. I won't pretend to be a mind reader in that department. All I see are the results and maybe why the play didn't work after the fact. Usually it has less to do with the play that gets called than it does with how well the play gets executed*.

*See offensive line.

From that perspective, I tend to agree that running left might have yielded better results.

formerly,

Regarding the New England game, are you honestly trying to claim that the Chiefs had a good (any?) chance of beating the Pats going in? I don't think many people expected the Chiefs to even beat the spread. The fact that they came damn close to pulling off an upset against an incredibly talented team to me says a lot about how effective the game plan was.

Regarding the 300 yd meltdown, I suggest you go read what Tank Tyler had to say about it in this morning's Star. Long story short, the DL failed to do what they had been coached to do. Sorry, I have to think Herm and Gunther are just a little too old to go out on the field do the job themselves. Same goes for the OL; Chan Gailey cannot sub for D-Mac.

Double D-
The playcalling in NE was not nearly as bad as last week, that is true, but did you forget how many times they asked LJ to tun the ball into the wall that happened to be right up the middle? Time and time again for no gain? You would think if you try something 5 or 6 times for the exact same results you might want to try something different if it wasnt working.

Something else I don't get, our best side of the line is the left side, I honestly can't say I remember them trying more than a couple plays that direction, whats up with that?

And 1 more thing. Everyone involved with our offense, from the QBs, to the RBs, to Chan, and Herm, need to watch some tape of Aaron Rodgers doing some PLAY ACTION PASSES!

Our team has forgotten what those are while Green Bay with their young QB has already mastered it and is using it to their advantage.
It's not brain surgery, just do some PA!!

Double D,

Without doubt both Herm AND Gun deserve a big kick in the seat of the pants for the 300+ yard rushing against the Chiefs. Herm brought the Cover 2 to Kansas City, he is supposed to be this defensive minded guy, and it is his job to implement it and make it work. Gun is on the spot in this, too. It is the second week of the season following four pre-season games and the players don't know which gap to fill? That is on the coaches, not the players. If you have a player who can't figure things out, you either work with him until he can or jerk his rear end out and put someone in who will! In case you didn't notice, we lost the New England game. So I would say yes, the play calling and offense were basically inadequate if not downright terrible. We have good young talented athletes on this team. It is the coaches job to train them, educate them, and inspire them to win. If you can't score any points, I'm sorry, but you can't win! It is very much on both Herm and Gun for the last eleven straight losses in a row. Sooner or later, they have to take responsibility for the longest losing streak in K.C. history. Period, end of story.

If I can cut and paste "I do think you have to expect an ugly game every now and then when you’re rebuilding with young players" thats right on!!! I made some big mistakes when I started my first job out of college.

Double that is a very good point and a welcome attitude makes me feel much better!

randy5k - I don't think we should expect to lose every game but I do think you have to expect an ugly game every now and then when you're rebuilding with young players.

I believe going in that the consensus opinion was that the Chiefs would win no more than 4 or 5 games. Pretending to be outraged after an 0-2 start seems a little disingenuous to me.

Ditch Herm? Really? I thought the playcalling against New England was damn near perfect, especially when one considers that our starting QB was knocked out of the game.

Against Oakland, we ended up having to play our 3rd string QB while both the defensive and offensive lines were getting owned. And even then, we were still in the game well into the 4th quarter. You think Herm is the one we should blame when we give up 300 yards on the ground? Think about it.

Not sure why we have to lose every damn game while we rebuild.

Come on guys the stadium was half FULL

I wouldn't mind seeing Herm being a part of our organization, Defensive Backs coach/draft evaluator, perhaps? Talent scout? Certainly.. Secretary? Sure. Just as long as it's not head coach. Hell, Marty may have played ultra-conservatively, but he didn't play STUPIDLY, and that's how Herm is telling our guys to play.

Why is this the third straight year we're 0-2?

Whir I 100% agree with you..I just don't believe Herm Edwards is the answer...And this is not just based on our last game..Herm (of course he would never admit this) loves to play games close..I honestly don't get his love obsession with time of possession..Does this guy sit at office jerkin off to charts of time possession? The point is to score and he clearly disses the vermeil offense as a "arean league offense" when we were atleast kicking ass back then and winning games at home..Back then we had something called home field advantage..

Herm is a good talent evaluator and speaker but I honestly don't think he is much of a coach..Even if we get to the playoffs, we know the play calling will be incredibly conservative and predictable just like in INDY...I'd be very happy to see Herm be out of the job at the end of year..I'm sure he will end up somewhere else but I don't mind..He's the type of coach that deserves to coach somewhere, but I don't want him anywhere near my team anymore

It's not the Chiefs players I'm concerned about. It's the coaching ... It's easier to give the players all season long to improve, because they will. But the coaches, stuck in their old ways and patterns, will not progress. Herman Edwards will always try to keep the game close, and win or lose in the last minutes of the game, if we're even lucky enough to be close enough. I'm sorry, but I'm at an all time low of frustration with the kind of playcalling I'm seeing on the field, and it's generally not any of the players' fault.