Crennel’s Magic Moment

No, my title isn’t in reference to the Chiefs’ amazing upset win over the Packers. That was definitely magical, but the moment I’m referring to happened before the game even started.

"I told them we’re making a change at quarterback, that we’re changing the quarterback and that Tyler [Palko] would not be the starter this week. [Kyle] Orton or [Ricky] Stanzi will be the starter. Which one? I’m not exactly sure yet because Orton has a finger that he has got to work through, and we’ll have to see during the week how his finger is and how he comes along and if he can handle it with that finger. Stanzi is a rookie and if Orton is able to go and can do it, then Orton is going to be the quarterback. If Orton cannot do it, then Stanzi will be the quarterback, and I told the team that today"

That quote reached into my soul and called to me. (Cue a whispery female ghost voice. Something like the Lady Galadriel, if she were dead.)

“Follow this man, Big Matt…..he was asked a question, and he answered it……he didn’t lie…..”

Seriously, can we all take a look at how easy that was? Get asked a question, answer it. Fuc*%n’ crazy, right? It’s like he’s not interested in deceiving us. What gives?

Crennel went on to voluntarily offer that he made the decision before consulting Scott Pioli. He said that without being asked. This was a really unexpected breath of fresh air. Like somebody finally cracked a window in the dank, putrid basement the Chiefs have been keeping us in for the past five years.

And what did this heinous leak in the Arrowhead secrecy structure cost the team? Nothing. The players know the score, the fans know the score, and ill feelings in the media instantly dissipate. This is what I’ve been begging for ever since The Patriot Way was installed.

The Chiefs got a big win yesterday. Huge. I’d love to see us win out. The positive vibes that would create around Crennel would be well worth the drop in draft position. But even if we lose the last two, I’ll probably still be behind Crennel as next year’s head coach based on that one answer alone and what it tells me about him.

Get the obvious stuff right, and explain your reasoning. Do those two things, and you’ll find an enthusiastic supporter in Big Matt.

more after le jump:

But that’s just the tip of it.  We’ve all been assuming Haley’s policy of coach-speak, vagaries and occasional outright lies was part of the Pioli mandate.  If Crennel deviates from that course, does that mean we were wrong?  Could Haley have been the one behind the non-answers all along?

I doubt that very much, but it is now at least worth considering.  Another possibility is Pioli is finally wising up to the reality his tactics are creating.  Maybe he told Crennel to open up a bit.  Thus, he can pin the horrendous handling of the press (along with everything else*) on Haley as the door hits him on the ass.  I think this scenario is at least as likely as Haley having been responsible all along.  Interested to hear the Addict take on this one.

*Anyone else catch Pioli claiming Haley had a lot of input on personnel decisions?  Nice try, Scott, but everyone knows you’re totally obsessed with control.  That’s actually the only thing you’ve really proven.  To act like the coach you just fired had a hand in your personnel struggles as well was weak. Almost as weak as Clark Hunt’s exact repeat of his memorized presser lines in his letter to season ticket holders.  Hunt and Pioli: Bold. Charismatic. Genuine. Likable. THE TOTAL PACKAGE. 

So now these players who were “playing their hearts out” for Haley, and still getting blown out, are good enough to beat the best team in the league.  Hmm.

Check out this quote from Le’Ron McClain:

“Everything was different,” McClain said of the past week. “More meeting time. More football time. Learning your opponent better, understanding your opponent. I know I watched more film this week than I watched all year. Everything was different, man. Good different.”

Yikes.  I don’t know who looks worse right now, Haley or Matt Cassel.  Luckily, that isn’t our problem anymore.

Call it a knee-jerk, but I want Crennel to be our head coach next year.  I feel like this is a man I can get behind.  Look at how he handled a question on Friday about Bill Muir moving back upstairs:

"Bill is basically going to call the game and he has better vision when he is upstairs. He can see more things. What I’ve found is when you are on the sideline you get a pulse of the team. You can find out how they are feeling and how they are reacting because you can look into a guy’s eye and tell a little bit about him. But from the ability to view the game, it’s a limited view that you have of the field and what’s happening so Bill wants a better view so he’s going to go upstairs and call the game from upstairs, Jim [Zorn] will be talking to Bill and directly to the quarterback and so that’s the communication that we’ll have. And Bill and I, we talked about whether or not to keep him downstairs or put him upstairs and we decided that going upstairs would be probably the best thing.”"

That’s a mixture of honesty and logic that, frankly, makes me giddy.  Tells you what he’s doing, tells you why.  Am I the only one that thinks that’s really awesome?  I mean sure, there are some things you want to play close to the vest.  But Haley, Pioli and the rest of this organization had been treating every little thing that way, and it had reached a ridiculous and counter-productive level.  If Crennel can stop that insanity, he’ll become a personal hero of mine.

One final thought: it has always made much more sense to me to attribute DJ’s improvement to Crennel than Haley.  I don’t know why nobody ever did that, Crennel being the guy who actually knows defense and coached Johnson during his breakout season.  Now that Haley is gone, I’m guessing the “he motivated DJ and Bowe!” talk will stop, and we can move on to more reasonable assessments.

The good news just keeps on comin’.