[Topeka Capital-Journal] At the Chiefs coach’s weekly news conference Tuesday, the third-and-5 red zone call from Sunday’s 23-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals came up. As a refresher, the Chiefs had a third-and-5 from the Cincinnati 11 and ran Larry Johnson up the middle for no gain. They kicked a field goal for a 3-0 lead.
Edwards said Sunday the play call was the result of “miscommunication.” Tuesday it was suggested the Chiefs ran in that situation because Edwards is a conservative coach.
“Conservative!” he said. “I was conservative in this game? When people came to see the Kansas City Chiefs play (vs. Cincinnati) they saw the same offense they’ve watched for the last five years. Shifts, motions, we threw the ball more than we ran, which I hate. Generally when you do that you’re going to lose the game.”
Edwards went on to disprove his conservative reputation.
“We ran a fake punt. That’s conservative?” he said. “That’s perception, not reality. Go watch the game. People watch the game and the first play of the game was a reverse. That’s conservative? I didn’t give the ball to Larry Johnson on the first play. We ran a reverse on the first play. Are you kidding me?”
Edwards said again Tuesday he had virtually no effect on the offense.
“I didn’t call one play, not one play,” he said. “We scored 10 points. I’m going to say it again: We scored 10 points. I didn’t change this offense. But I might change this offense because if we’re going to score 10 points and going to run out of quarterbacks by the end of the year, I might have to change the offense.”
