Chief Thoughts: Lions, Todd Collins & “The Plan”

If this week’s column is not up to my normal subpar standards, don’t worry, I’ll fix it, I have a plan.

Chiefs 20, Lions 25

I’m a big believer in trends. In 1985, the Rams came to Arrowhead and won 16-0. That’s a pretty unusual score, 16 points…

EDWARDS: “Whoa, that’s a lot of points.”

….thanks Herm. Anyway, 16 points isn’t a common score, plus coupled with a shut-out, makes it pretty unique. In 1994, the Rams came to Arrowhead and won, you guessed it, 16-0.

Trends do happen, and we had another that should’ve happened, but the suckfest known as Hermball has shown the ability to squash everything in it’s path.

In 1987, Frank Ganz’s Chiefs lost nine in a row (3 strike games, 6 real games), and what stopped the losing? A trip to Detroit. Kansas City won 27-20 and ended up finishing the year on a positive note.

The Detroit Lions and the Denver Broncos are at the bottom of the league in points allowed. Denver has given up 31, 34, 37, 38, 41 and 44 points, while Detroit has given up 31, 34, 37, 42, 51 and 56 points. These are two bad defenses. How has the Herm Edwards offensive juggernaut done against these two Washington Generals impressionists? 11, 7, and 20 points are all they could muster. In three games combined, the Chiefs could not score the average against them.

Has Herm let anyone know when he is going to start implementing his “plan to fix it”?

Looks like the Detroit coach is trying to out-Herm Herm, by punting on 4th and inches on the KC 45 yard line. Detroit is 6-8, they’ve lost six in a row, and they are playing a team that has lost seven in a row, what do you have to lose by going for it on 4th and inches? By no means do I want Detroit to win, but as a football fan, it bothers me to see teams playing not to lose, hence my frustration with Herm.

Just when it seemed like my message of Mike Solari listening to Len Dawson was getting through, he calls a behind-the-line-of-scrimmage swing pass on 3rd and four which nets nothing. Nice. Earlier in the drive, Len and Mitch Holthaus noticed there has been less motion, which is another thing Len has been suggesting, and they thought maybe Solari was listening to them. But Solari quickly erased that notion with his play calling the rest of the game.

DAWSON: “C’mon, Test those people down the field.” (After a second consecutive one yard pass completion).

This is the 15th straight game where Len has called for deep passes to keep the defense honest. This doesn’t mean a return to Air Saunders, but it is necessary for the success of a smashmouth offense, but Herm and Solari just don’t get that.

After the obligatory Brodie Croyle interception, he then leaves due to injury, Damon Huard comes in and a thought came to me (I know, first time is always hard), who’s the 3rd quarterback? Oh, there isn’t one? Great. I thought Herm always had his team prepared?

Herm has a horrible offensive line, the quarterbacks take a beating every week, yet he doesn’t feel the need to have a 3rd quarterback. Good to see him always prepared.

Some fans posted on the Message Boards that they were tired of people nit-picking every Herm mistake and ignoring the good things he has done. Well, when you make mistakes every week that loses games, what do you expect?

Herm has had four different offensive coordinators, yet the results are the same, what do you expect?

Big deal, so Herm has a few rookies and young players that are playing. Every team plays rookies. Just like with injuries, every team has them, it’s part of the game, but it’s crap when people use them as excuses. Wins and losses are what matters, and Herm’s losses outshine EVERYTHING.

The Chiefs are so far off anyone’s radar that a franchise record (non-strike) losing streak barely gets a mention from the national media. So not only has Herm made us losers, but irrelevant losers to boot. Nice.

Huard directed two drives of 80 and 77 yards. Didn’t Herm say that offenses can’t drive 80 yards because it’s too far? Yep, he did. Apparently Herm thinks this offense is worse than it is. Nice.

Against the Vikings, former Chief Todd Collins looked good, again. He’s 3-0 as a starter so far, with two wins on the road. Brodie is 0-4? 0-5? Just checking.

Bob Gretz

Once again Bob shows no credibility, and it’s redundant to even comment on his weekly Herm Good/Fans Stupid crap, but here goes.

GRETZ: “But some in my business called this a disaster. Frankly, they have no idea what they are talking about because they have no perspective.”

JD: Yep, Bob, Herm Good/Fans Stupid.

GRETZ: “You want a disaster, how about December 18, 1983, when 11,377 fans showed up for the season finale against Denver. This was at a time when the Chiefs released in-house attendance, rather than tickets sold. It was also a time when the Chiefs liked to manipulate those numbers a bit, so there’s a chance even fewer fans were actually in the house.”

JD: Didn’t the Chiefs win that last home game 48-17? They did.

GRETZ: “Here’s another disaster: January 1, 1983, the final game of the 1982 season when 11,902 showed up to watch the Chiefs and New York Jets.”

JD: Didn’t the Chiefs win that last home game 37-17? They did.

GRETZ: “At the final home game of the 1985 season, only 18,178 showed for the Chiefs and Chargers.”

JD: Didn’t the Chiefs win that last home game 38-34? They did.

GRETZ: “There was the final home game of the 1987 season when only 20,370 fans were in Arrowhead to see the Chiefs play the Seahawks.”

JD: Didn’t the Chiefs win that last home game 41-20? They did.

GRETZ: “Those were disasters. That was ugly. That was apathy.”

JD: No Bob, those were Chiefs teams who put a beating on playoff teams needing a win against KC. Those were Chiefs teams that averaged 35 points in the final home game. How many games does Herm have to play to GET 35 points, let alone AVERAGE 35 points?

GRETZ: “The 2007 season has been a bruising, troubling and disappointing time around Arrowhead Stadium. There’s no hiding from that fact. But there is hope for the future. We have seen the future all season in young players getting on the field and contributing. They are making mistakes, but they are also gaining valuable experience that’s going to pay off in the future.”

JD: You mean young players like Justin Medlock? Or young players like John Carney?

GRETZ: “There is a commitment to building this team into a winner again, and an overall understanding in the building that this must be done by getting younger, not by going out and signing veteran free agents by the handful.”

JD: You mean younger players like Justin Medlock? Or younger players like Priest Holmes?

GRETZ: “The landscape isn’t going to change at Arrowhead, it already has.”

JD: No argument there. The landscape is definitely Loserville, and it doesn’t look to change until Gardner Edwards is gone.

GRETZ: “My perspective? Things are bad, but they’ve been worse, much worse. There’s a plan in place and the future holds hope.”

JD: Which “Plan” is this? The HermPlan that started ‘07? Or the HermPlan in mid ‘07 to fix the first HermPlan? When will the new HermPlan start? They’ve lost five games since HermPlan #2, or are you talking about HermPlan Upgrade Patch v3.2?

RuffAss Dawes the Coward

This an open letter to the supposed Mr. Rufus Dawes. I sent this to the general KCChiefs.com site since this literary genius does not post contact info like all the people he criticizes do.

Dear Mr. Dawes,What has to happen for you to admit that maybe it’s time to get a new coach and/or GM?

I know he won’t respond, cowards rarely do.

All of us “supposed” Chiefs fans just don’t get how great the Chiefs are doing this year, so I’m very thankful for Ruffy for setting me straight. Man, those Patriots sure look stupid winning all those games.

Thanks supposed Mr. Dawes!

Hermisms

Q: What’s your feedback been on the statement you made last week: “Get over it.” It seems like some fans might have missed your point?

EDWARDS: “Well they probably did and the way that the fans took it, in my opinion, was probably wrong.”

JD: The fans took “Get over it” wrong and missed your point? Probably? Either they took it wrong or they didn’t. How are they supposed to take it? If you get mad when I say FU, then you must’ve taken it wrong.

EDWARDS: “I think our fans are great. They have a lot of passion and they have a lot invested in this football team, which we all do. I just think that when you are going through tough times you have to get over that part of it and get ready to go and prepare to win a game. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

JD: We can’t get over it when you are the douchebag that is keeping us from “preparing” to win games. By the way, the goal of the NFL is not to “prepare” to win games, it’s to ACTUALLY WIN games.

EDWARDS: “If it was misinterpreted I apologize.”

JD: Standard non-apology apology. I’m not sorry for what I said, I’m sorry that YOU got it wrong. Herm, you were not misinterpreted, we got you loud and clear.

EDWARDS: “We just couldn’t pull it off in the second half (vs. Tenn). We got behind and never had enough ability offensively and defensively we didn’t take the ball away, and we couldn’t score any points. That’s been a little bit of how we’ve played in the games we’ve lost.”

JD: No, that’s A LOT of how you’ve played in EVERY game this year.

EDWARDS: “We are struggling that way and we have to get out of that. That’s kind of where that’s at.”

JD: You’ve been saying this all year, it’s pretty clear you are unable to do any better.

EDWARDS: “These things happen. If you play ball long enough or coach long enough it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter or when it shows up on your doorstep. It’s happening to this team right now, but I think the great thing is not worrying about what is happening, but how you are going to fix it and how you are not going to let this continue to happen. This is one season, it’s not the culmination of a bunch of seasons. It’s one season right now and we’ll have the opportunity to get it going in the right direction and that’s what we are going to do when the season ends.”

JD: Uh, it doesn’t happen to New England, or Denver, or Green Bay. One season? This is your SECOND 4-12 season in three years! At least Frank Ganz, John Mackovic and Marv Levy ended their seasons with blowout wins.

Q: Is it a good thing or a bad thing that you’ve gone through this before?

EDWARDS: “You have to learn how to deal with it if you are in this profession. I learned how to deal with it in Philadelphia as a player. Our seasons weren’t always great in Philadelphia, we started off bad there a couple times and they were booing Santa Claus. Santa Claus is a pretty good guy last time I thought. He generally gives out gifts, but they were booing Santa.”

JD: Here we go, all aboard Herm’s Tangent Train. This is where Herm goes off on some whacky tangent to distract you from his non-answer, and gets it wrong. Santa “generally” gives out gifts? Can you not make a definitive statement on ANYTHING?

EDWARDS: “So when you learn how to deal with that as a player in your rookie year you go, ‘wow, I’ve never been in a place like this.’ It’s part of it, but that’s what makes the fans so good. They’re passionate and you’re their team. That’s their team, that’s what they feel and that’s okay. That’s a good thing, that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing and you take it for what it’s worth.”

JD: Here goes Herm the Liar again, repeating the same point several times in consecutive sentences. But, that’s a “good thing”.

EDWARDS: “You go, ‘okay, this is where it’s at right now, I understand that,’ but then when it turns all good again they will be out there cheering. That’s what’s great, they will be out there cheering. It will be okay and I’m not going to get mad. That’s part of it and you know it when you are a player or a coach, but the key is how you fix it. That’s the key. How are we going to get this thing fixed and how are we going to get it going back in the right direction. That’s the whole process that we’re going through right now as an organization. That’s something that we are going to address when the season is over with, we are going to get it right and we are going to start going again in the right direction.”

JD: I thought you were getting it right last year? I thought you were getting it right in the playoffs? I thought you were getting it right this year? For someone who is always getting it right, you sure do have a horrible win/loss record.

Q: Something else that might have been a misinterpretation last week was when you said that losing has never happened here before. There were a lot of tough times here from ‘75-88. A lot of fans thought you were just dismissing that as though their suffering in those years didn’t matter.

EDWARDS: “Every organization goes through it. Like I always tell players, ‘pick your words,’ and I didn’t use the right choice of words, obviously, and that’s my fault. That’s on me and I’m willing to accept that.”

JD: Are you really? Are you sure you don’t want to blame the players for it? Anyone just not making plays? Any opponents you want to credit?

EDWARDS: “This organization went through that in the early times, there is no doubt about it and in ‘88 it wasn’t very good, and in ‘89 I was here when Carl Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer were here for the turnaround. I was a part of that, I was here and I understand.”

JD: And now you are here to complete the circle. Thanks.

EDWARDS: “It’s something that when you go to the playoffs last year and everyone is excited, you come back this season and things aren’t going the way that you anticipate them and there are some reasons for that.”

JD: Some reasons? Way to brush it off. YOU are the reason for it.

EDWARDS: “When the season was over with we knew what type of team we were and we knew some things would have to go the right way for us to have a chance to do that again and it didn’t happen, so now we’re suffering for it. Now we have to find a way to get it right and we will.”

JD: You will? It’s your idiocy that put us here! What makes ANYONE think you can fix it?

Q: What do you take from that experience and apply it towards the team that you want this organization to be?

EDWARDS: “Well, I think you have to have patience. You can’t panic and you can’t have emotional decisions. If you have a plan, you have to start orchestrating the plan. It has to be well thought out, which it has been and it is in this organization.”

JD: You’ve already said you have a new plan to “fix it”. That means your first plan was not “well thought out”, since it didn’t work.

EDWARDS: “It is in this organization and it will all come to fruition, and you know that.”

JD: No we don’t, all we see is you finding new ways to lose. Somewhere Paul Wiggins is smiling.

EDWARDS: “We’ve got two games to try to win and we’ve got a game this weekend to play in Detroit. It all kind of takes care of itself when you are organized and you know what to do. It’s almost like in life when people always want to know. It’s like when you look at the weather man and he says that today is Monday. Well you are not concerned about Monday, you want the weather all the way until Friday. Today is Monday, the sun is going to come out and it is 80 degrees, but nobody ever worries about Monday. You look at Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that’s the day I want to know about, but it’s Monday. It’s the same way here, everyone wants to know what we are going to do, but that’s down the road, that’s Friday, but we’re dealing with Monday right now.

JD: Holy crap, what is F’N wrong with you?

EDWARDS: “Today is the day where we are preparing to play Detroit and that’s what we have to do. When the season is over with we will deal with that. That’s our society and that’s how we think. That’s okay to think that way, but no day is given to you. You deal with the day at hand and the day at hand is this day. This is the day to prepare for Detroit, that’s what we are going to do and we’ll have a good plan and we’ll go up there and try to win a road game.”

JD: Since you were one of the few teams to score less than 30 points against Detroit, you must not have had a “good plan”.

Q: You mentioned RB Larry Johnson being questionable, which is an upgrade. What chance do you think that he might have of playing this week?

EDWARDS: “I don’t know that. I think the more that he goes through individual drills will put him in a more strenuous situation. Through the whole week we’ll see if he has soreness after every day. He has gone through one or two days, but he’s never gone through a full week. So we have to find out where that is at and whichever decision is made will be best for the player’s purpose, to make sure he’s okay. That’s how you make these types of decisions and we don’t have to make that right now. We’ll find out where he is at on Thursday and Friday and then we will decide.”

JD: Why did we have to go through the Larry Johnson charade this year? He broke his foot and was out for the year, yet Herm the Liar had to play coy about it. This man can not be trusted.

Q: You said that you knew what kind of team you were going to have this year at the end of last year. What does that mean?

EDWARDS: “I thought some things had to fall right for us to be in the playoffs and for us to be a playoff team.”

JD: Yah, every AFC team had to lose ALL their games.

EDWARDS: “You had to have a pretty dominant defense to do that, I felt. Your offense had to be one that was consistent, which it hasn’t been. We haven’t had a very good running game, which doesn’t help you and we haven’t been very consistent. We’ve turned the ball over way too many times, which really hurts you.”

JD: Yet the great talent evaluator/developer/motivator Herm Edwards could not evaluate/develop/motivate any offensive linemen or quarterbacks.

Q: Do you think that maybe your team thought they could just flip a switch and make it happen again this year?

EDWARDS: “I don’t know that. I just think that we were in some games where if you would have won them you would have gained more confidence and you might be sitting in a better place than you are right now.”

JD: What do you mean you don’t know? He asked you what you THOUGHT, you don’t know what you think?

Q: Knowing what you know now, do you think it was a mistake for the Chiefs to be the subject of Hard Knocks?

EDWARDS: “Our fans have been distracted coming to games because of the parking lots and the building of the new stadium, but that’s part of it.”

JD: ??????? Are you freakin’ kidding me?

EDWARDS: “I grew up in a family where my Dad taught me something when I was very young. He said, ‘son, successful people deal with inconvenience and life is about inconvenience. The people that are going to be successful can deal with inconvenience in their life.’ I’m answering your question by saying, was it inconvenient? Yeah, but it’s good for them and it’s good for all of us. When all of those cameras are around, eventually you want them around after 16 games and then they’re still following. Then it really becomes inconvenient and those are the teams that are in the championship games and in that big game. You need to learn to deal with all of that and prioritize how you go to work and how you think. If we learned anything from that is that there is going to be inconvenience. You can’t plan everything and put this team in a room where you are locked in and no one can bother you. No, you want to deal with that. We learned about that in New York when we were successful. I think it is good for you because if you can learn about that collectively as a football team you are going to be successful. That’s just part of the process about learning how to be successful, so that’s where I stand on it.”

JD: Herm finally takes a stand on something, but I have such a headache from him talking in circles that I have no idea what he just said. I’m going to go lie down now.