JOPO and his true monday morning rumblings
Chiefs’ conservative offense inspires lots of grumbling
By JOE POSNANSKI
INDIANAPOLIS | Frustration bubbles now. It had to happen. Coaches, players, fans, you name it — when you score 13 offensive touchdowns in 10 games, everybody will start to get testy. They were plenty testy after Sunday’s loss in Indianapolis.
“We’re going to have to blow it all up,” one anonymous Chiefs insider said.
“Something is going to have to change, because this is a joke,” said another.
“I can take losing,” said a third. “But I can’t take not trying.”
Yes, there were all sorts of anonymous rumbles and grumbles in the locker room Sunday after the Chiefs’ 13-10 loss to the Colts. The Chiefs’ coaches went to Indianapolis believing that their only chance to win with first-time starter Brodie Croyle at quarterback and a lacking offensive line was to play a slow-down, four-corners, some-kind-of-punterful game. The strategy did keep the game close.
That didn’t make anybody feel better.
“We’re playing the Super Bowl champs, and we’re not going to take even one shot to win the game?” one of those Chiefs grumblers asked. “That’s who we are now?”
You get the picture. There’s a serious identity crisis happening within the Chiefs. The anger Sunday — on the surface, anyway — was over an ultraconservative game plan that was built to protect Croyle.
At the end of the first half, for instance, when the Chiefs had more than a minute left and all three timeouts, they sat on the ball. Early in the fourth quarter, with the Chiefs on their own 46 facing a fourth and 1, there was never even a discussion to go for it.
The Chiefs scored their one touchdown when Croyle threw a laser pass somewhere over Dwayne Bowe (way up high) and Bowe snagged it, somehow dancing his feet inbounds, a spectacular play that made you think maybe the Chiefs would open it up a little bit. No. Late in the fourth quarter, with the Chiefs facing third and 18, they ran a safe draw play and punted rather than even try to go for the first down. The Colts drove down the field, ran out the last 7 minutes of clock and kicked the game-winning field goal with 3 seconds left.
Even the last play of the game — the Chiefs did get the ball back at the 40 — was not a Hail Mary bomb into the end zone like you might expect. It was a short pass to Kolby Smith. That was pretty much how it went.
“Conservative?” asked Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, one of the few players who grumbled on the record. “Yeah, you might call that conservative.”
“Do you think Brodie Croyle has a chance to be a good quarterback?”
“Yeah,” Gonzalez said through gritted teeth. “If they give him that chance.”
There’s more here, though. The anger isn’t about just this one game. It goes back to a decision Herm Edwards made shortly after taking the job. Everyone can appreciate that he came into an odd situation — he took over an offense that had scored more points than any other team in the NFL the previous four years. But it was also, by far, the oldest offense in the league. Everybody who was paying attention could hear the clock ticking.
Trouble is that Edwards already had a reputation — earned in New York — as the First Officer of Field Goals, a defensive coach who wanted to win games 12-10. He argues the point (Edwards says he wants to score 24 points in a game), but he knows this is how people see him.
When he took the Chiefs’ job, people in and out of the organization kept asking, “Are you going to change this offense?” That’s when Edwards made a mistake. He hired offensive-line coach Mike Solari to be coordinator for the first time in his long NFL career. And he told Solari to keep the playbook more or less intact.We’re running the same plays,” Edwards still says week after week.
Maybe. But they’re not running them in the same order. And they’re certainly not running them with the same results. The truth is that lots of things changed. The Chiefs’ offense rotted from age — their two best offensive linemen retired, their quarterback got knocked unconscious, their receivers could not get open. After a short while, Edwards figured that the only way for this team to win was to give the ball to Larry Johnson more times than any running back in NFL history. That did get the Chiefs to the playoffs last year. Then this year, Larry Johnson got hurt.
And now, the Chiefs’ offense is a mess. It’s the worst in the NFL. They have an antiquated playbook, a crumbling offensive line, an offensive game plan that makes fans want to throw stuff at their televisions and, now, a locker room filled with frustrated players and coaches and equipment managers — and you name it. People want changes.
What do you do? Well, for now, it’s clear that the Chiefs are not a playoff team, even if the wretchedness of the AFC West will not let them out of the race. So, it seems to me they should spend the rest of this season developing Brodie Croyle, who, in his limited role, looked pretty good Sunday. The guy’s got talent. It’s time to commit to him as the quarterback of the future.
They should spotlight Dwayne Bowe. He is terrific and is on pace to have 1,000 yards receiving, which would make him the first Chiefs rookie to do that since, oh yeah, ever. They should remember that Tony Gonzalez is still pretty close to unstoppable down the field. They should try to use Priest Holmes smarter — he’s good for 10 to 15 carries and a few screen passes (where are the screen passes? Holmes was one of the best screen receivers in the NFL). In other words, try to get some positives out of the rest of the season.
And after that? Well, the anonymous Chief is right. They will have to blow things up. But that can wait for the offseason. It’s coming sooner than anyone wanted anyway.
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Originally Posted by hermhater
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