Herm Edwards is not afraid to make excuses. We all know this. Herm has no shame, and will stop at nothing to deflect criticism from himself. It’s how he do. One preferred method is to throw his players under the bus. Did you see his smile when he made that comment about coaching a college team? Totally despicable. Great guy though. Real character guy. Church-going man. In short, a class act all the way.
Sorry, lost my train of thought. Where were we? Oh yeah, the bus. Herm likes to throw his players under there. But what he likes even more is making excuses. This season he has had 3 main excuses, and there has been some great reporting done recently debunking them.
1) Youth- OK, we actually are a young team. No one is disputing that. But being young is not an excuse to be bad. Green Bay was the youngest team in the league in 2007 and they went to the NFC championship. The difference, of course, is that they were young and good and we’re young and terrible. Young teams require good coaches who know how to get results. Obviously, our coaches have not been up to the task. Still, at least this excuse is true. We really are young. But Herm references this every chance he gets. Right up until the time Carl got canned Herm seemed to think the team’s youth was going to keep him from being held accountable for our horrid record. Let’s hope he was wrong.
2) Injuries- I did a post a while back saying I didn’t think the Chiefs actually had a lot of injuries this year. Rick Gosselin of the Dallas morning news wrote an article proving me right. Here’s the link:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/columnists/rgosselin/stories/010709dnspogosselin.34d3911.html
In the article, Gosselin breaks down the numbers for how many games were missed by starters due to injury. The Chiefs, with a mere 36 games missed, were in the top half of the league. As in least injured. And keep in mind, 14 of those games missed come from BRODIE CROYLE, who was not a legitimate starter nor did his injury hurt us. In fact, it helped us. Take out those games and we were the sixth healthiest team in the league this year. Also, Baltimore has twice as many games missed as us and is in the AFC championship game (and my pick to win the superbowl). I don’t hear them whining about the cards fate dealt them. They decided to just win a bunch of games and be awesome instead.
3) Close losses- Martin Manley wrote a great piece in the star yesterday tackling this. Link:
http://uponfurtherreview.kansascity.com/?q=node/413
This is a total must-read. Manley completely dismantles Herm’s excuse about the Chiefs losing a lot of “close” games. As it turned out, we were right about average in that regard. Generally teams lose about half of their games by 7 points or less, and half by more. We lost 7 by a touchdown or less, and 7 by more. Average. And our bad losses were peppered throughout the season, not confined to the first half.
Manley goes on to discuss how lucky we were with turnovers and reveals that most teams with a positive turnover ratio in on year tend to have a worse record the next. Presumably this is because luck with turnovers can’t last forever. The Chiefs were lucky as hell in the turnover game this year. We were 8th in the league. A lot of fumbles bounced our way. Incredibly, Manley’s research suggests we were actually significantly worse than our record indicates. Our 2-14 record.
UCrawford over at Arrowheadpride does a great job dissecting this info in a recent post. Link some:
http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2009/1/15/725023/rationalization-and-myth-m
UCrawford knows his stuff. When I’m reading comments I pretty much look for his exclusively, or his foil ChiefDJ, who I read because I hate so much. These 2 are always getting into arguments and Crawford puts a total clown suit on DJ every time. It’s hilarious. Check him out next time you’re on arrowheadpride.
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Bomb – what do you make of the rumos about living with Herm one more season, if Cowherd has agreed to come in for 2010?
Living with Herm one more year in order to get Cowher would be a great scenario, as would any other scenario that gets Cowher.
I think there is a credible argument that Herm’s coaching produced a worse record this year than the team should have had. The more imortant question is what Herm’s coaching will produce in future years as the team develops. By the way, I also think the present roster is not near as good as Herm thinks – hie 85% there estimate, which in fairness, he just threw out during a press conference, seems wildly optimistic.
By the way, I heard Brian Waters say today that “Herm deserves one more year.” Waters’ opinion is not of great significance, but it does help to deflect some of the personal criticism of Herm. Two of the team leaders – Gonzales and Waters – apparently sincerely want him back.
I really enjoyed the “Quotent Quotables” post, bighatt. Well done.
Bighatt, to answer your question on where I had been, I had been checking the site through the season but I found reading your accurate comments depressing, so I would read them and leave the site. I anticipate more participation during the optimistic offseason.
I have some inside information on Pioli. I was told he is a hard worker and acquires and absorbs a lot of information. He is better at evaluating linemen rather than skill positions. He did not strike my source as a supremely intelligent guy, but my source is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
I read Belichick’s book, “The Education of a Coach” by the late David Halberstam and Pioli was highlighted throughout the book as someone with whom Belichick consulted. I believe both worked together to build the Patriots, and I think Pioli could do the same with the right coach. I think by “right coach” I mean a coach who will be the head coach for a long time (not sure Gruden, Shanahan, or Cowher are the right guys here due to their egos…maybe more Spagnuolo or a coordinator who wants to build his version of a team).
I can’t believe what I am about to say but WE CAN BUILD ON THIS!*
*Conditional on Herm’s lack of employment with the Kansas City Chiefs.
if the chiefs are planning on keeping harm, they simply would have announced that by now, right? surely this delay must indicate that they at least have their eye on someone?
hey guys, it’s me, Chan Gailey. i’d like to change my name to Tank Tyler, out of respect for Chan. it is unlikely i will ever have to undergo another name change.
boy, i sure like adam teicher. he’s always slingin truth. i respect his opinion, and he does great video blogs.
i was just browsing the kcchiefs.com site. i pulled some killer quotes off alphonso boone’s profile page. under ‘pro career’:
“Arguably one of the NFL’s best free agent acquisitions in 2007 who rapidly developed into one of the season’s most pleasant surprises for Kansas City … Moved into the starting lineup for the first game of the season and became a dominant force in the middle of the Chiefs defensive front ”
“… Playoff-tested performer owns five games of postseason experience, including Super Bowl XLI with the Bears … ”
you can have a lot of fun on the chiefs website.
Thanks for the shout-out.