Chiefs have a Giant problem on offense, defense
By ELIZABETH MERRILL
The Kansas City Star
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
Herm Edwards says he isn’t panicking. The second preseason game yielded nothing promising outside of punter Dustin Colquitt’s leg not falling off, and for the second time in a week, all the questions that dogged the defense in 2005 were exposed in the late-evening lights.
But Edwards is obviously getting antsy.
You could hear it Thursday night after a 17-0 whipping from the Giants — in the locker room, outside in the hallway as the players filtered out of Giants Stadium. The Chiefs hadn’t just been beaten in a meaningless preseason game. They’d been embarrassed.
“Right now, we’re a team, in my estimation, (that) is living off our laurels,” Edwards said. “We’re living off what people are predicting us to be.
“The whole football team, all of us, the coaches, everybody, we’re all in the same pot. We have no one to look at but ourselves, and it’s great. Because I like it this way, because then all of the sudden people who have been riding the ship, they’ll jump off the ship. We’ve probably got too many people on the ship anyway. I know it’s the preseason, but they’ve got to play with better urgency.”
After the Chiefs went 10-6 last year, then received defensive upgrades with the acquisition of Edwards and Pro Bowl cornerback Ty Law, some pundits picked Kansas City to make the playoffs. A few even wondered whether the Chiefs could win the AFC West.
They might be rethinking that after Thursday night. For the second time in a week, the Chiefs defense couldn’t pressure the quarterback, couldn’t stop a first-team offense, and gave no signs that this rebuilding project is anywhere near taking hold.
On the same field that Tiki Barber torched the Chiefs for 220 yards last December, effectively ending their playoff hopes, the Giants marched 60 yards for a touchdown on their opening drive. They followed that with a 52-yard touchdown drive early in the second quarter. The Giants could’ve had more had it not been for a couple of holding penalties, one of which drew strong objections from tight end Jeremy Shockey.
It didn’t really matter. On a night that Edwards went home — sort of — to the stadium where he coached five years with the Jets, Thursday was one he’d want to forget. It started with a three-and-out for the offense, a 20-yard run on an end-around from New York backup receiver Tim Carter, and a 5-yard touchdown pass from the Giants’ Eli Manning to Amani Toomer.
Edwards kept the defense vanilla again, but nobody in the locker room Thursday night was using that as an excuse.
“It’s preseason, and I’m not saying we’re not taking it seriously,” Chiefs linebacker Kendrell Bell said. “But we’ve just got to focus in a little bit more. I’ve had my times out there on the field where I lost focus, just getting overanxious to make a play and I end up going the wrong way. That can sometimes blind you. I think a couple of plays we were running out there with blinders on.”
A mix of first-team defense and backups were in at the end of the first half, when the Giants had racked up 181 yards. When it was over, Kansas City had lost its eighth straight preseason game in a skid that dates back to August 2004.
But as dismal as things were on defense, they didn’t look much better on offense. The Chiefs were three and out on the first series, then Pro Bowl quarterback Trent Green took a nasty lick from William Joseph on the next possession. Green called it a night after the drive stalled on the Giants’ 47, and the Chiefs’ backups flailed their way to the first preseason shutout since 1998.
About the only bright spot was Colquitt, who had a very active night. When he lined up for another punt midway through the third quarter, a stat person in the press box said, “We’re running out of room for punts here.”
It was that kind of day for the Chiefs.
They headed back to River Falls, Wis., late Thursday night to sleep and pack and will return to Kansas City today. They had much to think about in their last night in the dorms. Can the offensive line protect Green? Are the defense’s lackluster performances a sign of things to come?
One person who should help in the coming week is first-round draft pick Tamba Hali. The rookie end suited up Thursday but is nursing a rib injury and was stuck on the sidelines. He has company. In two preseason nights on the road, the Chiefs also appear stuck.
