Chiefs Offense...

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Chiefs offense’s identity changed
Don’t expect the Chiefs to abandon their run-first mentality even when Trent Green returns.
By ADAM TEICHER
The Kansas City Star

It isn’t often we get a chance to see a football team evolve during the course of one game, but we saw into the Chiefs’ future last week in Denver.
They ran time off the clock and had fewer plays. They gave the ball to Larry Johnson a lot. They threw many passes short enough that it looked as if the ball weighed 200 pounds and was made of lead.

Get used to it. This is the new Chiefs offense.

“We have to play to our strengths,” offensive coordinator Mike Solari said. “Everything has shifted. Right now the ball goes through Larry Johnson. At the beginning of the season, he was already one of our strengths. But everything is directed to Larry now. Everything we get in the passing game will come off our running game versus the straight drop-back pass.

“The strength of the offense will be Larry. The strength of the passing game will be from play-action and fakes off the running game.”

Solari didn’t mention this, but the Chiefs are also planning to avoid their weaknesses, which right now are porous pass protection and the limited experience and ability of quarterback Damon Huard.

You knew the offense was headed this way eventually when the Chiefs hired Herm Edwards as their head coach. The shift figured to be more gradual, phased in as quarterback Trent Green and other key players aged and moved on.

The offense was ugly in the opener. Seven sacks and an injury to Green later, the old philosophy is dead and buried.

The Chiefs have a new identity now, and there’s no sense they will head back when Green returns from his concussion.

“It was a really physical football game in Denver,” guard Brian Waters said. “I think that’s the way we need to keep going. That should be the type of football we play.

“That’s what the coach wants. That’s what we all want.”

Or not.

“It’s frustrating because we’re used to the big plays around here,” wide receiver Samie Parker said. “The only way we’re going to get those big plays is for them to call it. It can’t work if you don’t call it. All we need is the opportunity. We’ve got the playmakers to do it.”

The Chiefs managed only two field goals against the Broncos, but they might have had more without two turnovers in Denver’s end of the field and a play-calling mix-up near the end of the first half.

That sits well with no one, particularly Edwards.

“We’ve got to throw the ball better,” he said. “We’ve got to make some bigger plays in the passing game. We’ve got to score some touchdowns.

“We’ve got to get some more of our big-play players involved in the passing game, and we’ve got find a way to solidify that and grow offensively. I thought we ran the ball fairly well, but we have to have the ability to go downfield with the ball.”

Wanting big pass plays is different from getting them. The Chiefs had only one pass completion of more than 14 yards at Denver.

Having Huard drop back deep is problematic for the Chiefs because of pass protection issues. Last year’s starting tackles, Willie Roaf and John Welbourn, are retired.

The replacements, at least for now, are Kyle Turley, who missed each of the last two seasons because of back problems, and Kevin Sampson, whom the Chiefs would like to see improve in pass blocking.

The Chiefs dropped their quarterbacks deep often against the Bengals and paid the price. They didn’t make that mistake last week with Huard.

He usually dropped short after taking the snap and got rid of the ball quickly. Blockers didn’t have to keep an opponent away for long.

But it’s hard to get big pass plays without the quarterback taking a deep drop.

“It doesn’t always have to be a deep drop to get big plays,” Waters said. “They do come when you do that, but you can get them at other times, too. Sometimes it takes a 5- or 10-yard catch and the receiver makes one guy miss and then it turns into a big play. We’ve made a lot of big plays that way in the past.”

The Chiefs may try to pass more on first down. They attempted a pass on 10 of 26 first-down plays in Denver, though three of those came in the 2-minute offense late in the first half.

“I think you have to do that,” Edwards said. “You have to anticipate when they’re coming and try to throw on some downs that are not so predictable. When you throw the ball now you’ve got to throw it on the unpredictable downs at times to alleviate some of that stuff that’s coming. So it’s a guessing game, and you’ve got to understand that when you’re on offense.

“But believe me: I know we have to open it up. I know we’ve got to throw some passes. We’re going to throw passes again. I don’t want anybody to think we’re never going to throw a forward pass again.”

If the defense doesn’t create a turnover or special teams don’t give the Chiefs advantageous field position with a big play, the offense will have to drive a long field to get a touchdown.

That’s hard to do 5 or 6 yards at a time and without the benefit of at least one big play.

“It’s very difficult because you have very little chance for error,” Solari said. “You have to be that much more efficient. Against Denver, every play seemed critical. Every call seemed critical upstairs because we were playing that type of game.”

Huard resisted whatever temptation he might have had to force passes down the field. He earned praise from Edwards and Solari because he never tried to be the hero.

Huard didn’t throw an interception, but he fumbled once when he tried to run after catching a pass that was tipped at the line.

“We like the big pass plays, but at the same time you have to take what the defense gives you,” Huard said. “We are going to be smart about it, but we probably need to push the ball up the field more. Who knows how the game goes? Every game is different. Some games you might have a lead some other way and you need to protect the ball and get the run game going and keep the clock moving. It is circumstantial. You look back at last week’s game and you say ‘Wow, you would have liked to have a few more plays up the field,’ but it was what it was. We had a chance to win it in overtime, but we just did not do it.

“We had pass plays called that were to be thrown down the field and sometimes they were not there, so I would check it down. It is not a matter of our offense or our system. It is a matter of making plays and making more big plays.”

Sooner or later, the burden will fall on Huard or, after he returns, Green.

“He’s going to have to (make some long throws) because if he doesn’t people are going to stack 12 guys up there (on the line of scrimmage) and they only play 11 and it’ll be very difficult to run the ball,” Edwards said. “He’s going to have to be sure we back them off the line of scrimmage and get the ball to one of our playmakers, whether it’s the wide receivers or the tight end.”

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/15594184.htm


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