MVN - Most Valuable Network

Damon Huard Looking to Repeat Magic Against Chargers

Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.  The Chiefs, facing a must-win game, get ready to host the San Diego Chargers with Damon Huard at the helm.   2006, right?

They will be asking Huard the same in 2007.

The circumstances were a little different last year.  The Chiefs hosted the Chargers early in the year, when the Chiefs were 2-3, and they did not have quite as disastrous a home record.  Also, while the Chiefs were coming off a bad loss, they had won their other two previous games.

This year?  Well, the Chargers will be facing a team pretty much in distress.  Not only have the Chiefs lost four in a row, but they still do not have their star RB available, and the rookie QB they were grooming for the future will not even dress for the game.

Still, this is a game that may define the Chargers.  They have been maddeningly inconsistent, losing games they had no business losing, and a loss tomorrow puts the Chiefs, somehow, some way, back into the AFC West race.  Remember, a second win by the Chiefs would, for all practical purposes, put them only half a game behind San Diego.  It is a message Norv Turner must be repeating to his players every day.

That being said, there is no excuse for the Chiefs not to open up their offense a bit.  Kolby Smith has proven that he can make defenders miss tackles, but he also proved that making him do that all game tends to tire him out toward the end.  Damon Huard, last year, made some big throws against the San Diego secondary, and that was without Dwayne Bowe in his arsenal.  Furthermore, if the Chiefs call another draw play on 3rd and long, you may not see Mike Solari or Herm Edwards leave the stadium alive; the vitriol shown by the fans last week was vicious and could not be ignored.  Finally, Edwards might have learned the hard way that he cannot lean 100% on this defense.  It is a good defense, but there is only so much stress it can take, and we saw its breaking point last week.

Although there is a lot of bad news on the injury front, particularly with Croyle, the good news is that Jason Whitlock’s favorite player, Chris Terry (or, as he likes to say, Interstate 60, the Chris Terry Expressway) will not start.  While Kyle Turley has been disappointing, it is hard to imagine his being any worse than Terry the last few games.  We may also get to see a more comfortable Huard also.  He should be mostly recovered from the various nagging injuries he suffered this season, and for the first time all year, he will have a healthy Eddie Kennison available.

Not that all this adds up to a Chiefs win, but with these Chargers, you never know.  Roll the dice, Coach.  If the disappointing Chargers show up, a Chiefs’ loss would mean not only that the season is over, but that maybe your plan just cannot work in the AFC West.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.