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HERM EDWARDS: “Denver and Kansas City are mirroring each other in the way they’ve won and the way they’ve lost, although they have one more win than we do. In the games we’ve won we’re plus four in turnovers and the ones we’ve lost we’re minus nine. They’re kind of similar in that they’re plus seven and minus eleven. So, they’re fighting the same battle that we are right now.

“They’ve lost two in a row now, both on the road but they’re going back home and obviously we haven’t won out there in a while. We played halfway decent last year but still didn’t win the football game. It’ll be two teams playing very, very hard at this point in time in the season.

“I was talking to a guy earlier on the radio and, you know, people always question you when you have a record like this and where you’re at. I think people fail to realize this: the record makes a difference as to where you’re going to go at the end, whether you’re going to be in the playoffs or not. But I think the point that people miss is the preparation you put in regardless of your record every week to try and win a game. That’s what this all about: preparing every week trying to win a game. I think it came to fruition last night if you watched Baltimore play New England. [Baltimore] is in our situation having lost five or six in a row. But the way those guys played is a tribute to the National Football League. They were a 13-3 team last year but for some reason they’re not this year. But the way they played last night is what pro football players do. When people suggest they don’t do that I think they’re really not looking at it for what it’s worth. They look at your record and say they’re not playing. I don’t believe that. Players understand. You go out on the football field and your name is on the back of that jersey. That represents you and your legacy as a player and a professional.

“With that being said, we’ll go into Denver with one thing in mind: to try and win a football game for ourselves and for all our fans. We put in a lot of work and it starts in the off-season, to the draft, the OTAs, the mini-camps, whatever we may have and then culminates throughout the season. Every game is important because every game is another opportunity to win.”

Q: You said Larry Johnson was out again. Do you expect him back this season? What would be the point?

EDWARDS: “The point is what I said before: players like playing. If he’s able to play and help us we’ll make that decision. But right now we don’t have to. He’s out and he’s getting better and we’ll see where it’s at.”

Q: But there’s a chance if he comes back he could reinjure his foot and have to have surgery. Isn’t that an unnecessary risk?

EDWARDS: “That’s exactly right and that’s why I said it’s a decision and it hasn’t been made yet. The first decision is where is he at? If the decision is he can come back and help us, then we have to make a decision. We haven’t had to make it at this point.”

Q: Do you get that your players are just playing out the season?

EDWARDS: “No, no. I’ve been in this situation before where we were devastated by injuries. It was a different scenario than this one, but really all the same. Players enjoy playing football; they enjoy competing and preparing. That’s what we do. Any time you have the ability to compete and win a game that’s the fun of it. We need a win. We’ve been close in some games but the second half gets away from us for some reason and we have to do a better job.”

Q: Aren’t you getting tired of saying that?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, but it’s the truth. All I can do is speak the truth. If it was anything else I would say it, but it’s the truth. It really boils down to a couple of things. In the last four games we’ve scored an average of 12 points. Very difficult to win football games when you’re averaging 12 points a game in the National Football League. Our inability to score is hindering us and it’s disappointing. We’ve got to find a way to score some points obviously.”

Q: What about Brodie Croyle’s injury? Isn’t his situation the same as Larry’s?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, if he can’t protect himself and we feel he’s not mobile enough to get out of the way, then there’s no need to play him this week. But he’s going to come to practice tomorrow and we’ll see where he’s at.

“You definitely want to see more of Brodie Croyle, but you’re not going to put him in there wounded either. That’s not fair to the kid.”

Q: When you talk about injured players coming back too early, with that in mind, would you say it’s unlikely we’ll see Larry again this year?

EDWARDS: “I’m not going to say that because I don’t know. I would hate to say something now and it comes back and bites me all of a sudden. When you say something it’s on the record. He’s out this week and this is all I can tell you.”

Q: Is Rudy Niswanger out?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he’ll be out for the year.”

Q: The last two teams have rushed pretty well against you guys. That’s disappointing and what can you attribute it to?

EDWARDS: “Well, last week I think they had 50 yards rushing at half. Three big runs basically. Guys didn’t play their gaps and all of a sudden it’s a 28 or 30-yard run. Then it’s 100 yards.

“That’s what happens at times. You look at teams and their rushing average is 120 yards a game. But if you look at the tape you see it’s three big runs. That’s not an excuse, but that’s what happens to you. All of a sudden you get a couple of runs and the guy goes over 100 yards. It’s been our inability to play our gaps correctly all the time and a big run breaks out. That’s what happened to us against San Diego, when you think about it. It was three big runs. It wasn’t like they were just taking the ball and just running it and making five and six yards every time they ran it.”

Q: The week before against the Raiders you were pretty upset about the running? Was that a different scenario?

EDWARDS: “Same deal at the end. Guys not being in their proper gaps. They ran outside on us. That’s what people have been running, if you watch us. They’ve been cracking our support some and getting outside. We’ve got to tackle them. You miss tackles it becomes a big run. When it gets to the back end of the secondary and you miss tackles it’s not going to be a three-yard gain any more; it’s going to be a 25-yard gain. That’s what’s happened to us.”

Q: You’re pretty thin on the offensive line.

EDWARDS: “Yeah, but we can only dress eight. We’re dressing eight.”

Q: Is this as bad a situation you’ve ever had to deal with on the offensive line with guys hurt and all?

EDWARDS: “No. My last year with the Jets we had 18 players lost to injury, 11 of them starters. Up there the line only had one starter left. It was a MASH unit.

“We just have some guys nicked, some guys haven’t played. What’s hurting us is when guys get nicked on the offensive line they don’t practice. They can’t practice and don’t practice a lot. That hurts you. Guys who have been in practice every day for the most part have been three guys: the center, the left guard and the right guard.”

Q: Will Chris Terry play?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, I anticipate that. His mom’s funeral is I think Saturday. But he might have to go and come back. But he’ll be at practice Wednesday and Thursday.”

Q: Can you talk about Donnie Edwards’ absence and how much it hurts you and hurt you last week? It was pretty dramatic.

EDWARDS: “Well, we have two young guys in there. That’s what happens when you get two young guys in there who are not as familiar with the situation and haven’t played a lot and big plays happen. Especially in short yardage situations, third-and-one and you have everybody up on the line of scrimmage and you’re not where you’re supposed to be.”

Q: Would Thomas be the guy if Donnie can’t go?

EDWARDS: “Or Fox, because Keyaron is back. He would be the first candidate.”

Q: Could maybe those long TD runs by Tomlinson have been stopped if Donnie had been in there?

EDWARDS: “Well, maybe. You’d hope. But we had our opportunities. We had the ball in the Gold Zone a couple of times and threw two interceptions. We turned the ball over four times and it’s very difficult to beat a good team when you do that.”

Q: Your thoughts on Jared Allen’s touchdown grab last week.

EDWARDS: “Two way player. Now he’s trying to get a pass play where he can throw a pass. He’s a good football player and there’s no doubt about it. I know how he was drafted here. A lot of people are taking credit for him but I know the true story. The guy came in as a long snapper. They were looking for a long snapper. Don’t let anybody twist the story. I heard the story and heard it from Jared.

“All I know is this: from the time I’ve been here the guy has improved as much as you can improve as a football player technically, learning to play the game, learning to play his position. Guys like that once they become good players you worry about they’re always trying to get sacks. No, he’s becoming a complete football player. He plays the run well. He has this knack and no one knew this, even when you draft a guy because you can’t. He has a knack of making plays: he knocks the ball down, he intercepts balls, he sacks the quarterback, he does all these things. He is always around the ball. He strips the guy. That’s something you don’t know about a guy. But you watch the guy and he’s always making plays.

“But the thing I like about the guy is he went through a situation off the field that humbled him. He took it and used it the right way and he’s come back and become something of a leader on this football team and in the community. People like that story. People like stories of guys who go through hard times and then battle back through it.

Q: Was he bugging you in practice to let him do this – catch a pass?

EDWARDS: “He bugged me for three weeks: ‘When am I going to get to do this?’ I told him to just relax and we broke it out this [past] week. Then the crazy part is he’s on the sideline before we’re down there and his shin is bothering him. I said, ‘oh well, I guess we can’t run the play.’

“I said, ‘I want to call the play but your shin is hurting you. Don’t worry about it, we’ll throw it Tony [Gonzalez]. Do you want to catch a touchdown or not?’ He said, ‘oh, coach, I’m fine. I’m OK.’ So he goes in there and I didn’t think he was going to get the ball because I thought it was an overthrow.”

Q: Did you call the play and not [offensive coordinator] Solari?

EDWARDS: “No, we talked about it going in. But I said check with Jared. But I called the first play on offense.”

Q: First time you ever did it – call a play?

EDWARDS: “No, first time on offense and we threw it to Tony. The first pass we threw in the game; that was my deal. I walked in the room and said we ought to run this because I think it’ll be open. I told Damon that in the quarterback room and I said just try it.”

Q: You got four games left and you’re going to do everything to win. But what’s your argument for people who say if you win all four you’re 8-8, but if you lose them you get a higher draft pick in next year’s draft?

EDWARDS: “Real simple: you want to win. Winning comes before anything. We’ll be fine. We want to win right now. I want these young players, this football team to win a game. That’s the most important thing. What we do in the draft, the players that are here or not going to be here, that’s what people always want to talk about. But that’s not the issue. The issue is Denver. How we’re going to prepare to win a game. We haven’t won out there in quite some time. How are we going to win in Denver. All the rest of that stuff will take care of itself.”

Q: Would winning any of these four or all four have any carry-over to next year?

EDWARDS: “I think it helps you. I think one thing that has to happen is you want to feel good when the off-season starts. You want to win some games, have a lot of young players participate, whether Brodie is going to be our guy, you want him to win some games. You want to win because you put in too much work not to. All the rest of the stuff takes care of itself.”

Q: Is that insulting to you to hear that talk?

EDWARDS: “No, because that’s what happens to you when you have these kinds of years. That’s a common question. They wonder why. But you don’t do that. You want to win. That’s why you do all this. The enjoyment of winning is something you… a wonderful feeling. You have a plan all week and you watch it unfold. You walk into that locker room and you see the joy in those guys’ eyes of winning a football game because you only get to play 16 of them. Then there’s this other season. That’s what you want to do and try to do. That’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Q: Have you ever suspected that a team has not gone all out to win?

EDWARDS: “I think what happens is when a team is not winning and you’re playing one of those games where you’re getting beat by 30 points or 20 points, the first thing people want to say is you quit. I don’t believe that.”

Q: Have you ever seen a team that quit?

EDWARDS: “I think what happens is you get disappointed as the game is going on and you look like that. People are always looking at players’ body language. Well, you look at Jim Brown’s body language and it looks like every time after he ran the ball he was getting ready to lie down. He just found a way to get back up and kept running.

“People make something out of that. I don’t believe that. Players have too much pride. You know, their name is on the back of their jerseys. You can’t hide. Other players watch you play. When you perform the hardest critics are other players and your teammates. You’ve got to play.”

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