Highlights

HERM EDWARDS: “Again, we face another division opponent that is playing very, very well on offense and their defense has gotten better, too. They played very well on the road against the Jets. Their offense…a lot of points. They were able to shut the Jets out for the most part in the second half on defense.

“We were fortunate to beat them here last time in that we had a short field because they turned the ball over. We were able to take advantage of those turnovers and score some points. It got kind of sticky at the end and then Larry (Johnson) made a long run and made it a two-score game again.

“We haven’t done very well when we’ve gone into that stadium. I guess it’s been seven meetings now (in a row). That’s something we will talk about. Most of these kids haven’t been to that stadium, so that’s somewhat of a good thing since they don’t know what to anticipate when they go there.”

Q: Losing can become a habit and that’s what sort of happened when you’ve gone to Denver. How do you get out of that?

EDWARDS: “Win. I think you have to be in the game. I think the first year I was here we played small ball. We lost our starting quarterback the first game and then went to Denver and played as close as we could play it. We had a shot and lost 9-6, I think it was. Then the next year we went in there and turned the ball over a bunch. Last year we turned it over and the game got away from us in the first half and that’s what has kind of happened historically to us even before I got here: turn the ball over and you get down by a couple of scores and then never recover.

“We’ve got to understand that when we go play them. They’ve got a very good offense receiver-wise, the quarterback. They’re a handful.”

Q: How much does it affect guys when you’ve lost there a lot?

EDWARDS: “Like I said, most of them hadn’t been there. Whether that’s good or bad we’ll find out Sunday. It’s kind of like the ‘Black Hole’ (Oakland). Most of them had never been there. I think this is the second time in two weeks we’re facing a division opponent and I really harped on that last week, about division rivalries. You play them twice and we were fortunate to beat them at home because they turned the ball over. When they do that you’ve got a chance to win.”

Q: Previously Denver gave you fits with the quarterback boot. It looked like you had that problem settled, but in the last couple of weeks it’s returned. What’s been going on there?

EDWARDS: “It’s real simple: it falls on our defensive end or our linebacker doing their jobs. Generally when (QB) gets outside like that somebody didn’t quite do what they were told to do.

“A lot of defensive ends and linebackers have played for us the last couple of weeks. That might have something to do with it too. Hopefully, we can get that clarified this week because they are a big boot team. It’s dangerous when he gets outside the pocket and they do a great job of adjusting their routes and getting open and he has a strong arm and can throw it anywhere on the football field. He buys time and is very dangerous when he gets outside the pocket because he makes a lot of plays on the run.”

Q: How big was it for your young guys to get a win after seven consecutive weeks of losing?

EDWARDS: “I think it was good for everybody. I think it was good for the players obviously because of all the work they put into it. I thought it was good for our coaching staff. I think sometimes people think because you lose you don’t come in and work as hard. You work harder. You look for ways to motivate players and get them to understand the little things. I thought we did a lot of little things right in this last game. We finished the fourth quarter. We had been in some games prior to that where we didn’t quite get it done. This week we did. This reminds me a little bit of the Jets game. We needed to make a first down and we didn’t do it. This game it was the same situation and we made the first down. We made one after that at 2:55 and the game’s over when Larry ran it outside.

“At the end of the game the players made some plays. The defense held them and made them kick a field goal and that was important, too. All those things manifested themselves on the road which is good. When you play a team like Denver you don’t want to give them a big lead because if they get hot they can go now. Their offense is hot right now.”

Q: Looking back now going into that Raiders game how desperate was it for your team to get a win?

EDWARDS: “Every week is that way. I don’t think that week is any different than any other week. As a head coach you feel bad for the players and the coaches because all the work and time you put into it and how close we’ve been until the Buffalo game when we turned the ball over. We had four weeks prior to that when we had an opportunity to get it done.

“But then it’s a part of growing up too when you’re trying to build a football team. You realize that when you’re playing all these young players. It’s a part of maturity. Hopefully, we took a step forward last week when we got into the same situation and we won one of those games. Can you imagine if we had won half of the ones that were close? I think it’s still a process we’re going through as a football team and as an organization. You know you’re going to have some struggles and when you play that many young guys there are going to be some errors. You know that and you just hope they’re not at critical times in a football game. They have been at times. It’s a foundation we’re trying to build and we’ll be better for it in the long run. You just hate to go through what we’re going through right now but when you say you’re going to do this it’s part of the deal. You have to take the good with the bad and last week was a good day, good for us, our organization, our fans, good for everybody. You want to build on that and in the next four weeks, hopefully, we can win some more games in the next four weeks remaining. It would be kind of interesting if you could win two in a row. That would be kind of fun. That’s our intent.”

Q: What about Thigpen’s performance?

EDWARDS: “It goes to show you if you can run the ball you’ve got a chance to win. We ran the ball more than we threw it. I think the thing for him and this football team was when we had a lead and the game got tied. I thought to me that was a critical point in how we were going to react. Walking up and down on the sidelines I visited with some guys and said, ‘now we’ve got to grow up. Now it’s a game again.’ The (Raiders) nation came alive. They were very quiet for a while and then were roaring. I thought the 16-play drive of 91 yards kind of showed some maturity with him on the road. Obviously if you’re throwing the ball to Tony Gonzalez and he’s catching everything you can throw him that kind of helps too.

“Taking a lead and getting the ball to bounce our way when they had the ball on offense helped. We finally got one to bounce our way and we fell on it. We got some more points and from there we held them off. That was the key.

“But I think Tyler the way he regrouped after he threw the pick was kind of important too. I talked to him about it on the sideline. I said, ‘that one is over, don’t worry about that, there’s a lot of football left. We’re good. You’ve got to keep playing now.’

“And he did. He made some plays with his legs when he had to. He saw some spots where he could take off and run and he kept the chains going. Then he made some throws too. We didn’t stop throwing the ball. He did a good job orchestrating the drive.”

“This game kind of all worked out. There have been some other games where we didn’t get a break. Well, we got a break and to be quite honest we deserve a break. Okay. We hadn’t gotten a break in a long time. I wasn’t complaining.

“I thought on the long run he got outside and got some big blocks. Jamaal made a good block and some receivers made some big blocks down the field. I thought that helped our running game, too. The receivers and tight ends did a great job of blocking guys and Larry did a good job of running. But I thought the quarterback handled himself on the road against a good defense too.”

Q: So when he ran it was just him adjusting?

EDWARDS: “When he read the coverage and saw rather than throwing it he can make it with his legs, well… He was smart doing it. That’s a part of maturity too. You run, run, run but know when the journey’s over too as a quarterback. You know when quarterbacks’ run you have to know when the journey is over. There comes a point where you can run and then you have a choice: you can slide or you can run out of bounds. You don’t keep running. You end the journey on your own time; don’t let them end it for you. He did a good job of protecting himself.”

Q: He still seems to take a pretty good beating. Any idea why a guy like that can still pop right back up?

EDWARDS: “He’s a pretty sturdy guy when you look at him. He’s pretty well put together. He’s tough. When you’re young a lot of these guys can run. As they get a little older they don’t run as much. When you think about all the guys who did that early in their careers they start figuring out in their fourth or fifth year that hurts.”

Q: Dwayne Bowe made an important and critical catch in that game and has made many, but he also seems to have a propensity to drop some. How do you stop that?

EDWARDS: “Twelve of them (in-season). We counted them. We talked about it. Where he’s at now in his career, at times he forces himself to try and catch it so hard he doesn’t relax his hands. I got a solution to it and it’s real easy. It’s not hard to figure out. If he’s going to drop one early in the game throw it to him on the second play of the game and get it over with.”

Q: More reps in practice needed?

EDWARDS: “Nah, that’s not it, or maybe he’s trying to catch Tony Gonzalez. (laughs) He’s got a shot. Tony told him, ‘my worst year was my second year.’ He told him that at the beginning of the year and Dwayne knows it.

“I tell you this: if he could become like Tony Gonzalez after this year I’ll take that. I think you’d take that too. I just think it’s a part of maturity and growing up as a wideout. There is a lot of pressure on him. He knows it and feels it, pressure to make plays. That’s why we drafted him and he’s done that. He’s made big plays and he made a big play Sunday for us. It’s just concentration and I’ve seen great receivers drop balls.

“I think some of it is Dwayne’s nature and how he is. He comes off to people like nothing bothers him. That’s for people who don’t know him. It bothers him. He doesn’t like to drop balls. He doesn’t like to make mistakes and is a very conscientious guy. He’s about team and that’s why we drafted him. He’s not about stats. He’s not a guy looking at the statistical deal saying, ‘I only caught three balls.’ He wasn’t on the sideline in that game saying throw me the ball. But all of a sudden when we needed it at third-and-three it was a big-time throw and a big-time catch. That was important.”

Q: Is he trying to get ahead of the play sometimes?

EDWARDS: “Yeah, he has so much confidence in his hands he’ll get his hands going and take his eyes off the ball and make a move. When you’re a receiver and you’ve got a little bit of a name and you drop a ball it gets magnified.”

Q: Does getting booed bother him?

EDWARDS: “No, when you’re in athletics you’re going to get booed. That’s part of the deal. We all get booed for different reasons and people have the right to boo.”

Q: Do you finally have a sense of stability after all the injuries?

EDWARDS: “We don’t have as many guys on the injury list and that’s kind of nice. We haven’t made a (player) move yet but we’ve got three more days of practice. We thought we’d get away with it last week but we ended up making a move on Saturday.

“What I like about this football team right now, and while I don’t like our record and wish we had won some more games and we’re going to continue to try and do that, I like the way they’ve held together through all the adversity and everything that has gone on. They have not embarrassed this organization as far as their effort. Hasn’t been good enough at times to win football games, but I think when you have this many young guys and you have some leaders that we do have it’s critical at this stage of rebuilding a football team. A lot of teams don’t handle it the way these guys have handled it and they’ve handled it correctly. It’ll play dividends for them and that’s what you sense when you’re around these guys.

“Every coach says he has good kids and all that. That’s a credit to the scouting staff and everybody who was involved in drafting these guys. They have learned how to be professional football players. That’s what helps this football team right now because they’re so close together. You learn more about these guys when you go on these long trips to Oakland and San Diego when you go on Friday. They are all together for the next two days and there are no distractions and they do things together. A lot of organizations don’t like that; they don’t like that you go on Friday. They think the players are going to go crazy and they take military escorts and feel like they can’t trust players. I trust these guys and they’re good guys and want to do the right thing. That’s what you learn when you go on the road. We hung around together and that’s what you learn when you have a team this young.”

Q: There was some speculation way back on how Tony Gonzalez would react after not being traded. But that ended with three 100-yard games in four weeks.

EDWARDS: “No question on my part. We talked that night on the telephone and we talked how important it was to talk to this football team about this since there probably will be a football player on this team who will be in this same situation one day.

“He made catches in critical situations under duress and there are points in each game that you know the game is in the balance . You’ve got to make a catch, a throw, a tackle and guys like Tony make those. The pressure is not too big for them and they make the play. In (the Oakland) game he made those catches and he did everything. The quarterback is smart enough to know if I throw it to this guy he’s probably going to catch it.

“That (Oakland) was his best game.”

Q: Will you talk to the players about carrying guns?

EDWARDS: “I’ve talked about it already but I’ll talk to them tomorrow. I think when it happens to somebody else people think it’s okay but it’s not okay.”