Crennel: Chiefs 'not very good' - KCTV5

Give Chiefs Coach Romeo Crennel credit for stating the obvious and not trying to put lipstick on a pig.

He made clear Monday that his team is struggling and he is disappointed in the performance. The Chiefs lost to Tampa Bay 38-10 on Sunday.

"We're a 1-5 football team and that means you're not very good," Crennel said. "We're working to try to get better, we will continue to work to get better as we focus on this bye week and see how we can improve things."

He did say he doesn't believe the Chiefs' failures are because of a lack of effort on the part of players.

But he also made clear players are failing to execute the game plan he's trying to drill into them.

"What the guys have to be is they have to be disciplined enough to do their job first before they help out and that was happening in the fourth quarter," Crennel said. "We weren't disciplined enough to do our job first and then try to help. We tried to help out without doing our job which creates seams."

Crennel said he believes quarterback Brady Quinn was "a little rusty," but managed the game and the team.

"I think if he'd had more time, I think the rust would have been knocked off, but he didn't have much time so he did the best he could with the time that he had to prepare for this game," Crennel said.

It's too soon to say whether Quinn will start against the Raiders in two weeks or whether quarterback Matt Cassel will have recovered from his concussion, Crennel said.

"When Matt is cleared to practice football then we'll evaluate it and then we'll make the decision at that time," Crennel said.

The Associated Press' Doug Tucker asked Crennel if he's being encouraged to start Cassel.

"Encouragement, no," the coach replied, but said he feels no pressure to stick with Cassel. "I decide who plays, I decide who's active. I decide who's inactive. I will evaluate the situation and I will make the choice."

The focus is making adjustments during the bye week.

"But the bottom line is we lost the game and this business is 'did you win or did you lose,' and we did not win. So we're going to go forward and try to improve it and try to get better and try to win. That's what we're going to do," Crennel said.

He knows that the frustrations of fans are only growing.

"I think we must win so that we can win and generate some confidence for this team and for our fans if nothing else," he said. "I think you focus on the next game and you do everything you can to win the next game then you go from there."

Still he said he will counsel players to ignore the fans' discontentment and focus on how they are working hard to do their jobs. He said he does see encouraging signs.

"Well, I think you put on the blinders and try to forge ahead because there is nothing that we can do about what's said other than win a ball game. If we win a ball game, then some of those comments kind of get tempered a little bit," Crennel said. "That's the best thing that we can do is to win a ball game... I've got to take the next step with them and get them able to make the play rather than give up the play."

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