Croyle has night he'd like to forget

Friday, August 24, 2007
While Kansas City's Brodie Croyle (at left) struggled mightily Thursday night, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees was hitting on all cylinders in the Saints' 30-7 romp at Arrowhead. Kevin White/Special to the Daily Mail

By Mack McClure

Nevada Daily Mail

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- This was supposed to be the proving-ground game, a coming-out party, for Brodie Croyle, the Kansas City Chiefs' quarterback of the future, wasn't it?

Thursday night's NFL preseason game with the New Orleans Saints was supposed to cement Croyle's status as the Chiefs starting quarterback, distancing himself from veteran Damon Huard and third-stringer Casey Printers.

It never happened.

With Huard inactive because of a sore right calf muscle, Croyle had a chance to put his stamp on the No. 1 spot in three quarters of work, but he struggled mightily in the Saints' 30-7 blowout of the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

"I had a great opportunity to make my case that it was time for me to be a starter and I didn't do it," Croyle said of his miserable 5-for-17 passing night for 45 yards. He was continually pressured in three quarters of action, getting sacked twice and throwing one interception.

"We didn't show much," Croyle said of the Chiefs not getting deep in their playbook. "Nobody shows much, but we had opportunities to make plays; we just didn't do it

Based on Croyle's inconsistency through three preseason games for the 0-3 Chiefs, Huard hasn't lost any despite not even playing a down Thursday. Huard led the Chiefs to a 5-3 record last season, subbing for the departed Trent Green, who sustained a severe concussion in the season-opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, and finished with the second-best quarterback rating in the league (behind Indianapolis' Peyton Manning) at 98.0.

"I have no clue," Croyle said of his bid to win the starting berth. "Obviously, (Thursday) didn't help. We'll just go with whatever it is."

The Chiefs have only scored 29 points in their three preseason games, the fewest among any team in the NFL in the preseason. They have a road trip to St. Louis next week to end the preseason.

So what's wrong with the offense?

Croyle made no bones about it. He was shouldering the blame.

"Me, to start with," he said. "I'm the quarterback. I'm supposed to make plays and I didn't do it. It will hopefully be the last time that we're talking about me not making plays. I felt like I took a step back.

"I obviously played better last week. Things just didn't come together. This was going to be our most extensive playing time (Thursday) and we fully expected to score more points and next week, I probably won't play that much."

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: