Edwards-Helaire says he could have had two hands on the ball ‘a little quicker’

On Thursday, Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Biemiemy said that after Clyde Edwards-Helaire fumbled away the team’s last chance at victory against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night, he knew from his own experience as a player that Edwards-Helaire wouldn’t want to talk about it right away; he’d want to be left alone for a while.

But on Wednesday, they did talk about it.

“You know, Coach EB is always going to have his input,” Edwards-Helaire told reporters via Zoom on Friday. “And ultimately, [players] just have his support system. He played the position. He knows what comes with the position, and he knows what I need to do to execute.

“As far as having a conversation, everything’s going to be pretty much straightforward. I’m not one of those guys that likes gray area; everything for me is pretty much black and white. As far as shooting it straight, that’s what we did: went in there and talked about it — and [now] continue to do what we were going to do week-in and week-out.”

For the second-year running back, that’s just his normal way of dealing with things.

“I’m a routine guy — from Mom, Dad on down, [a] Marine-Army background, everything that I do, I’ve pretty much done the same thing week-in and week-out,” he explained. “Even dating back to last year, everything was pretty much rolling up until my injury. I’m not a guy that when bad things happen, I kind of forget my training — [that] everything goes into panic mode. That’s not me. I kind of lock in [and] pinpoint it [with] tunnel vision — and then go out and do my job like I’m supposed to.”

“Nobody goes out there to intentionally fumble the ball,” Bieniemy observed on Thursday. “Nobody goes out there to intentionally throw an interception. But those are things that we can’t take for granted in those defining moments. We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the football. And when it’s all said and done with, Clyde will learn from this.”

Edwards-Helaire told reporters that he could have had two hands on the ball “a little quicker” than he did — but also that as soon as Baltimore defensive end Odafe Oweh was in his field of vision, the Ravens rookie already had his inside hand on the ball. Edwards-Helaire said that Oweh had “made a great play.”

And he also said that after the game, he had plenty of support from his teammates.

“For the most part, we’re not a team that’s going to point fingers,” said the running back, who now has just one fumble on 265 NFL touches. “As soon as the game was over, we all understand that we have a job, I understand what I needed to do at the moment, everybody understands the things that they needed to correct and/or do — and from that point on, it was all positive reinforcement.”