KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid met with the media Sunday.
OPENING STATEMENT: “I do not have any injury updates, other than what I gave you last night. The guys will be coming in here and knocking that part out here as the afternoon goes on. Some of the positive things I saw from the game, it was good to get our number one defense out there. I felt for two series there they did a great job. I then took out three of the defensive linemen and subbed out some other people as we went on. That was a real positive. Getting the young guys a lot of good reps, I thought that was a positive. Getting our second quarterback in and getting some work with the number one offensive line, I thought that was a big thing. The turnovers, you cannot have those. We had a fumble and had a couple of dropped balls in key situations, and penalties, you have to take care of those things. I thought the one’s did a nice job with our pass rush, but as it went on, the other guys have to make sure that they get in there and get pressure on the quarterback. You cannot give these quarterbacks too much time in this league. Down the field, you have to be able to make plays, particularly in major situations. We can get better in those areas. I think it’s a great learning tape for us. There were just some small things that can add up that could hurt you in games. We’ll go back and look at this. I don’t think anybody came out happy after the game. Our guys take this pretty seriously. That’s kind of the overall picture of what I saw.”
Q: Is Darwin Thompson maybe more advanced than you anticipated he might be at this point of his career?
REID: “I’ll tell you what, he’s doing a nice job. He’s able to see the blitz, which is a big thing for the young guys. He has good vision in the run game. Then, he has a pretty good understanding of the pass game. He’s really a focused kid. He’s kind of a no-nonsense (guy). He wants to do it right, is real focused, studies a lot. I like the way he’s made up in that way.”
Q: From what you know about Tyrann Mathieu’s injury, would he have stayed in the game if last night’s game had been a regular season game?
REID: “Yeah, there’s a good chance, yeah.”
Q: Unless you snuck him in late in the game, Tremon Smith didn’t play on offense, what is going on with him?
REID: “Well, this was a game we weren’t going to necessarily play everybody but we told the players that. There were a few guys that didn’t play and he was one of them. It was no reason other than time there, it just ran out, in reps.”
Q: A few guys knocked out of the game with injuries, does this make you rethink the amount of playing time for guys in the third game?
REID: “Now listen, I’ve been doing this for a number of years and things happen. It’s a physical game so I’ve had success doing it this way and I’m not complacent. That can be a sign of complacent and that’s not what I’m saying. It’s a physical game and the things we got, I mean we will probably come out of this with one or two guys who are hurt for the duration, but that happens. You’re seeing a lot of these major injuries happen in practice and knock on wood we’ve kept it out of that. So, things happen. That’s what I’ll tell you. For the most part, we came out relatively healthy though, I think.”
Q: What kind of learning experience can the team learn as a whole from last night’s weather and the delay?
REID: “Todd, it’s one of those things where things happen, and you just have to stay focused. Both teams started off a little slow yesterday. Both teams who have scored points in their history with the players and there weren’t a lot points scored early. You have to stay focused on that when you have a few distractions. It’s always good to get a little of that in there. Doesn’t happen very often during the year, unless you go to the Super Bowl and then you got that 15-minute wait right there. Other than that, it doesn’t happen very often before the start of the game. You can always come back to the focus, you want to stay focused, and keep yourself right. You still have an opportunity to play in the game.”
Q: As far as practice goes, do you feel your guys get a different energy now that you are back at the facility and sort of getting the season going?
REID: “Well, you get more into an in season mode. You practice in the afternoon as opposed to morning and you set your schedule up where it is a dry run, not that you are going to increase plays because you are not, but you still keep it vanilla and go through the process as you would in a regular week. Now will we keep installing stuff, yes, we will keep installing new stuff, that is what we do. We kind of blend it all together, but the main schedule is what they see during the regular season.”
Q: Most of your snaps at quarterback last night went to your first year and second year guys. In general how did that young group look especially guys like Herb Miller and Mark Fields?
REID: “Both of them did some good things. I thought (Mark) Fields played physical and did a decent job as far as coverage. (Herb) Miller had the big one at the end. A couple of them actually down the stretch there, but other than that I think that they started off well. I thought (Charvarius) Ward played well. He had the big pick before half time. I thought he played well throughout. He had a big break up in the first series and did a nice job all the way around.”
Q: The second offensive line group has gotten the bulk of the work the last couple of weeks, anybody standing out in that group to you? I know Cam (Erving) is one of your veterans, but maybe some of the young guys that stand out?
REID: “I think they all held their own. Really (Ryan) Hunter, and (Nick) Allegretti did a nice job in there. And you’ve got (Khalil) McKenzie and (Jimmy) Murray in there who were able to get some work in there too. We were able to get (Dino) Boyd a few reps in there in that second group at tackle, and he got a few snaps against their ones there. He struggled against them, but he came back and got settled down with the other group.”