Sunday, October 13, 2013
Game 6
Postgame Player Quotes
Chiefs QB Alex Smith

How does 6-0 feel?

"Great, it feels great. Awesome. You just keep taking them one at a time and it's cliché, but we keep coming out with victories. They're special, anytime you get them. They're hard to come by in this league. It's great."

What was the preparation for Raider week like? How was your first experience?

"I mean, with all of the new guys on the team, especially this year, it was educational. The entire week was educational. We were educated on the rivalry, going all the way back to the merger and those two teams and how old it was, just what kind of rivalry it was. It was good. It was great all week. Coach did a great job of that (because) there are quite a few new guys in the locker room."   

Did you play the role of Len Dawson?

"I'll take it anytime I get my name in with Len Dawson, I'll take it. But, we struggled getting into a rhythm, just continued to put ourselves in a hole on first and second down. We have to be better on first and second downs and then you get into better third downs. When you're playing a defense like that, I mean we watched the film all week and we knew it, when you get into 3rd-and-longs, it's going to be a long day. They're good. They would run anything and everything imaginable on 3rd-and-long and its coming from everywhere. Those are tough situations and we needed to stay out of them and we didn't. I didn't think we did that great of job with it. I think the key thing for us on offense was there before half, getting that drive put together and finally getting some points, getting something going before halftime and going into half with a tied game."

Did the Raiders mix up the zones on you guys?

"They did a great job mixing it up. I felt like we never could get a read on it, on what they were doing offensively. They just kept rolling through the calls and mixing it. They did a great job. They caught us off guard a few times. They caught me off guard."

How much of a lift did your defense give you?

"I mean they were playing lights out today and when the crowd was going, it was tough. I know sitting there on the sideline, you could tell. That's a hard place, hard environment to execute in. Then they got the turnovers, there in the second half; that ended up changing the game."

Were you empathetic to Terrelle Pryor?

"No, not at all. I've had my fair share of the games you play on the road. You know what it's like as a quarterback on offense, to go into a noisy place is tough. I don't know if there is anything quite like that, today, it was pretty special."

Have you ever seen a 3rd-and-47?

"No, not ever. It's not fun to call that play."

Were you under a little more duress this week again?

"Yeah, it's kind of a little bit ugly, the last two weeks, for sure. It's tough. It's so easy to get caught up in the stats and the QB rating and all that stuff, the QBR and all that stuff now; for me, throwing it away is still the smart play though, if you're a rusher and you can get out of the pocket and throw it away, then it's a good play. I'm going to continue to do that and no question, there's definitely room for improvement. We have to get better and we will. We have to and the great thing is we got the win. We're 6-0 and the way we played on offense today can certainly get a lot better; (it was) frustrating a little bit, but encouraging at the same time. We'll try to continue it. This is the first year and some of these things we're going through for the first time. We have to continue to take steps."

How much easier is it to throw the ball away when the defense is playing like that?

"It is. I mean if you're losing and you're down, you need to start forcing the ball sometimes. You saw that with them, losing and the pressure coming and the balls went up and our defense made plays; that changed the game. A little bit of it is the battle of patience as the quarterback sometimes. As frustrating as it can be, yeah I want go out there and be perfect and throw for a bunch of yards and touchdowns, but that's not always what it's going to be. They're a good team. That's a good unit, well-coached. I thought they did a good job today, defensively."

Do you watch your defense when you're on the bench?

"Yeah I watch it. I love it."

Coach said you guys need to start quicker. How do you do that?

"We execute it. It starts with that, execute on first and second downs, get yourself in some better third downs and move the chains. That's the bottom line, especially when we struggle to do it so much. (There were) so many 3rd-and-longs today, especially early on in that game. It was difficult."