CHIEFS HEAD COACH ANDY REID
POST GAME PRESS CONFERENCE
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Regarding injuries

"Really, the injury was Jamal Charles, who got stepped on the side, but he was okay. Branden Albert hurt his ankle a little bit at the beginning, but he was able to come back in and play the game. I was proud of our football team the way they came out. They really played good football that first half. I think the defense had a dominant game. They played really well and had a defensive shutout or whatever is equivalent to that. The blocked punt wasn't good, but we followed with some nice returns after that. I thought we could do better for the long drives. We could do better with the long drives, but we did take advantage of the short field, offensively. All in all, it was a good game, but we come out of this with things that we can work on and get better and we're going to do that. We will start back on Wednesday and have a good practice."

Defensively, did you see this coming? Were you building towards this?

"I don't know if you could say that; I'd tell you that you're striving to play good football and our guys did that. They came out and I thought played dominant football at times and they played with emotion and I thought they carried that for four quarters, which was impressive."

Was that hard to predict?

"I'm not into predictions. I know those are questions that are asked a lot, but I'm just into going out and doing our business and making sure that we play good, solid football, so that's what we attempted to do today and I thought we were able to accomplish that."

The way Alex Smith played today, is that what you thought you were getting in him all along?

"He did a nice job. There were times where they presented situations where there was a lot of man coverage, packing the box in there. He had some nice checks to put us in good positions and no turnovers. I thought it was just good, smart, solid football and he made some good throws in there, too."

How would you evaluate the win?

"I thought everybody pulled together and did a nice job. It's not about one guy; it's about a team coming together and playing together offensively and defensively and everybody doing their jobs on special teams. As a head coach, I felt good about that. I thought the guys did a nice job. There were some highs; there were some lows, but I thought they fought through the lows and didn't get too high on the highs and kept playing hard, aggressive football. You want to win every game you possibly can in the National Football League; that's what you strive for, what you work hard for all week, so you cherish it. We've got a plane ride coming up going home and we're going to enjoy it. Then it's time to get back to work."

How do you think Eric Fisher played?

"I thought he played good football. They had one (pressure) early, when they got him on a bull rush and then I thought he settled down and played good, tough, solid football. That's what we expect from him. I thought he played very well."

Could Jamaal Charles have played more, after getting injured?

"He did go back in after getting stepped on. He went back in for a play and we pulled him out. We got him taken care of. We just wanted to make sure he was okay, as we go forward. I also wanted to give some of the young guys an opportunity to get some reps in."

How would you describe Justin Houston's performance?

"He came in blocking passes, getting sacks. He had one big hit. He's tough to stop. It's important that he brings that every week, so the young guys can see it. On defense, you want to be strong up the middle and he gives us that opportunity to be strong. Week in and week out, you've got to be sure to bring that and he's wired the right way to do that."

What are your thoughts on the collective defensive effort?

"I thought the defense played very well. Gus (Bradley) has done a great job of putting this team together and he brings great energy to this organization, which I think is important. He's taking it step by step. He has a lot of young players, but I thought our defense did a pretty good job. We stopped this running back (Maurice Jones-Drew) and he's pretty stinking good. We were able to do that, so my hat goes off to those guys; they played their hearts out."