OPENING STATEMENT:"As far as the injuries go Eric Berry is making progress, most likely will start practicing when we return, likewise with Jamaal (Charles) and De'Anthony (Thomas). Everybody else really is ok. We came out of the game with guys that played, pretty unscathed. First of all, I think every win that you get in the National Football League is a good win. I think our defense really stepped it up, the leadership on the defense really stepped it up. We've had a couple injuries there but Justin Houston, Tamba (Hali), Dontari (Poe), Allen Bailey, (Husain) Abdullah, and then Sean Smith having been from there and knowing that environment, really showed great leadership yesterday. During the tough times when things could have gone either way, our defense really stepped up and kind of ended those situations abruptly. Offensively, I thought we played good, hard, aggressive football. The offensive line, anytime the runners can run like they ran, the offensive line has to be doing a good job. And they did that. Knile (Davis) ran really hard and aggressive and I was proud of him for doing that. We've got to continue to eliminate the turnovers. I count the sack and safety in the end zone as turnovers. I think they came out with nine points off of the turnovers. We had the two fumbles one we but the runner and one by the quarterback. We've got to do a better job there, none of it happens with the leadership of the quarterback out there, as far as the positive things go with the offense. He's in complete control and we put a lot on his plate. And he always answers, whether it's rerouting the run according to what we see and/or the pass game. He made some big throws there. You have to give Joe McKnight some credit too. Joe did a nice job of working in there in the pass game and played well. Special teams we had a couple penalties there that negated some big plays. The tough thing with the special teams is we've had a few of the core players on special teams end up being starters. So as much as any position the special teams have to play together, and they have to do that as a unit. So we are piecing new pieces in there, the one consistent is that they are playing hard. We will get the rest of it straight there. But it's just a matter of time. We just have to have a little patience there, and this isn't a patient business. But you have to have a little patience there to get that right. And Dave (Toub) is working along with his players like crazy to get that right."
Q: How much of a concern is ball security with Knile Davis? I know he had a good day, but he dropped the ball a couple times.
REID:"Yeah, he did. The crazy part about that is both of them were high and tight. We always talk about keeping that leverage on the ball. One of them he probably should have put that second hand on it in traffic. The other one was kind of a freak deal. I really haven't worried much about him in that area and you saw that we came right back to him. It wasn't like we sat him down so the concern is not there. You can't put that ball on the ground though, that's the bottom line. And he's aware of that. He can learn from that."
Q: Are Jamaal Charles and Joe McKnight similar in what they can do? More so than Jamaal and Knile Davis?
REID:"One of the challenges as a coach is you try to play to a player's strengths and what they aren't good at you keep working to get better at. One of Joe's strengths is he is a good route runner and Jamaal is too. So they are similar. So you try to incorporate that in there and it's up to him to do it. Those are read routes that he was running, so he had an option of what he needed to do there. So you kind of tip your hat to him, he made the right reads and did a nice job. The quarterback and him were on the same page with limited amount of reps which is also a part of that."
Q: Alex Smith has been sacked 11 times in three games, you talked about eliminating turnovers, how do you eliminate sacks?
REID:"Some of that, especially early, was my responsibility. We were in long yard situations, talking about third-and-forevers and I'm asking the guy to take seven step drops to throw the ball. So I've got to be a bit smarter with the play calling in a couple situations. And in other ones we need to make sure we block the right guys and do the right things."
Q: What about Eric Fisher, I know he's had some detractors since he's been in Kansas City, in this game he had some good moments. What do you think about him?
REID:"I don't know about the detractors, we feel very good about him and how he handles things. He's a good football player and he's young. He'll just keep getting better and he did a nice job yesterday. It doesn't matter who you are or what position you play, you've got to give players a little bit of time to grow. You get picked number one and it comes with a little scrutiny. You're going to have a few eyes on you, but he's done a nice job this year. We like the progress he's making. Does he have room for improvement? Absolutely, we all do."
Q: In the second drive of the second half following Alex's fumble, four of the last five plays went for over 10 yards. How important of a drive was that for Alex and the offense?
REID: "Yeah, I thought that was big and you feel momentum swaying one way and you want to try and pull it back, get it going in your direction and I think we were able to do that. So, I'd tell you yes. I thought that was a positive start."
Q: Sean Smith was one of the leaders out there yesterday. What did you take away from his game yesterday?
REID: "I thought that his whole approach going down there, that can go one of two ways when you go back to not only where he makes his home, but also where he played. You can lose your focus and you can allow clutter to get in there and distract you. He didn't do that. I didn't think any of the guys from there allowed that to happen. Dwayne (Bowe) makes that his home and (Anthony) Fasano also had played there. So, I didn't think any of those guys let the clutter in and as a result, to answer your question, I thought Sean (Smith) played a good game too. He did well. He was very aggressive and seemed to have a pretty good feel of what was going on."
Q: Three tight ends lined up together is little old school. Did you use that for this specific game or is there more of that coming?
REID: "We put that in. Really, we put it into OTAs and then we ran it a little bit last week that personnel group where we threw the ball, but then we did run. So, we thought we could get a decent match there with them. You look at (Demetrius) Harris and the improvement, I mean you look at the improvement that he's made and those physical blocks that he made in that game. That was pretty impressive. I haven't mentioned the coaches. I thought the coaches did a nice job on both sides of the ball and special teams, just game planning for this, for the Dolphins. I have a lot of respect for Joe (Philbin) and the job that he does down there and the things that he's overcome with that organization there. So, anyways, to answer your question, yes."
Q: With three tight ends, traditionally that tells the other team you are going to run the ball, but with (Anthony) Fasano and (Travis) Kelce and the development of (Demetrius) Harris, is one of the reasons you put them out there is maybe you can't tell if it is a run play?
REID: "Yeah. They give you some flexibility because they're all good receivers and the thing that probably will surprise you the most like I said was Harris and his ability to block."
Q: What did you think of Dee Ford yesterday? Was that another small step for him?
REID: "Yeah, I though he played well. Last week he was in six plays and most of those plays he was in a drop position. This week he had an opportunity to rush the passer and you saw the job that Bob (Sutton) and Gary (Gibbs) did with him putting him in those positions and that's what he does best right now. I thought he was able to put some pressure on the quarterback and he was playing fast, reckless-type football. It was good."
Q: Coming off of last week's 3 of 6 in the red zone to 3 of 3 yesterday, what was the difference?
REID: "I think red zone and those third downs are kind of big stat categories. If you don't do well in those two spots, you're normally going to come up short from an offensive standpoint. So, we did well the week before in third down, not as well in the red zone. This week we were able to do okay there. We had some nice plays between Joe (McKnight) and (Travis) Kelce and Alex (Smith). They worked that out, did some nice things there. Hats off to those guys."
Q: How much does having that extra day in between effect how you guys game plan?
REID: "Our schedule will go like this, we'll work today. The guys will be in today. They'll look at the tape and do their lifting and running and that, then they'll have the next two days off and then we'll come back in and just go a normal week. So, Thursday will be a Wednesday and then you keep them riding the same routine and go through the week there."
Q: At the end of the day, how do you judge whether or not your punter had a good day?
REID: "I thought the punter did pretty well. He had a pretty good day. I thought that he was able to change some of the field position for us to our advantage. I thought overall, I think he averaged about 51."
Q: When you guys were a little slow getting going, he turned the tables.
REID: "Yeah he did. He did. Field position I thought was big. Field position was big in both areas. I'm not sure that I've ever been in a game where we've been backed up as much as we were, but at the same time, he was able to get us out of trouble there. "
Q: How big is it for you and for the team to have responded to adversity and finished like you have been wanting them to?
REID: "Yeah, well they've developed a certain character there. Sometimes you have to go through some tough times to develop that, but they're playing hard like I've mentioned. They're eliminating clutter and playing hard. That's a good foundation to start with and you get your execution right as you go there."
