Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
October 21, 2013

OPENING STATEMENT: "Really for injuries, we don't have any injuries to announce. I thought it was a good team win. I will always tell you that I think every win is a good win. This was against a good football team, a very talented football team, well coached. They gave us a run right to the end there. I was impressed with our guys. Through the highs and the lows of the game, we were able to maintain the positive attitude that they did throughout the game. Nobody ever hung their head, during the game or didn't rise up to the challenge. I think we did a good job. I appreciate the support of the fans; they were all in and that was very impressive again. I thought the coaches had a good game plan, all three phases. I don't mention Doug Pederson enough, but I thought he did a nice job of putting the offensive game plan together. There was some rhythm that was developed during the game, which I thought was important and we got some early points, which I thought were important. Defensively, Bob Sutton, again, put together a nice game plan. Things started off a little slow in the first half, but they made some adjustments in the second half and they came out and did well. In the fourth quarter, they dominated. That was a tribute to him. Then Dave (Toub) again on special teams, the return game continues to allow us to have good field position. Then, obviously the kicking part of it; we have a punter and a kicker that are tremendous. They force the other team into long field position drives and that's tough in the National Football League. Things that we need to get better at, we have to eliminate the turnovers. We had two turnovers, the fumble and also the interception. We can't do that. When you play good football teams you have to eliminate those. The thing we did, we overcame it and made some plays after that. We had a couple of long drives that I thought were positive on the offensive side. One of the long drives, Alex (Smith) was eight for nine on, and I thought he did a nice job of orchestrating that. Defensively, we didn't have the turnovers, but we still were able to get to the quarterback and pressure the quarterback. A couple of those plays we learned that we have to play the whole play. I thought that kid did a nice job, against a good defense of maintaining his composure and then extending plays, when things weren't there down the field. He moved around and played dodge ball with some of the defensive line there and was able to get off a couple long plays. Again, those are things we can learn from. Again, Tamba (Hali) and (Justin) Houston had a nice game. I can go through, DJ (Derrick Johnson) – I probably don't mention him enough here – I thought played very well in the run game and the pass game. On the one throw back early, he actually got picked on that play when you look at it close, which allowed the tight end to be there, and they ended up dropping the ball. But it wasn't because he was fooled by the play. All in all, I thought the guys did a good job. There are plenty of things to work on in all three phases. We have to continue to get better, and we have plenty of room to get better. We'll go back to work and we have Cleveland coming in this week. I know how strong that organization is. They've made some changes there. I had some close friends that were there prior to the start of rebuilding that. Mike Holmgren and his crew and then Joe Banner, they were hired with the change in the ownership. Joe is phenomenal, I mean phenomenal with what he does. They're in good hands there; we understand that they have good players. We have to make sure that we're ready to go to play good football."   

Q: Was it a concerted effort to get the ball to the receivers yesterday?

REID: "That and the tight end. We hit the tight end; we really needed to move the ball around a little bit on them and normally that's where this offense is the best. We were able to get everybody involved. I want to say he had, with the exception of throwing it to himself on the tip, eight different receivers or something like that. Normally, that's where this thing is the best, when you just let it run."

Q: What are the two defensive ends doing that we don't see or talk about, or what is their contribution?

REID: "Actually (Mike) DeVito got one of the game balls the week before. He had the five tackles, so he's playing tremendous football. I will put my money on (Tyson) Jackson as being one of the smartest defensive linemen in the National Football League, just knowing what's going on prior to the snap. I'm not sure I've been around one that quite has that feel that he has. He's very intelligent. I don't know what his GPA was or anything like that, I'm just telling you football-wise, he is a sharp cookie. I enjoy both of those two and how they go about their business. Both of them are tough to block and love to play, which is important. Neither of them want to come out of the game; those guys are fighting to play, stay in the game and play. It's neat to be around."

Q: What is their effect on the other guys?

REID: "I think it's very positive. I know Jackson's leadership is very positive and again, his intelligence. I also know DeVito and his approach to the game and the toughness and everything he brings to that, his ability to really hold point right there. It's a nice blend with Dontari (Poe) there and those two outside linebackers."

Q: Can you go through the thought behind the short third down and the throw that was incomplete with two minutes left on the clock?

REID: "I'm not into the four corner stall and all of that stuff. I've never been into that. I try to score points the best way we know how to score. I mean I made the call the best way I know how to score points and how to get first downs the best way. I thought I had a good call there. It didn't work out."

Q: Do you have a magic number in your head of the amount of time left that determines what you do, whether you get the first down or stall the clock?

REID: "Well a lot of things go into that. You have to have a feel of the game and what's going on in the game. You have to know your matchups and how they're working their corners. You look at all this stuff, so I'm with you; other than that, the corners on your guys, I take all of that into consideration. Field position, I take that into consideration. Is my punter's leg healthy, you take that into consideration. All of those things. You go through the same process that I go through. I go back through and I look at all that. When I'm done, I'm the biggest self-critic of all of you. I make sure I go through and look at everything. I thought it was the right thing to do at that particular time. I still feel that way, would have liked a better result."

Q: Can you discuss the impact of getting Anthony Fasano back?

REID: "I don't want to slight the other guys, because they've done a heck of a job stepping in now and they're working things out. That's an important position in this offense. It's closest with the exception of the running backs, it's the closest eligible receiver to the quarterback 99 percent of the time. Normally, it ends up being your quarterback's security blanket in most cases, in most years, in the pass game part of it. To have somebody with his quality back in there, I think is important. It's also somebody that Alex (Smith) trusts, you saw that early in the game. He did a nice job. He was close on both touchdowns. One of them, if we had one more camera, just one more camera angle, they would have said he scored right there. Doggonit."  

Q: Did you get a chance to watch the Denver game last night?

REID: "Yeah, I only saw part of it. By the time that I got home, it was already going, so I missed the whole first part and then I saw a little bit kind of mixed in there."

Q: Is it too early to start looking at standings?

REID: "You know what; I don't look at any of that. I just (look at) the next game, one game at a time. I'm not very good with that other stuff. I'm not very good with numbers, as far as all the numbers go with standings or stats."

Q: How does this 7-0 start compare to the 2004 7-0 start with the Eagles?

REID: "I can't even compare that. I don't know yet. I haven't even thought about that. I told you before, you just get into this thing and you hold things that you can control and that's practicing right and going through the different steps of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you just hold true to that, then you don't ever worry about anything. You don't worry about what people say, you don't worry about records. Prepare yourself, you respect the opponent, you study the opponent and then you get yourself right. If you just stay tight with that, all of the other stuff doesn't matter."

Q: Has this exceeded your wildest imaginations?

REID: "I don't know if you ever—you don't think about that. You're kind of in this dryer going around and around and around. You don't think about that. The players are thinking about getting their lift in in the next couple of days, getting their bodies right, getting some rest and doing whatever things they're doing on their off days, appearance-wise and that, and taking care of that. Then you're on to the next day. You're not thinking about the record and down the road. You're kind of in the moment and you get yourself right. I think it's the same way as a coach. I've never been one that could sit there and go, 'We're going to win this game, we're going to lose this game and we're going to win (this game).' I can't do that. Then, every game you prepare yourself, do the best you possibly can do to win every game; that's how you prepare. Any less, you can't do that in this business."

Q: Is this tunnel vision something you had to instill here after last year in Kansas City?

REID: "I didn't get caught up (in that). I don't know what they thought before. I never got caught up in that. I'm going to tell you, I talked to them about this, but that wasn't because of anything that I thought that they were doing. They might have had this same frame of mind before, I don't know that. I didn't ask. You just kind of come in and say this is what we do and let's go. Everything that we've talked about, they've been okay with. They just kind of go full speed at it, so I appreciate that as a head coach."

Q: You talked about you promising the team that you'd be aggressive. Where did that come from?

REID: "Somewhere, I was born with red hair. That's how I go about it. It's fallen out and turned gray, I've told you that before. You work your tail off to get down there and there's a time and a place where you just go. You dial it up and you score. You've got to have that and we were right there. We're learning, and we're going to get better at that. Next time, we're going to, when we're given that opportunity and that situation in the game and so on, we're going to make sure we get six points out of that and not come up short like that."

Q: It seems like there are more quarterbacks going down around the league. How do you prepare a backup quarterback to take over like that?

REID: "That's a tough and vulnerable position to play in this league. You want to make sure you have two or three of those guys. I've had years like that where I've gone through a couple of them and you want to make sure the guys behind the starter, it's not necessarily, and Jeff Garcia used to use this, 'I'm not the second quarterback, it's 1a and 1b.' That's how it works. You have to be ready to go and ready to play at any time. (If) money becomes an issue, you pay those guys, you do, they're very important."

Q: Ron Wolf used to use a late round pick just to develop a quarterback. Are roster spots so valuable just because of injuries overall are tougher than taking a late-round pick and keep developing?

REID: "Not always. We did the thing with Tyler (Bray) this year, not that it was a draft pick, but it was our thought. But at the same time, you know he has the chance to be a quality player in this league. Ron (Wolf), don't get me wrong, Ron did a phenomenal job with it. I mean, you're talking about a future Hall of Famer here. He's phenomenal at what he did, with what he did. But, those are very valuable guys."

Q: Has the evolution of the quarterback with the zone read contributed to injuries around the league?

REID: "Well, most of them come off of throws. I think this is the way it has been though, for a number of years. I don't have the stats for it, but this isn't something new, not in my eyes, it's not something new. The more you throw the ball, the more chances you have of getting hurt. That's just how it works."

Q: What are your plans for Sanders Commings?

REID: "He'll do another week of work. He's got a three-week window there. (This past week was) one of them and (he has) a couple more. He looked like he moved around pretty well last week; we'll just see how he does this week. He's probably a little sore after last week."

Q: But you'll eventually activate Sanders Commings?

REID: "I think so. We have to make a decision on that. We'll have to see how that goes down the road here."

Q: Where do you see Sanders Commings fitting in here?

REID: "Originally, coming here and through the offseason, we thought he could (play) corner and/or a safety, but then we mixed him in a little bit at the nickel spot. There was some flexibility there. We'll have to see. He's a big physical kid, so we'll just see how it works the next couple of weeks."

Q: Is it realistic that he could do much this season?

REID: "I don't know. Let's see how he does here, the next couple of weeks."

Q: As far as the dancing in the locker room, how much fun has this ride been?

REID: "I just tell the players, you have to let your personality show a little bit. I wasn't dancing, not really, just having fun. Listen, big win, and the guys, you just have to keep it loose for a minute."

Q: You described the season as a washing machine. Does it make you a better football team with the confidence that your team has with these wins?

REID: "You know, I think it's a close group. Even before the wins, I thought it was kind of a close group. I think the more experiences you have together, especially when you work through the tough times, you kind of balance out the good times where it's not too high or too low. I think within that, there's a certain confidence that comes with going through those experiences together. A trust, maybe more than confidence, a trust in each other, if one guy is off, then the next guy will pick it up and vice versa. I think it's the same way between player and coach and I think there is a confidence and a trust that you have with each other as you go with time. You have to go through these experiences, these growing experiences."