The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Los Angeles Chargers, 24-10, on Sunday afternoon to move to 3-0 on the season. Head Coach Andy Reid met with the media following the game.
"All in all, it was a good game. The turnovers on their side allowed us to get early scores. I thought our defense played well. They came up with some big interceptions. I thought the interceptions by T Mitch (Terrance Mitchell) were big plays and good for him. When you're playing opposite of an All-Pro corner (Marcus Peters), you're going to get tested and he stepped up and I thought did a nice job there. Right at the end, for whatever reason, was messy. I thought down the stretch in the fourth quarter, both lines – the defensive line, and that's including linebackers, and the offensive line - I thought stepped up and did a nice job. You saw the sack by 50 (Justin Houston) and you saw the touchdown by 27 (Kareem Hunt) I thought those were big plays obviously for us. With (Hunt), you would have liked him to go down, but that's a tough thing to do with the game over at that point if you get a first down, but he kept running. He's young and he'll learn. That's a tough thing to ask a young guy to do. All in all, there were some good things against what I consider a good football team. I think (Chargers' Head Coach) Anthony (Lynn) is doing a heck of a job with this group. I mean they fight, man they fight right to the end. He's been dealt some complicated things as a new head coach to overcome here and it's hard to be a head coach in this league, a new head coach in this league as it is, let alone have the move and all the things that go with that, so everybody just hang with him - he's doing a heck of a job. I appreciate our fans and them being here. There was a lot of red here amongst the blue and we appreciate that. We could hear you and you fed us that second half there and we appreciate that."
1. Reid talked about notching Kansas City's third win in as many weeks.
"3-0 is tough - 1-0 is tough. Winning one game is tough in this league. So the neat part about it is there's parity - a tremendous amount of parity - in this league. Any given team is given an opportunity. 3-0 is good, and at 0-3, you're not completely out of it, that's what's beautiful about this. When I say people right here keep should give Anthony (Lynn) a shot, he can bounce that thing right back, it can turn around in a heartbeat."
2. Reid discussed the play of quarterback Alex Smith, who completed 16 of 21 passes for 155 yards and two touchdowns. Smith was especially efficient in the first half, completing all six of his passes for 59 yards and both scores.
"He did a nice job. He attacked early and had some nice throws there early. I could have done a better job at getting him in position and had some better plays, we just weren't able to get in a rhythm and I'll take responsibility for that. We needed to do a better job of that in the second half. We were able to change the field position, which helped. If a positive came out of that, that was it and that's a big thing in this league. You have to drive a long field and that's a tough thing to do for an opponent."
3. Reid also commented on rookie running back Kareem Hunt, who had another day to remember on Sunday. Hunt rushed for 172 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, pushing his season total to a league-leading 401 yards on the ground.
"He's doing a heck of a job. Now listen, you don't know until you have them on your team. We can say whatever we want to say and do all the elevations you do, which our personnel department did a great job with that, but the fact is, once you get them here, you kind of know that what you saw on tape is real and that him being able to be as strong as he is in the fourth quarter has definitely been a positive for us."
The rookie tailback put the game on ice with a 69-yard touchdown run in the closing minutes, marking his third-straight game with a 50-plus yard touchdown.
"The offensive line did a nice job. Let's give the O-line credit and the tight ends credit for the job they did. But it's his vision, to kind of bring it back, to be patient enough to bring it back along the flow - you have to have good eyes for that. We've all been around backs that run right in the back. You see it all the time, they don't trust their vision. He does that. It's unique for a young guy."
Reid would have preferred if Hunt simply took a knee after getting the game-ending first down rather than running all the way for the score, but he saw it as a teaching moment.
"Listen, I don't want to ruin a good thing, and he was sky high. He came over to me and said he should have gone down. Everybody told him in the huddle. All we needed was a first down and then go down. I've seen it happen one time. Brian Westbrook did it one time for us, but that's a tough deal. I think you saw Rick running down the sideline, everybody knew, but when you have green grass in front of you, as hard as it is to get in that end zone, it's hard to turn it off."
4. Reid touched on his defense, which tallied three interceptions on the afternoon. It was the first time the Chiefs picked off an opponent at least three times since Week 3 of last season against the New York Jets.
"That's on everybody. You don't get the picks if you don't have pressure and all those things that go with it. You don't have touchdowns if the offensive line's not blocking - that's how it works. Everybody has a little piece of that interception, but it was good to see him get those and hopefully they keep coming. That's what you're trying to accomplish there."
Hauling in two of those interceptions was defensive back Terrance Mitchell, who had just one career interception prior to the game.
"He's been under the microscope a little bit, obviously. He's getting a lot of opportunities over there, so for him to step up to the challenge, I thought was important, especially against a great player, Phil Rivers is a great player, a potential future Hall of Famer."
"(Mitchell) is a unique kid. Not a lot gets to him. In his own little quirky way, he doesn't let things bother him and he just keeps battling back and that's a positive for us, especially at that position you have to have a real short memory and he's got one."
5. Reid also addressed the protests going on across the league currently.
"I love our team and appreciate the togetherness our team has. I understand the times and I'm very well aware of the things that go on, and that's why I love America. I mean what a great place to live in and I've had a chance to travel overseas and see how things are in different places, so how lucky we are to be in this country, to be able to have an opinion and it's not just the writers that get an opinion, everyone gets an opinion and that's a beautiful thing. I support, at the same time, what our owner said and how he went and put out the statement there so with that, I'll leave it at that."
