CHIEFS HEAD COACH ANDY REID
Opening Statement:"I don't have any of the injuries to update you on. The guys are just coming in now. I think we came out relatively healthy. Thanks to the fans for the great job they did. They were unbelievable yesterday and their support, we felt it, and this time of the year that's important. After watching the tape I felt like I did yesterday about the team. I thought they did a good job in all three phases, we contributed. That was important and something that we hadn't done for a few weeks. We're tough when that takes place. With that I thought the coordinators had a nice game plan put together. Defensively, Bob Sutton did a nice job. Matt Nagy on the offensive side I thought did a nice job, and Dave Toub with special teams. The run game obviously was a factor in the game. It was good to get Kareem (Hunt) going again and I thought he was very productive. Along with Charcandrick (West) it was good to get him in the end zone. Which leads you to the offensive line, I thought the offensive line played one of their better games, both in the pass game and the run game. Offensively we need to do a better job in the red zone. We want touchdowns not field goals, but Harrison (Butker) has done a nice job kicking the football on the other end of that. He's done a real good job there. Defensively, I thought our defensive line, our secondary played very well. Our defensive front, when I say the defensive line I include the linebackers in that mix. So the front I thought was very solid. The secondary I thought flew around and did some nice things back there. We had a couple picks and that was important. The turnovers are always important. With that it's a short week so we've all been in here grinding on the Chargers. We know we have an opportunity to play a good football team. They're red hot right now and we know that. We look forward to that challenge of playing them. Like I said, we've kind of put this game aside and because of the short week we've moved on."
Q: Your defense seemed to be much more physical and aggressive. Did you feel like that was the case?
REID:"I thought we flew around, I thought we rallied to the ball well and then I thought we tackled well. We've had spurts of that, but over the last few weeks it hasn't been as consistent as anybody wanted including the players. I thought they did a real nice job with that. Aggressive, yeah they were aggressive. I know Bob changed up a couple of little things in there and that worked well too."
Q: Coach Sutton had a different challenge without Marcus Peters out on the field. Did that force you to look in different directions and find some things that could have been there that you were missing because you didn't look for them?
REID:"I think it was probably more the changes, and they were subtle little things just moving people around a little bit on the front. He had a nice little scheme going and it wasn't as much on the back end as it was on the front end. It sure looked good. It worked well."
Q: You said that Marcus would be back in the lineup on Saturday. Is that something that you evaluate and you spend some time thinking about given the way you guys played yesterday?
REID:"No, he's back. The suspension is over and now he's back in and ready to roll. That's the way I'm going to handle it and I know that's the way he'll handle it. For whatever wrong that took place he paid that price and now he's back and I expect nothing but the best from him."
Q: When you spoke to him did he express some regret over the way things went down?
REID:"I'm not going to get into all that. I know he loves to play the game. That's what I know. He's a big part of this team so he'll be back in and ready to go."
Q: Just to make sure that you've been asked it and have an opportunity to answer directly. The report from the NFL Network that there was an altercation on your bus between Marcus and one of the coaches. Can you confirm that or deny it?
REID:"I don't want to get into all that. I've just kind of stated what I've stated. I'm not getting into all that. He's back in and ready to roll now and start from scratch."
Q: You mentioned the defensive line getting pressure. One of the guys up front Rakeem Nunez-Roches one of the things he said after the game is he feels a lot more comfortable now showing his personality, just an energy-giver that you talked about before. How have you seen his development and him being comfortable in that role?
REID:"He's one of those guys that comes to work every day and he has one speed. He does it in practice, he does it in the games. So he's a great example, I think, to everybody on our team for somebody that was cut from our football team, not because of bad play but just because we had to make a roster move. He was on the street, nobody picked him up in the National Football League. 31 teams had an opportunity to pick him up and nobody did and now he's coming back and you could argue he's one of our most consistent players on the defensive side of the football. It's because of hard work and his attitude. He's maximizing his potential. Through that he's an easy guy to coach. You tell him to do something he's going to do it. He's not just going to do it against a bag, he's going to do it live he's going to do it 100 miles an hour. My hats off to that kid. He does it with a smile on his face. He brings it. He has fun doing it. I can't say enough about him."
Q: When did you first develop your philosophy for letting people and encouraging players to show enthusiasm after plays and giving them the freedom to do that?
REID:"The league puts the restrictions on it that are there. They have the rules. I've told you before I don't really like stopping at red lights, but I do. The problem is taking two minutes off my life to stop at a red light, but it saves lives including my own, so I do that. We have rules that we have to do even though sometimes we don't like them. Then on our team we have rules that you have to stay within, but with that I expect you to let your personality show. I don't want you to be somebody that you're not. We brought you here to be who you are within these broad rules that we have."
Q: Did you notice that when you were coaching in college players seemed to play better when they had the freedom to kind of have fun and express themselves after plays?
REID:"I'm not the one that's a big celebrator and all that, but I know guys like doing it. I like guys that love to play the game. Everybody's different and I think it's important that they show their personality, whatever that is and different guys do it different ways. I saw Laurent Duvernay-Tardif yesterday get a little crazy, well he's not going to be able to do that as a surgeon and if he does I hope he's operating on you and not me. It's different. It's a different world out there a bit, but I expect them to show their personality."
Q: Can you give us an update on Matt Nagy calling the plays?
REID:"I think he's doing a super job there. Real good job. He and the quarterback are on the same page and its good energy. It allows me to see some things, work other areas. But I think he's doing a nice job."
Q: Even with the highs and lows of this year, is this Alex Smith's best season to you?
REID:"I think he's a done a nice job. I don't know exactly, we're not to the end yet. I don't know exactly how to evaluate that right now and I probably would do him wrong doing that, but I know he's playing good football. We've still got games left and that's the neat thing about football is you don't get that full grade until you're done with the season. He's sure done a nice job up to this point."
Q: What about the Chargers? Where have they picked it up since you played them?
REID:"They had a new staff and then they had the move. I think they've kind of settled into both those things. They're playing fast, aggressive. Philip (Rivers) is playing well at the quarterback position. Defense is flying around. Doing a good job on special teams. I had a chance to look at all three phases and they're playing hard. They're 7-2 so they're flying around."
Q: Darrelle Revis played half of the snaps, said he was knocking the cobwebs off and he played most of them yesterday. What do you see from him week to week as far as him getting back in the swing of things?
REID:"I could actually see it Wednesday when we practiced. He looked more comfortable. I think every day that we go it will be that same type of thing. He looked good yesterday and did some real nice things."
Q: What's the nature of playing a team the second time? That was a very different game yesterday than the first time you played against the Raiders. The first game against the Chargers they were really having problems and you guys were all over them early on. What is the nature of how the second game plays out and how much the first game plays into what happens the second time?
REID:"I think we know each other, we know the players and players know players. You have an opportunity to play each other twice a year and we've done it here for a few years with some of the same guys. But every game is different, it doesn't really matter if it's in conference or not. So you have to come up with a little wrinkle here or there. They have a pretty good idea of what we do by now and we have a pretty good idea of what they do. So you come up with a couple little wrinkles and then you get back down to the turnovers and field position, all of the basics and those become even more important than they normally are."
Q: Did you spend any time this week talking with the players about the stakes of this game coming up or is this just another week in that regard?
REID:"I think the players, they know that. We always say if you're in the last quarter of the season or so and you're within shooting distance, you get to the month of December and you're in the mix then every game becomes very important. Not that they're not otherwise, but the players know that. Have I talked to them? Yeah, I mention those things every once in a while."
Q: This is the first Saturday night regular season primetime game in the history of Arrowhead. Is this atmosphere and what you have going into this week, is this what it's all about for you to have kind of all of the stakes?
REID:"We always talk about the parity in the league and all of a sudden you're sitting there and it's a pretty good game for you guys. For the NFL, they've strived to bring it to this and it's a great deal. It's great for the coaches and players. The fans, it's great. The city. it's great. It's exciting and I think we all feel it. We just have to focus in on the game plan and the scheme and what really takes place and what's most important and that's getting it down so you can go out and function at a high level."
