HEAD COACH ANDY REID
OPENING STATEMENT: "Alright, always a little bittersweet if you're not winning the Super Bowl. That's how this thing works out. We weren't able to advance to that next level, but I'm proud of the team and the effort that they put forward. Even to be put in this position to be able to play against New England. New England did a better job. My hat's off to them; wish them the best of luck for the remaining part of the postseason here, so - a good football team.
Again, there are some things that we did well in this game, there are some things we need to continue to work on. We'll be a better team in the future for this, like I said, it's a good learning experience to understand the intensity level and the magnitude of a game once you reach that second round of the playoffs, things go up a notch and particularly when you're playing against the reigning Super Bowl champs.
We've got an off season here that we've got to handle. Which takes place every year. We've got some free agents that we'll be going in to the off season with that we'll know more in the future on. Time will tell on that. We've got a draft coming up that we've got to get ready for and we'll do that. We'll take a little deep breath here for a little bit and then get ourselves back and ready to roll as a staff and as players. But with that, again, I'm proud of the effort, we just didn't do well enough and I take full responsibility for that. The time is yours."
Q: On clock management.
REID:"No, I could tell the Philly media was up in the booth (laughing). And I saw Adam (Teicher)'s - his article, so - the thinking behind it was that at 2:20 we had an opportunity to get a play in and run a play. We thought it was a good play and an opportunity to possibly score and so now you're sitting at the two minute warning with a touchdown and an opportunity to kick an onside kick. We worked those situations all the time so we wanted to maintain our timeouts the best we could, we didn't want to give the ball back to - at any point - back to New England after we go ahead and score that next touchdown. As it was said and done, we had a penalty involved there so it wasn't a perfect world, didn't work out quite the way we wanted it. So it took a couple shots to get it in and we still had 1:15 or 1:13 right in there that we potentially would've had three timeouts and an opportunity to drive the field, which I thought was huge. It put us in a perfect position to do that, we work, again on that every week. And so I thought that part was handled right. Actually, when Adam asked the question I thought he was talking about the timeouts in the first half, that's what I thought he was referring to. The one play with the 2:20 on the clock we didn't get it run, that was the bottom line, we needed to be able to get that done. And there are things that go into that, I think Alex (Smith) probably explained it the best, we had 89 plays on tape, 89 - 83 official plays. And listen, we were a bit tired at that point and so I put the big fellas in and we didn't get that play off."
Q: Did you have another play call ready to go after that one?
REID:"Yeah, we had another play. Well, we didn't get it off - that was kind of where the problem came in. But those things happen. When it was all said and done, when it was all said and done, we were still in a position where we had plenty of clock to take care of business and that's the bottom line. I thought that part was executed fairly well."
Q: Even after the Jason Avant play where he was tackled short?
REID:"Yeah, I still think we were fine."
Q: On play calling near the end zone.
REID:"Yeah, so when you're down there on the plus five, Randy (Covitz), you want to score - that's what you want to do. It's easy to say 'why not have another play called?' We had another play, absolutely, but you want to give it your best shot - your best plays down in there. Not necessarily a two-minute play, but your best play that you've got on the game plan sheet. You've got to get that one score. If you have anywhere from a minute on - you've got time to execute and win the time - or at least time the game in that situation. So it wasn't - you better give them your best shot down in there. I can tell you that the stepping back there with the penalty - that hurt a little bit. But still, all said and done, we gave it our best shots and we were able to score, we still had plenty of time on the clock that we felt and we were ready to roll."
Q: Where is the threshold at for when you feel like you have to onside kick it?
REID:"Well, again, it depends on who you're playing and how you're moving the football. The one thing you've got to keep in consideration is you do not want to give the ball back, and then you want to be able to get the ball back. If you don't think you're going to get the ball back, then you use your onside kick and you go with it. That's an evaluation you have to make on the field. Now, they were doing some pretty good things offensively at that time, but those are considerations you take in there. Listen, the thing that bothered me the most were the timeouts early in the game. That clock was moving fast, baby, so we need to do a little better job there."
Q: Did you experience any headset communication issues?
REID:"Just a little bit from coach to quarterback. The coach to quarterback headset was cutting in and out just a little bit, not much though. It wasn't bad, but a couple of those first half ones, couple of those."
Q: How soon do you anticipate getting with John Dorsey on your free agents?
REID:"Yeah, Dorse is already, he gets on top of all that stuff and we'll talk here after we do all the player evaluations and that stuff, but he's got a pretty good feel on all of that and how that rolls right there."
Q: With the pending announcement, can you reflect on what Doug Pederson has meant to you as an assistant?
REID:"Yeah, you know what, I still have to talk to him about the whole thing, but he's been very good for me as an assistant."
Q: Can you expand on what has made him so valuable as an assistant?
REID:"Yeah, well he's been with me a long time now, right? So, he's been with me as a player when he was a player. Had an opportunity to coach him there. Then as an assistant coach and then as a head coach, I brought him to Philadelphia and then brought him back as a quality control coach, so a young coach. Just kind of learning the game there from the coaching side, and then watch him grow and develop into what he is now with a potential opportunity to be a head football coach. I mean, how great is that?"
Q: Do you expect him to take some of your staff with him to Philadelphia?
REID:"I don't think so. Starting back with Mike Holmgren, and Mike Holmgren with Bill Walsh, you always kind of check with the head coach on those things. Normally, what you want to do is start and take your own guys and go build a program. That's kind of how you roll. It was a little different in my situation coming here because we were all released. If the staff is intact, normally you talk with the head coach, and we'll do all that, but I don't foresee that. I don't foresee a lot of guys leaving to do that."
Q: With the big names you've got heading into free agency, how does this measure up to what you have to do with your guys, versus what you'll do with guys who are elsewhere in the league? Is this more big-time contributors than you've had in past years?
REID:"Well, listen, I've probably seen it all somewhere in here, so I can't tell you I look at the list and it completely shocks me. That's not where I'm at with it. I know some of these guys are going to return. That's how it rolls. Which ones, and how it works into the cap and all that, that's Dorse's baby there. But, I wouldn't say that it just jumps out at me that, 'woah, I've never seen this before.'"
Q:How do you prioritize free agents in the offseason? Where does Eric Berry rank on your list?
REID: "I don't want to get into ranking the guys, but you can figure all that out. He's a good football player. But they've got to work all that out – I think he wants to be here and we probably want him to be here and all that. But that's all (with) the agents, our people need to get with him and they deal all that and work through all that stuff. I think it's probably premature here. Do I like Eric Berry? I can tell you I love Eric Berry, I could tell you that, right."
Q:Do you miss the personnel side of it or are you glad to only focus on coaching?
REID: "I like being the head coach. I like being the head coach."
Q:Is it safe to say that your new offensive coordinator is already in the building?
REID: "Yeah, I would probably say that."
Q:Is there ever a point where you tell the quarterback to take the five-yard penalty instead of burning a timeout?
REID: "Yeah, there are times when you do that. Again, I thought the situation we were in, I thought we were handling that the right way – we were on top of it, we had the right plays, we knew what we wanted. We came up a little short on the one. Bottom line is we can't forget we scored and we had time to go score again and not give them the ball back. There were some great things that took place up there to get us into that position."
Q:When you look back at this team, what do you think you're going to remember most about this group of players?
REID: "I think that they were tough, resilient, fighters. We had guys that were playing that people probably didn't think could play and contributed big. I'm proud of those guys and the job that they did. I think you say Alex, say whatever he was as a game manager, I think you say he's a game changer. He's 30-years-old and I would think everybody can feel pretty good about saying that. And he did that – you talk about the last drive, you think of the runs that he did and the hits that he took out of bounds that you had an opportunity to add a little yardage onto the play here and there and got back up and kept fighting."
Q:Are you surprised you didn't get as much out of Justin Houston yesterday?
REID: "This is what I thought Justin was able to do – I thought he could hold the point okay. But being able to push off and run with speed, he was going to struggle with that a little bit. When it was all said and done, we probably got just what we thought we would out of him right there."
Q:What message do you have for the fans as far as where you guys are going?
REID: "Every year is different, I got it. And I'll be the first to tell you that, every team is different. But you build foundations, and that's where you have to start. The foundation of the team is just what that question was – there's some toughness, resiliency there, there are some things that they know they can overcome when their back's to the wall. We got the best fans in the National Football League, man. So you work like crazy to bring as many games as you can right in here to Arrowhead and let that 12th man be a part of that – and that's our fans. Our players believe in that. I think that's something that our fans have to look forward to. I think that's a positive. There's a foundation being built – every year is different – there's a foundation being built and good things lie ahead."
Q:If you won the Denver or Chicago game in the regular season, you're the home team.
REID: "That's right, as many games as you can bring to Arrowhead. Home-field advantage, that's not a bad thing. That bye week's not a bad thing. Look at the players that got to play yesterday for the Patriots, the Gronkowskis, Edelmans – these are guys that contributed big in that game and gave Tom (Brady) back his full bunch – a couple of guys on the defensive side that were able to play. That's big. You want to shoot for that, you want to stay and keep yourself in position right from the beginning of the year. Now it's got to drive you, that's the feel. I talked to the players on the plane coming back, individually and they understand that."
