Head Coach Andy Reid
(Opening Statement) “Turnovers will kill you in this league, and we had two of them down the stretch. We have to do better and learn from it. We have to tackle better on the defensive side, and we’ll work on that and get better. The guys played hard. They took advantage of the turnovers.”
(on the Ravens’ run game) “It’s a team effort. When you have the opportunity to tackle, you have to tackle. I don’t think we did very well at that in the first half. When guys are in position, you have to make the tackle. We have to do a better job of getting off blocks. Again, all that said, we had the ball, driving down, which should have been the last series, and we fumbled. We knew they were a very good run team. Guys pushed through it and got us in a position to win the game. So, we have to learn from all of this.”
(on if Kansas City went away from the run to early) “[I] felt we ran the ball real decent in the first half. We came back with it in the second half, and we had a couple plays that lost yardage, and it didn’t help us. We came back with it again, and it ended up in the turnover. I felt like we needed to throw the ball, too. I felt like we needed to do both. We probably didn’t get enough yards rushing.”
(on having different guys in the passing game) “It was kind of, ‘take what you can get.’ We had routes that were good against the call. ‘Wink’ [Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale] did a nice job with the play that he threw at us and getting us there at the end.”
(on how the Ravens’ defense played) “They blitzed less. We put ourselves in some situations on third down in the second half. You can’t do that – not against this team. You’ve got to take care of first and second down. You’ve got to play better football against a good football team.”
(on the fumble at the end of the game) “I haven’t seen the replay, but from a naked eye, it looked like he didn’t have it all quite tucked in. I don’t know if that was an exchange problem or what happened. [I’m] not worried about him fumbling because that’s not what he is.”
(on if Reid is surprised at how his defense played) “We played the two best run teams in the league back to back. We need to do better, and that is the bottom line. The way that I see it, we need to make sure that we tackle when given the opportunity and then get off blocks. Those are the two primary things. And the turnovers, it’s not a secret here on what took place. It’s my team, and I have to make sure that we get those things done.”
(on Patrick Mahomes’ first interception in the month of September in his career) “We don’t, obviously, want the interception, but he has made some plays doing that. But in that case, we probably want that one back.”
(on Tyrann Mathieu’s two interceptions on his first game back) “He really did a nice job.”
(on bouncing back from the loss) “They’re real about this, they know. This isn’t something that they don’t know. I think it’s obvious what took place in this game, and we have to fix it. The leadership in [the locker room], they will get it fixed.”
(on the defense giving up eight touchdowns in the red zone over the past two games on eight attempts) “We are working on it. We’ll keep working on it until we get it right.”
Chiefs Players Game Quotes
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
(on the last drive) “We got into field goal range pretty quickly there. And then we were pretty much trying to get down close, to let [Harrison] Butker kick the field goal. And dude [OLB Odafe Oweh] made a good play. He was getting blocked and threw his hand out and hit it directly on the ball. We were executing, they made a play. You lose games when teams make plays like that in the end.”
(on his first interception in the month of September in his career) “Yeah, I should have just thrown it to WR Demarcus Robinson in the flat, then I saw ‘Trav’ [Travis Kelce] come back to me. When dude grabbed my leg, I thought I could get my other leg down. He spun me and it was a dumb interception. Probably one of the worst interceptions I’ve probably ever had.”
(on what he saw defensively from the Baltimore Ravens) “They played a lot of shell. They kind of played over top of Tyreek [WR Tyreek Hill] pretty much the entire game. They chose their time to double [TE Travis Kelce] a little bit. To look at a positive, I thought the other guys stepped up and made plays. I mean If teams are going to start doing this. I saw Mecole [Hardman]. And ‘D-Rob’ [Demarcus Robinson] with a big touchdown play. Those guys are going to have to contribute for us this year. And so, for them to have games with the caliber of them we played today, we can take that as a positive going into next week.”
(on spreading the ball and the passing game) “Yeah, it’s just how the game went. I said it last week. They were letting Travis [Kelce] and Tyreek [Hill] get open, so I was giving them the ball, but if teams are going to play over Tyreek or double Travis in certain points in the game, then we have the guys that can make the plays. You saw that with the guys who are making plays today. And like I said, I have full confidence in those guys.”
(on the importance of burying a team when you have a double-digit lead) “Yes of course the interception was not only dumb in the sense that it was a bad throw or not even close to the receiver. It was dumb at that point in the game. Even if I just throw to the flat, and he doesn’t get the first down, we have a chance to decide if we are going to kick the field goal or punt and pin them back. So, it’s just a lot of little things in games like this, that leads to losses in the end.”
(on RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire and what he said to him at the end of the game) “We’ll need him the whole entire season. Don’t let one play define you. It’s a long season. Obviously, we lost to a good football team, and we played at their place. It’s a long season, and if we want to be great and have a chance to have another run at this thing, he’s going to be an important part of it.”
S TYRANN MATHIEU
(on the performance of the Chiefs’ defense) “We still have a lot of confidence in ourselves, so I don’t think anything has really happened. We just have to play better and make some plays. I mean, this was a good game against a good team. In fact, these first two games were against two of the best teams in the league. So, I think we just need to get back at it and get our confidence back.”
(on how he rallies the defense) “We just have to make plays. I understand the question about rallying the guys, but again, it’s only two games in, and we’ve played two of the best teams in the conference. As far as tonight was concerned, I mean, obviously, Baltimore is a great running team. We have to commit to stopping the run. It has to be No. 1 with us. They’re good. Those guys can run the ball. It was a team effort for them, and it’s got to be a team effort for us to stop the run. They play fast, but we just have to find a way to get back to committing ourselves to stopping the run.”
(on if the Chiefs were prepared to face two tough running teams) “I think we’re always well prepared. Again, these guys are good. We have to commit to stopping the run – that’s the key to a successful defense. We have great coaches, we have great players, we just need to get back at it. This was a big home game for [the Ravens], and they took advantage of it.”
(on how the team responds next week) “It’s going to be important. We have a tough game next week against a division opponent [Los Angeles Chargers] – another great team, another great quarterback and another great running team. There is no day off in this league. Every game is a ‘must’ game. We’ve got to trust our coaches. We’ve got to trust our players. We’ve got to work on our game and get it back together.”
TE TRAVIS KELCE
(on what he told RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire) “Man up. Man Up. It is what it is, and that’s not just to Clyde; that’s anyone in the building and in the locker room. We will never point fingers and say it’s just one person’s loss. That is not how we roll at Kansas City. We’ll fix it in the four quarters of football. We’ll fix it.”
(on what they saw from Baltimore Ravens) “Yeah, we thought we would see a lot more blitzes. And that’s the thing – when a team is rushing three and playing off coverage, you’ve got to be able to put up more points, flat out.”
(on whether he was surprised that QB Patrick Mahomes threw the interception) “No, usually he gets that ball off. [It was] just a good play by them. We’ve got to be better on the offensive side.”
(on his touchdown) “What you saw was a lot of teamwork. I wasn’t the only one out there, I was just the one with the ball, man. I had a lot of guys working to grab big guys down field, and you know that’s what we pride ourselves on in this building. You know, trying to spring another guy for a touchdown. You saw Tyreek [Hill] on [Byron] Pringle’s touchdown. Those are just plays we have pride in.”