HEAD COACH ANDY REID
Opening statement:
“Alright, really don’t have any injuries to give you guys; everybody finished the game. My hat goes off to
Raheem [Morris], being a new coach here. The Atlanta Falcons are in great hands. They played hard,
aggressive, good football on both sides of the ball. As far as the positive games, I was proud of our defense and
how they stepped up in that third and fourth quarter of the second half. I thought Chamarri [Conner] had a
big game for us with 10 tackles and an interception there. 97, 98 [Felix Anudike-Uzomah and Tershawn
Warton], whether it was a strip sack or the hit for the interception that Chamarri had. I’ve got a bunch of
things here, but anyways, a lot of good stuff from that end. And you know, boom, right there at the end. What
a phenomenal play that was. And he kind of got the wind knocked out of him there and came back in the game
and did a great job. On offense, Rashee [Rice] was at 12 completions for 110 yards, a touchdown. And
[Carson] Steele jumps in for [Isiah] Pacheco, and between [Samaje Perine], Rah [Rashee Rice] and [Keaontay]
Ingram, they put together a nice game. [Carson] Steele had 17 carries for 72 yards, not bad for your rookie
debut. Our third downs were productive. We were 6-of-13 on third downs. Two big fourth downs stops by the
defense. Butker was 3-for-3, which was good.”
On the team’s ability to get it done when they need to at the end:
“I’ve got to talk to our strength coaches. We’ve got to get warmed up a little faster.”
On what needs to change for next week:
“Yeah, we’ve got a ton of things to work on. We’ll work on that when we get back. It’s a normal week for us.”
On whether he was surprised the Falcons didn’t kick for a field goal toward the end of game:
“Listen, there’s some tough decisions there. It can go either way. He [Raheem Morris] stayed aggressive. He’s
got a team that he’s training with an aggressive attitude. So that’s what they did.”
On whether he felt confident during defensive stops:
“Well, other than the confidence that we all have in each other. We need to do a better job offensively on that
last drive and put the defense in that position. We stepped up on the defensive side and did a nice job of
holding out.”
QB PATRICK MAHOMES
On whether he was surprised by the Chiefs’ running backs tonight:
“I’m not. I mean, I think both those guys have practiced hard, had a lot of trust there. Obviously, you lose some
of that juice that Isiah [Pacheco] has. I mean, there’s not a lot of people that are that fired up after every run
and can run like that. I thought the guys did a great job, and then at the end of the day, I think the O-line took
it upon themselves to accept the challenge. If you saw how the game went on those drives, their defense was
staying back, and they were going to force us to run the football and throw it short. We did that good enough
to get the win.”
On what he’s learned about the Chiefs’ identity in the first three games:
“Yeah, I mean, we haven’t played good – I mean, really all three games. We’ve been able to win. That speaks to
the character of the team, the grit, how we’ve been in these situations before. But, I’ll speak especially
offensively to me, myself. I feel like I haven’t played very well, and that’s not a stats thing. I just feel like I’m
missing opportunities whenever they’re out there and not throwing the ball in the exact spot I want it to be
at. So, it’s about me getting back to my fundamentals, putting our guys in the right position, and then we’ve
got to execute at a higher level offensively. If teams are going to make us drive the field, we have to prove that
we’re able to do that, and I’m sure we’ll get a lot of the same this next week with the Chargers.”
On how to get TE Travis Kelce more involved:
“Yeah, it’s crazy because teams still – the respect factor they have for Travis [Kelce] is just unreal. It’s welldeserved, but we’re calling a lot of plays for Travis, and it’s like two or three people are going to him. So, I
mean, he understands. I think that’s the great thing about him is he wants to make an impact on the game, but
he wants to win at the end of the day. I’m going to try to do my best to keep feeding him the ball whenever
he’s there, whenever he’s open. But I think the more Rashee [Rice] makes plays, the more we’re able to run
the football, the more we can get [Xavier] Worthy involved, that’s going to open Travis up more. I mean,
people are really emphasizing trying to take him away and it’s getting other guys open.”
On the Falcons’ defense:
“Yeah, I mean, they’re well-coached, two great safeties, great corners and they do a good job of executing. I
mean, obviously, their goal was to make us drive the field, and they did that. They made the big turnover
there in the red zone. That’s a good football team, and I expect them to get better and better because
whenever you bring a lot of different pieces in, it takes a little bit to get it going throughout the season. But,
yeah, that’s going to be a team that’s going to make a lot of noise as the season goes on.”
On LB Nick Bolton’s play on the fourth down:
“Yeah, great play. I mean, I think it was very similar – He talked about it was very similar to the play they ran
on the goal line. He recognized it, shot a shot and made a play. The defense has made a couple of those plays.
We’ve got to be better offensively at converting some first downs and running the clock out. But, it helps
when you have a defense that’s able to have been in those moments before and make those big plays. It’s a
team game, and we’re winning games, and I feel like we’re going to start getting better and better each and
every week.”
WR RASHEE RICE
On whether he feels like he’s advancing each week:
“Yeah, I do. I hope it starts in practice. It started on Tuesday, first day of practice. Even in the meeting room,
just take everything seriously. Don’t get too comfortable.”
On what he saw from Atlanta’s defense:
“Yeah, they played a lot of zone. They kind of gave us a lot of different looks, but they were still zone. Basically
meaning, if I got to the other side of the field, as long as I found space in the middle of the field, Pat [Mahomes]
would be able to find me.”
On how it feels to have people recognize what he’s doing on the field versus off the field:
“It feels great.”
On his thoughts on FB Carson Steel’s performance and whether he feels the team is getting good at
covering the blitz:
“First off, we’re proud of Carson [Steel]. He’s been balling out, showing it in practice every day, showing to
work hard. As far as the second question, we’re just focusing on ourselves. Everything’s going to start week
by week as far as taking on new opponents.”
On his thoughts on QB Patrick Mahomes saying he feels he hasn’t played well the first few weeks:
“I love that just because he’s the greatest quarterback I’ve ever played with. So, whenever he feels like he
hasn’t had a great game, I feel the same way. So, we’ve just got to get back to practice so we can do better
together.
LB NICK BOLTON
On what he saw ahead of the tackle-for-loss in the fourth quarter:
“Yeah, in the red zone, they kind of ran something similar, but they had three backs’ – used a tight end as a full
blocker. My lineman probably should have been cheated over just a little bit more and probably hung up with me – probably would have had me and Leo [Chenal] hitting him on the goal line and probably pushed him
back. I came up with a similar play type of pattern, except they only had two backs’ instead of three. So, I kind
of saw that, cheated over a little bit. It’s like a rule around the locker room man, if a tight end is blocking 54’,
he’s going to set the edge for you. So, I saw Leo [Chenal] set the edge and I just kind of went off his butt and
made the play.”
On if he recognized the fourth-down play before the snap:
“Oh, yeah. Coach had a great call, put the big D-linemen in there, those guys got vertical, and I just shot my gun
.
On if he thought the Falcons were going to audible on fourth and one:
“No, ball on the line man, they get 7 [Bijan Robinson] the ball. I don’t think they were going to check anything.
I think 25 [Tyler Allgeier] is going to be the lead block on that play, and they’re going to get a ball to 7 on that
one.”
On what he saw throughout the game that instilled a belief in the defense to hold strong on the final
two drives:
“Yeah, you’ve got faith in your work man. We’ve been talking all week, we kind of go late in the game,
situational football. We pride ourselves on that, and I’m trying to be prepared – two minutes, four minutes,
whatever we have – go out there and execute it. I’m trying to always win. Just trust the work, trust the things
you do throughout the week, trust the keys, trust everything you’ve been putting into training camp and it
just came out and we’re kind of worked in our favor today.”
DE GEORGE KARLAFTIS
On what the win says about the team:
“We’re tough. We all play together. We know that. We’re tough to beat.”
On RB Bijan Robinson:
“He’s a great player. We had a lot of respect for him. Not just him, their O-line, their receivers, their
quarterback. They’re a great team. They were tough to beat.”
On getting the stop to win the game:
“That was huge. I trust these guys. It was awesome. I’m glad we closed the game out the way we did.”
LB LEO CHENAL
On LB Nick Bolton playing after an apparent injury:
“Man, that’s Nick Bolton for you. He’s a baller no matter what. Some people might have started to doubt him,
but we always knew in this building what he was capable of, and he just showed a little flash of what he’s
capable of, just flying all over the field and pushing through some pain. That’s what he does. He’s been
pushing through some stuff and being a leader for us.”
On whether the Chiefs saw the Falcons’ fourth-down play coming:
“They saw us all down and kind of loading up the box, and they said ‘check, check’. We knew that they were
alerting to an outside perimeter run, and Nick [Bolton] just ran it perfectly and took a shot on the play.”
On how much of the game plan focused on blitzing Kirk Cousins:
“It’s huge. He’s a great quarterback. He’s been a very consistent quarterback, and we want to pressure more.
We feel like we haven’t pressured enough the first couple of games and get him off the spot a little bit. Any
quarterback is going to struggle if you get him off his spot and make him uncomfortable.