Head coach Andy Reid on the Chiefs scoring a touchdown on offense, defense and special teams…
“I love that. When all three phases can contribute like that, that’s tough to beat. That’s how the points got to where they were. I guess they were a bit skewed there, that wasn’t all offense, it was everybody contributing. That’s a big thing for a football team. If one phase isn’t doing as well as normal, then another phase picks it up or possibly two phases. That’s what the team is all about.”
Head coach Andy Reid on why they had Pringle take the kickoff return that resulted in a 102-yard touchdown…
“He was a good player in college with the return game. He was good in preseason when we did it, he was healthy, so we wanted to give him an opportunity back there to return. You see how he hits it, that becomes important on kickoff returns. I thought he did a nice job with it. He hid it hard and fast, and everything else.”
Head coach Andy Reid on how he felt RB Le’Veon Bell played in his debut with the team and how he complements RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire…
“It was great. It was two-fold because we had both those guys playing. It was great to get Le’Veon in and get him going. I thought he was very productive. There are a couple things he’ll learn from, just with the offense, but I thought the run game part of it was excellent. He had good, positive yardage and ran hard. It was great for 25 too, Clyde, coming off six days rest. That’s a new thing for a rookie, how are you going to handle that? I love the way he did. He ran hard and had, again, great production.”
Head coach Andy Reid on if he feels this team has the potential to be the most complete team he’s coached in Kansas City…
“I think time tells on those things. Every week is such a challenge in this league, there’s so much parity in the league. I’ve heard people say when watching the college game, ‘Oh, we had one good game here or one good game there.’ You turn on the NFL and every game is a good game. That’s just how it rolls because of the parity within the league. You have to be on every week. That’s a challenge. The expectations are high amongst our players and amongst our coaches. How do you sustain that? How do you keep that growing? It’s character, and it tests you there. You’ve got to bear down every week to do that.”
Head coach Andy Reid on the way the defense has bounced back since the loss to the Raiders…
“I don’t think any of us coached very well and none of us played very well in that game. I could definitely sense it on the defensive side that they wanted to put the hammer down and get better. They’re very focused there. ‘Spags’ (DC Steve Spagnuolo) has done a nice job, as the other coaches have, and we have a lot of proud players there. They’ve really beared down and had a couple nice games here.”
Head coach Andy Reid on Mahomes knowing that he doesn’t have to ‘be a superstar’ every game and the team can still win…
“I deal with him every day and all he wants to do is win. It’s crazy. Just like you were saying, you know how he is and how he’s wired. That’s what’s real every day. He wants to rip your heart out when he’s out there playing, and he wants to do well and do all that. But when other people are scoring, he’s jumping up and down likewise. He just wants to win and that’s the beauty of it.”
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes on if he sees an evolution of ways that the Chiefs can win games…
“100 percent. As far as our team, guys just continue to work and continue to battle. We obviously didn’t play the way we wanted to offensively but we continued to work and press on and got a touchdown there at the end. It’s something that I’ve learned in my career so far—I was talking to [Chiefs SS] Tyran [Mathieu] about it after the game actually—I was like, ‘Young Patrick probably would have tried to force it and thrown a bad ball and maybe an interception. Whereas now, seeing the way that the defense is playing and knowing that it’s not there and maybe taking the sack or not completing the pass and throwing it away to where it’s not intercepted. You have to learn ways to win in this league, it’s not always going to be 400 passing yards or 200 rushing yards, it’s going to be finding ways to win and I think this team is doing a great job of doing that.”
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes on going 0-for-8 on third downs…
“I just didn’t have answers in certain situations. They brought a few cover zero plays, they brought a few things that we’ve had success on—this year especially—and I didn’t have the right answer at the right time. We need to execute at a high enough level as an offense to go out there and continue to move the ball. We had times where it seemed like we were moving it very easily and then we would kind of stall out. It’s stuff that we can get better at. Whenever you feel like you don’t play a great game offensively and you win by 27 points–or whatever it was—it’s a good feeling. A win is a win and we’ll move onto the next one and know that we have to go out and play our best next week.”
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes on watching his teammates thrive and put points on the board from the bench…
“It’s definitely an awesome feeling to see guys like [FS] Dan [Sorenson] make a big time pick and get to the end zone. And then for [Chiefs WR Byron] Pringle to get back there and make that return—he hit that thing like he was back at K-State (Kansas State). It’s cool, obviously you want to be out there playing but they got us a big lead and kind of changed the tempo of the game. I think offensively we started off really hot and then kind of had that long lull and then we didn’t combat that and come back with the same energy that we needed. This will be a learning experience knowing that we had that long break during a game like that and being able to be better on the other side of it.”
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes on how getting sacked impacted him throughout the rest of the game…
“There’s one of them. I was covered zero pressure and they held it, the guys did very well and that’s just another—like a little detail. I mean, he got his eyes around, but I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to see it and recognize it. So, just kind of building that chemistry with them on that. It wasn’t a screen or anything like that, but he was kind of a hot throw in that situation that I didn’t trust him and give him the chance to make the play. And then, we had a miscue at one point on the offensive line. And the one, we didn’t get the right protection, where we kind of put Kiser in a bad situation being one-on-one with one of their best pass rushers. There’s just different things that we’ve got to be better at. It’s definitely a great learning experience, but hopefully we can continue to get better and better each and every week.”