The Kansas City Chiefs are 6-2 after a gritty comeback win over the Tennessee Titans in Week 9. Andy Reid addressed media members on Monday, recapping the team’s win with comments on Patrick Mahomes, the running game, Harrison Butker, officiating and more. He also looked ahead to the upcoming Week 10 matchup with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Here are some quick takeaways from what Reid had to say:
Patrick Mahomes is quite the athlete
After throwing 68 times and rushing for the second-highest total of his career, Patrick Mahomes joked that he had called his trainer and said he was taking Monday off. Asked about his performance, Andy Reid praised the athleticism of Mahomes.
“Yeah, the fact that we had like 90 plays and at the end of the 90 plays he’s running around like it’s play three,” Reid explained. “And still being able to throw the football and control the huddle and do all the things you’re supposed to do. He’s not known – he didn’t come out being known as a running quarterback that’s fast and all that, but he’s fast enough. He just knows – he kind of knows when to do it.”
Mahomes won’t always have to use his legs to win games or throw the ball nearly 70 times, but it’s good to know that he has the ability to do both of those things and still perform at a high level.
Harrison Butker's play had no impact on Andy Reid's OT fourth-down decision
Butker missed a PAT and a field goal in this game. Those little miscues didn’t influence Andy Reid’s decision to go for it on fourth down in overtime, though. He says it was all about the situation and wanting to score a touchdown.
“Yeah, none of it was off of my feeling about Butker,” Reid said. “It was all off of I wanted a touchdown and to end it. You know, to get it to that point. Get a touchdown in there and let’s go. And I think all the analytics people would probably tell you the same thing. Go score, go score a touchdown, if you possibly can, and I thought we still had some good stuff still left on fourth down that we could use. And then again, it worked there, but the field goal was good. It was good to get that too and it was a happy-medium there too because our defense had been playing well. It was a shorter field goal which we gave it a shot to score.”
While that might be true that none of it had to do with Butker, it’s hard not to acknowledge his struggles with consistency since he has returned from injury. He’s missed at least one kick in each week since his return.
What's wrong with the run game?
Asked about what went wrong with the run game in Week 9, Chiefs HC Andy Reid gave the Titans’ defense their flowers. At the same time, he also said there are things the offensive line, running backs and coaching staff can do better to have more success on the ground.
“Well first of all, those two defensive tackles, that might have been part of it,” Reid said. “Those two guys are pretty strong jokers. We’ve been playing like the number one defenses here for the last few weeks it seems like, and so you know they’re giving us their best shot. We can do a little bit better upfront. We can be a little bit more patient at the running back position and as coaches, we can always dial up different things you know and try to figure something out that might fit a little bit better so those are all the things that we kind of get in and we analyze and work with but you know what didn’t work there worked in the pass game.”
At some point, they’re going to need to get the running game going in order to win a game. In the meantime, passing the ball 70 times will have to do.
The Chiefs do look into tendencies of referees
Andy Reid confirmed that players and the coaching staff for the Chiefs look into the tendencies of the officiating crew they get each week.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Reid told reporters. “We’ve done that for years, so we’ve got a booklet on each guy, and we talk to the team about what their strengths are in calls. That was a pretty good crew though. That crew has traditionally been good. I think Clete (Blakeman) does a nice job with that – of managing and normally letting the guys play. There’s a little high this year in calls, but in the past, they’ve been very, very good. They had a couple of new guys on their staff there – that crew.”
We do the same thing here at Chiefs Wire every Saturday in order to give fans a good idea of the frequency and the types of penalties called most by each crew.
Doug Pederson has the Jags in good shape
Looking ahead to Week 10, the Chiefs will see a familiar face on the opposing sideline. Chiefs HC Andy Reid spoke about Doug Pederson
“Well yeah, they (Jacksonville Jaguars) look organized, and they have good energy,” Reid said. “There’s a certain – when you watch enough tape there’s a certain trust that you can see through the players to the coaches indirectly, but you see that. What’s being called, how fast they play, their body language, all that. I think on both sides of the ball there’s a tremendous amount of trust, special teams there’s trust. And this is just year one, so they don’t give up. I mean you saw that yesterday; they’re going to keep coming. They were down what 17 at one point or 10 at one point and they came back and won the game, so they’ve got some grit to them.”
Expect another tough game against an AFC South squad in Week 10.
