Head Coach Brian Flores
(Obviously not the outcome you guys would want, but what can you say about your team’s resolve to come back after the early scores in the third quarter and make it a ball game here in the fourth quarter?) – “I think we have a resilient team, don’t quit, but I think that we didn’t make enough plays to win the game. We’ve got to play better. They know that. We prepared the right way, and we just didn’t make enough plays. It’s a good team. They made a lot of plays. They made more plays than we did. We fought until the end, came up a little short.”
(I wanted to ask you about the job QB Tua Tagovailoa did in the fourth quarter. It seemed like he got more comfortable as the game went along. How would you assess the way he played today?) – “I thought he made a lot of plays for us, especially in the fourth quarter, made some throws in tight windows, scrambled a little bit, put us in position to score some points. But at the end of the day, I’m sure he’s not satisfied. None of us are. We’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to make more plays to come out. We’ve got to make more plays than we did today. They made more plays than we did.”
(How do you assess the performance of the defense against the Chiefs offense, four takeaways?) – “The turnovers were good. I think we played well in spurts. It’s a good offense, so they moved it, moved the ball at times, especially that last drive, got enough yards to kick the field goal and really stretched the lead. We made some plays. I thought the guys played hard. I thought we executed, again, in spurts, but against a team like that, one misalignment, one miscommunication, and they take advantage. That was the case today.”
(This is, I guess, the second straight week that the offense has started off slow and then kind of got faster and more effective in the second half. Have you figured out maybe what the thread is in the slow starts and kind of figure out how you can correct that?) – “I think execution. At the end of the day, that’s really what it boils down to. We had a good plan going in. I think we moved it effectively on I guess it was the second drive, missed a field goal. There’s things we can do better. At the end of the day, it really all boils down to execution.”
(I know you’re just coming off the field, but do you have an update on the severity of injuries to TE Mike Gesicki and WR DeVante Parker?) – “We had a number of injuries today. I checked in on a couple guys, but it’s too early right now. They’re still being evaluated. I’ll probably have more information later in the week.”
(Considering the depth chart on the offense coming into today’s game and then the injuries to WR Jakeem Grant, WR DeVante Parker, and TE Mike Gesicki, what do you think it said about QB Tua Tagovailoa, Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey, and the guys that were in there to keep Kansas City sweating until the final second?) – “That’s something we talk about on a weekly basis. Everybody’s got to be ready to go. I think those young receivers – Malcolm (Perry), Lynn (Bowden Jr.), (Antonio) Callaway, Mack (Hollins), Jakeem (Grant) – all those guys, they kind of stepped up, stepped in, and helped make some plays there at the end and moved the ball. We really need that across the board. Bobby (McCain) went down, (Kavon) Frazier went in. That’s what you’ve got to do in this league.”
(When you lost RB Myles Gaskin, what kind of situation did that put you into coming into this game? I know you’re a next man step up kind of guy, but did that force you to change or alter your game plan?) – “Look, I mean, it’s 2020. There’s a pandemic. Every night, when we get the results, I think we’re ready to go if guys go down. So, no, I didn’t change the game plan. We just had the next guys step in, just signed Elijah McGuire, and he was up today, and ‘D. Wash’ (DeAndre Washignton) and (Patrick) Laird, they took the lion’s share of the snaps. Obviously, you always make adjustments and alter some things, but we did that when Mike (Gesicki) went out and DeVante (Parker) went out. I think that’s just part of the game. Guys stepped in, and I thought they went in and worked hard and did a good job, but it wasn’t good enough today. We’ve just got to learn from the mistakes today and make the corrections and be better next week.”
(You guys were able to get four punts and four takeaways on defense today, but they had that stretch where they scored 30 consecutive points in a row. I’m just curious, in your opinion, what was the difference in those two periods of the game?) – “This is an explosive team, and they went on a little bit of a run there in the second half, really the end of the second quarter, got the ball back, punched it in, got a return. It was just a quick spurt there, and that’s kind of how they’re built. They go on runs. They went on one there in the end of the second quarter to beginning of the third quarter. We had to settle in and collect ourselves. I thought our guys did a good job of that and playing with some poise and got ourselves back in the game. But we’ve got to limit those big plays, and we weren’t able to do that today. Ultimately, that was the difference.”
(What happened on the punt return?) – “I’ve got to watch the film, but just on the field, looked like (Mecole) Hardman made a good play. He’s a good player. He’s a good punt returner. You give him a chance, and he makes people miss. That was the case on that play. It’s a good player making a good play.”
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(What’s your feeling leaving this game knowing that coming into the depth chart was pretty depleted, that you guys suffered injuries throughout the game on offense, and that you were still able to produce 300-plus yards, have those drives in the fourth quarter?) – “I’m very confident with whatever guys that I’m playing with. I get to get a good amount of reps with a lot of the guys because starters, they go one hard rep, and sometimes they’re nicked up. So for timing purposes, they take one rep, two reps here, and then I’m with these other guys. I think those guys did a great job stepping up in this game because a lot of guys were down, but I mean, regardless, it’s just never a good feeling when you lose no matter who’s in there.“
(I want you to take us through the fourth quarter. You were down 20, and that CB Xavien Howard interception kind of gave you new life. What was the key to you guys moving the ball so effectively, and I guess how much does it hurt to come up short?) – “It hurts a lot to come up short. Like I said, what we want to do is we want to win the ball game at the end of the game. We want to score one more point than the opposing team, which we obviously didn’t. But I think the defense gave us many opportunities – not just in the third quarter, some in the fourth quarter as well – but offensively we didn’t execute the way we should have, and I know a lot of that falls down on me with the leadership with these guys in the third quarter. Not taking what the defense is giving me, just pretty much plain rookie mistakes and you can’t do that against a Super Bowl-caliber team like the Chiefs. So a lot of the execution really started from me, and I think our guys played their butts off. Offensively on the o-line, they played their butts off. The receivers played their butts off. It was really just me executing with the guys.”
(I wanted to ask you about TE Mike Gesicki. Can you talk about how your relationship is coming along in a positive fashion? And also how concerned you are with him getting hurt like that.) – “Me and Mike’s (Gesicki) relationship has been growing in practice. I think my relationship with other guys has been growing as well – timing routes with the guys. Whatever tight end is in there, whatever receiver is in there; I think it’s getting better. But regardless who gets hurt – it’s sad that it had to be Mike, but you really feel for your guys. I had the opportunity to go in after the game and see Mike and talk to him, and he’s really hurting, but I just told him my thoughts and prayers are with him, that the rest of the team is praying for him. There were a group of guys that also came after me, too. You just hate to see that for someone like him.”
(You talked about maybe some of the rookie mistakes you had early, but then you played really well in the second half, particularly the fourth quarter. What do you see maybe as the difference in the first half and the second half really over the last two weeks?) – “The biggest difference is execution. That is the biggest difference. I don’t know how else to put it. We had many opportunities offensively, and I wasn’t able to execute those plays with our guys, and this is the result of it. We run out of time, and we’re just put in a bad position. You can’t win games doing that.”
(Could you describe the opportunity, what it was like going back and forth with Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and did you share a moment with him, either pregame or postgame?) – “After the game, I got to say what’s up to Pat (Patrick Mahomes). You know, we exchanged a few words, congratulated him, but for me, it’s not more so me versus Pat. We go into the game preparing for their defense, not their offense. Going into the game, we’ve got to execute against their defense. We know their offense is a high-scoring offense, but they’re really good in all three phases of the game. So we knew we had to – every opportunity that we had, we had to go in and at least put some points on the board. Unfortunately, that’s not how it was.”
(You guys mount that spirited comeback there towards the end, and it comes up just short, but I want to go back to when it was 30-10 and what the mood was like on the sideline and what your role was in kind of getting the guys up and trying to get that rally together to make that comeback push.) – “Really our mantra was ‘one play at a time.’ Offensively, I think defensively as well; just play one play at a time. We had a lot of time. It was 30-10, and it was still the third quarter. We still had a good amount of time, but then, like I’m going to say, it falls back on execution. Third quarter offensively, we didn’t execute the way we should have. We came out in the fourth quarter doing a lot better, but we ran out of time. You just can’t do that in this league.”
CB Xavien Howard
(What’s up, man? I’m sure you would have liked to have it in a win, but you got another pick today. That’s nine. Five straight games for you. Does it come as a surprise at this point or how do you feel about it?) – “I feel great about it, man. I’ll just keep getting the ball for the offense and putting the ball in their hands and making plays. As a team, we want to win, and as a defense, we’ve got to keep making plays and clean up some of the stuff that we messed up on today.”
(Would you have thought that four takeaways would be enough to win?) – “We’ve got to keep going as a whole, as a team, you know. We’ve got to feed off each other, and we’ve got to keep going. Obviously, it wasn’t because we didn’t win. So we need to make more plays. We need to start getting touchdowns on defense.”
(Can you take us through your interception, and it may sound funny to ask you this because you’ve had so many big interceptions, but was that your best one, do you think?) – “I don’t know. We’ve still got more games to play. It’s a great feel on the ball, and that was it.”
(What is, I guess, the late fight that you guys have say about your team? I know you guys went down 20, but with your pick and CB Byron Jones’ forced fumble and QB Tua Tagovailoa that late, it seemed like you guys were close to making a comeback.) – “I feel like this team, we don’t give up, man. We keep fighting. That’s one thing we preach about at practice. We keep fighting no matter what. We didn’t come out good on the end, but we kept fighting.”
CB Byron Jones
(I know you would have preferred if it would have come in a winning effort for the team, but how did it feel to finally get the monkey off your back with the pick?) – “It felt good. It was fun to see our defense get a lot of turnovers like that throughout the game. A little frustrating because we gave up some easy stuff but we’ve got a really good opponent coming in next week so that’s where all our focus and attention will be on.”
(I know you’re frustrated at not pulling out the victory but four takeaways from the Chiefs, could you really have asked for more as a defense?) – “Yeah it’s just the easy stuff. They’re a good offense, no question about that. They’ve got good players, but coming into this game we wanted to make them earn it and I think we just gave up too many easy plays. Some really dumb stuff here and there and that really cost us. That’s something we saw on film and that’s something we want to eliminate. A little frustrating but we’re still taking the ball away so that was awesome.”
(What’s the biggest challenge of dealing with that offense and all the weapons they have?) – “It’s just the movement in the pocket. Obviously the weapons that they have are fast, run good routes. They’re smart. They have a great quarterback back there, so just a bunch of weapons and things you have to stop.”
(What happened on that fourth-and-1 that Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill got loose?) – “I do not remember.”
RB DeAndre Washington
(What was it like coming into this game or yesterday knowing that you were going to get the opportunity to be a featured back against your former team?) – “It’s just crazy how this league works. It’s been a crazy season with everything going on. When I got the call, I definitely was ready. Put in a lot of good work this week. I was just excited to get back out there and get back in the mix a little bit.”
(I wanted to ask you, what was the mood like on the sideline after you guys went down 30-10, and what was maybe the kickstart of you guys coming back there in the fourth quarter?) – “We knew what type of game it was going to be. These guys can score in bunches. That’s what they’ve kind of put on film throughout the year, so we knew what we were up against. We also knew that we had the ability, if we just executed, once we were able to get the hurry-up offense going, we were able to make some plays and just came up a little bit short at the end, unfortunately. I was just glad how this team, how we fought all the way to the end, for sure.”
(What was it like to play against your former team?) – “It was cool. It’s a crazy league. It was good to see some of those guys, but I’d definitely much rather walk away with a win. But we’re going to get back to it and make the stretch run and try to get in the playoffs.”
(Did you learn anything about the culture in just your time being here and just being able to come from behind the way you guys did and make this one a game?) – “This team fights to the end. I think, when adversity hit, guys on defense kept making plays after plays and really kind of kept us in the ball game. Guys didn’t flinch. We came up a little bit short at the end. Like I said, I’m just glad the way everybody fought all the way to the end against the reigning champs.”
DT Christian Wilkins
(Obviously, you guys must be disappointed after the loss, but to force the best quarterback in the league to throw three picks, and an all-time offense, to force four turnovers against them, you’ve got to hang your hat on something with that performance, right?) – “The biggest thing is like there’s no moral victories, but we could always learn, always improve. But we did some good stuff. We did some not so good stuff. Just really this is a good game to learn from and get better ultimately because we know we’re capable of more. We didn’t get the result we wanted. That’s what we want at the end is the win, but we’ll just get better from this one.”
(How would you describe the challenge of dealing with that offense? What’s the hardest part of it all?) – “They do what they do, and they do it well. They’ve got a lot of explosive players, and it all starts with the quarterback. He’s obviously a very good player. Like I said, there’s things we could have done better out there to put ourselves in a better position, but we played hard. Again, we didn’t get the result we wanted.”
(We saw CB Xavien Howard out there get another pick. I think that’s nine for him on the year. What do you still say as a defender when you see him making all those plays and another one that looked like a one-handed grab on the back?) – “I worked with ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) this off-season to try to get him better with ball skills and stuff, so it’s good it’s paying off and whatnot. So I’m glad to see that. (laughter). He just keeps making plays each week. It just seems redundant at this point. You would think people would learn. It’s good to see that at least. Again, it’s good to see that from ‘X’, of course, but like I said, I would rather get the win.”
(Especially without LB Kyle Van Noy and LB Elandon Roberts today, what impressed you about what LB Jerome Baker did?) – “Jerome (Baker) is obviously a heck of a player. He plays hard sideline-to-sideline. He did a good job communicating and everything today. He did his part from that standpoint. But, again, would have liked to get the win today, but it’s all good. I thought he did a good job stepping up.”
