(On the team’ ability to fight when they are behind) “It’s good and it isn’t. I don’t necessarily want to be
behind in football games, but it’s good in a way that the guys never quit. They’re, I guess, just storing
things up as the game goes, and finally the switch goes on, and you start playing football. That’s
obviously not the way we want to draw it up. We’d love to start fast and finish faster. It is a credit to the
guys, though, for hanging in there in some of these games.”
(On the team being due for a good start) “We are. You always try to go into every game and try to start
fast. Hasn’t been that way probably going back to the Houston game, probably, when we got off to a
quick start there. You want to do that. Games like this, everything is on the line. You don’t want to get
behind, especially against good teams. It’s just not a recipe for success.”
(On how the change in weather forecasts affect their game planning) “It really doesn’t. You’ve still got to
go play. You might switch a few things here and there, maybe some plays you’ve got in your game plan.
Other than that, you can’t let the weather affect you. It’s the same for them as it is for us, and you’ve
just got to go play. I guess the biggest thing would be the ball security issue. Make sure you take care of
the football.”
(On the 13 years of losses in Kansas City and the difficulty of playing there) “It’s a tough place to play.
They’re a good football team. The crowd is a great crowd. It’s loud. They keep you kind of pressing the
envelope trying to get the snap off from time to time, and you’re trying to stay out of penalties and
things of that nature. Tough place to go in there and play, and we understand that, so we’ve prepared
that way, and we’ll see what happens.”
(On if playoffs are when quarterbacks really cement their reputations) “I think quarterbacks, coaches,
we’re measured on championships, especially in our league. Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) is 1-0 in the
postseason. That’s a start. Not where he, obviously, or myself where we need to be or want to be, but
it’s a start in the right direction, much like this season has been for us, and you just want to be at the
end of it each year. You want to be in the conversation. You want to have those meaningful games. You
want to be playing for the AFC South, giving yourself an opportunity to get in the postseason, then
you’ve got to win postseason games. That is a measure of quarterbacks, I think, in the league.
Ultimately, you have to win the championship to really take that next step.”
(On if people don’t fully grasp how hard it is to make it to championship games, especially multiple
times) “I don’t think people understand quite how hard that is. For us that are in it, how appreciative we
are of that feat, of what Tom (QB Tom Brady) has done, what the Chiefs have done, and some of these
teams that are there every year. That’s a difficult thing. The amount of playoff games that Tom Brady
has been in and played in and won, it’s incredible. It’s a couple of seasons worth of games. That’s what
we’re striving to do here. That’s what Trevor (QB Trevor Lawrence) wants to do, is you want to win
postseason games and give yourself an opportunity to play in the final game, but we’ve got a good one
this weekend.”
(On if people think it’s easy because some guys have done it so many times) “That’s what people think. I
think that’s a narrative that’s out there, but for those of us that are in it, it’s not that easy. Not that easy.
That’s the thing you love about the post season. You give yourself an opportunity to go compete and see
what happens.”
(On how OL Cam Robinson and DL Dawuane Smoot have helped the team in recent weeks) “They’re
bouncing in and out, getting their treatment, in the training room, in the locker room, talking to players.
I know guys are talking to them during the week, and just their leadership on anything that they can
provide some of the young guys and at their position. It’s good to see them these last couple weekends
with the games that we’ve had here, to see them after the game, the excitement, the joy. I just wish
those guys were out there with their teammates competing.”
(On if he can tell how much this run means to the players who have been around the team for a while)
“It means a lot. It means, again, that we’re heading in the right direction. You can see, kind of, the joy in
their faces, again, for where they’ve been and where we’re headed. I think that’s exciting for everybody,
especially for those guys that have been here and suffered through some lean years. We’re just hoping
to build off of this one and try to continue the success we’ve had this year.”
(On how this team’s performance on the road improved over previous years) “The road can pose a lot of
distractions for your football team. Travel, family, friends in the visiting city, you’re in a hotel, meeting
schedule, all those things. It’s just a matter of locking in and understanding that we treat it as a business
trip. We’re going there for business. It’s not a vacation. As a coach, you try to keep preaching that
message to your team that we’ve got to go, you’ve got to take your lunch pail and your briefcase, and
we’re going on a business trip. The teams that handle the road the best have success later in the season,
because again, this time of year, you’re going to have to go on the road and win tough, meaningful
games. Again, it was something that you just kind of, as a coach, you just kind of keep reiterating points
that way, and it’s up to the guys to focus in and eliminate what they can eliminate and focus on their
job.”
(On if winning on the road in the playoffs is even more difficult than during the season) “There’s more
things that pull you away from your job and what you’re focused on. I think it can be a little bit more of
a distraction, especially going on the road. For me, it’s about keeping everybody together at the hotel, in
the meetings, how we do things and handle things, but I also want the guys to enjoy these times, too.
They don’t come around very often. Anytime you get a chance to play in the post season, it’s a great
accomplishment for your guys, so I do want them to also enjoy these opportunities.”
(On if he is concerned about how much juice the players have left at this point after an emotional
season and being young) “Maybe that’s the reason why they’re still going is they’re young. I think we’re
the sixth youngest now when you look at all the metrics and everything. We’re kind of right there with
the Chiefs as far as youth goes. Sometimes that’s a good thing because there’s a lot of energy with these
guys. That’s also part of winning. Each year, you want to be here again next year and be talking about
the same things, and you have to condition yourselves, you have to condition your mind, your body,
everything, to be playing football in January and February. That starts in the offseason and builds
through training camp. If you’re conditioned that way, you don’t worry about it as much.”
(On what issue from previous years got fixed the quickest) “I think it all comes back to trust, just trusting
in me as the head coach. It’s not so much the scheme and the plays and all that kind of stuff. That was
going to come, but I think they had to trust me as a new head coach. The faster we could accomplish
that goal, then these guys would do anything for you. That was, to me, the biggest thing and the fastest,
quickest thing that I had to accomplish and they also had to accomplish at the same time.”
(On what the team did well early on the field) “They played hard. They played hard for four quarters,
never quit. I heard multiple times from fans and people outside the building that a year ago, some of our
close games, the team would’ve shut down. The team might have gone a different direction, so now
instead of losing by three, you might lose by 17. You never saw that with our group, outside of the one
Detroit game, you never saw that. That was the biggest thing that I saw from our team. I said, ‘Okay,
these guys get it. They understand. They’re playing together, and we’re going to work through and
figure out a way to win more games than lose these games.”
(On adding plays late in the season) “Press (Taylor) is the offensive coordinator, and he bounces things
off of me, and they talk, and there’s so much information out there, we can get plays from anywhere,
not just off our system. We’re always looking, we see things. My brother will send me stuff, cousin will
send you stuff, an uncle will send you stuff, your mom will send you stuff. It’s just amazing what comes
through. You have to make sure that it works for you before you put it in your game plan.”
(On if he puts in new things at this point or just makes tweaks) “I think you can still be creative this time
of year. Guys like having creativity. They don’t want the same sort of mundane things, which are good,
you’ve got to have them, but at the same time, you still want something fresh and unique and different,
because again, we’re playing a team we played two months ago, so we want to have some things that
are fresh and new. They’re going to have stuff that’s new and some wrinkles in there as well.”
(On the strangest place he has gotten a play from) “You do get a lot of stuff off of Twitter. People send
you those videos and stuff off of Twitter and YouTube and things like that. A lot of it is just like fan video
that might have saw something in a training camp practice. All that stuff gets posted nowadays. That’s
the thing about it, everybody has a microphone and a camera. That’s usually the most creative place we
find stuff.”
(On if anything stands out as being something he would never use) “You’ve got to be careful because
the high school and college rules are different, formationally, than ours, so you’ve got to be a little bit
careful there, because you can’t just put a play in and go, ‘Wait a second, the tackle’s got to be covered
up somehow,’ to be able to run something. You look at them, and there’s a lot of good ones out there, a
lot of creative minds, which is good.”
