| Opening statement: “Obviously a tough day coming in here, and we got together with the team this morning and went through the game, and (we are) kind of continuing that process here this afternoon. We understand that there were a lot of plays in the game that we need to do better, a lot of things out there that need to improve. It has to start with coaching. It has to start with me. I have to fix some of the mistakes that were out there and just do a better job overall with the team and give us a chance to win. I think there are a lot of plays that everyone feels they could have done better, and the outcome would have been different. Give Kansas City a lot of credit. That’s a great team. They’re coached extremely well, and they have a lot of really good players out there, and they competed really hard, too. It’s a tough game to walk into on a Monday, but certainly there is a lot to learn from. It’s early in the season. It’s just the last game of September. It’s Game No. 4. We have a long way to go in front of us, and the big thing for us will be just to try to go back to work and improve. The bye week coming up is a good time for us to really go back and look at the games we’ve played. We’re four games in and most teams will take a look at those four games as we go forward, as the break down when they’re trying to evaluate us and see things that we’ve done well and things that we’ve done not so well. We have to improve those things that we haven’t been very good at and move forward from there, and continually just try to get better as a team, and that’ll be our mindset going forward. Like I said last night, nothing really changes as far as that’s concerned. I think we have a tough team. I think we have a mentally tough team. I think they push through any situation. I don’t think our team blinks. I think they kind of keep going forward and that’s great to see. In the end all we want to do is win. That’s our goal. That won’t change. It starts with me and we just have to keep pushing forward to try to do that every single week. We’re back to work here today and we’ll push through the rest of the week. That’s where we’re at.” On his evaluation of the first four games of the season: “I think we’ll dive in to that here more probably in the next couple of days. We’re really just focused on cleaning up the game from yesterday. I think what I’ve said and so far, the first four games – I think we’ve talked a lot about September football and what that looks like in the NFL. There are a lot of bad plays out there. There are some good plays and a lot of really important situational plays. I think those are the ones we’re trying to learn from. We’ve done well in some of those situations, and we’ve done not so well in others. We can build off of that. We really are just working to eliminate the bad football – keep trying to get to good football, consistent football. The one thing for us after the first four games or first four weeks, I would say the thing that we’ll build on the most, is really our process right now. I think we’re obviously in rhythm. We understand what the week looks like. We understand what the work is that has to go in week in, week out in order to prepare and get ready to go, and that’s really important to us – is that process and being consistent because that’s how we improve. That’s how we evaluate the improvement that we have through the course of the year. As coaches and players, we have to continually just develop. We have to develop to get better and certainly from that standpoint, that’s where we’ll take a good look at this week.” On his timeout strategy during the Chiefs’ final drive of the game: “Some of it is strategic and there are reasons behind it that I probably won’t dive into too much. There was probably a course there where they got into the low red (zone), I’ll say where maybe only one of those situations I maybe could have called a timeout a little bit quicker. Really whether you call it on the first-and-10 or the second down situation, it doesn’t really matter. You’re trying to use them when you have to and then save them when you need to. Knowing that we would have a couple of plays on the other side of it, if they did score – which they did – to try to use one to get us in a situation where we could throw something downfield. Certainly, part of that is, ‘Is the ball inbounds? Is it out-of-bounds? Is it complete or not?’ One of the situations in particular would have been a called timeout, but it was incomplete, so that one saved us there on that situation. Really the one they scored on after that one would have been another timeout situation there. Really as far as our philosophy with that, there was probably only one other spot where we could have called it a little bit earlier, but it just would’ve been flipped between a first down timeout versus a second down timeout. That’s really all from that standpoint.” On if there was a situation where he would have forced the Chiefs to use a timeout: “Yup, there is a lot of those situations. We weren’t quite there yet. It was probably coming up maybe in the next one or two plays if that had extended a little bit longer. That would have been the situation – try to put the pressure back on them to make those decisions. Absolutely.” On why he chose not to challenge a potential pass interference against RB Kerryon Johnson: “I think again, going through – and the League has obviously continually put out information for us to evaluate and to go on the trends and things like that, so we’re all on the same page. We saw it live. We saw it on the replay. (There) was nothing there that ‘significantly hindered’ which is the phrase we’re all looking for, from that standpoint. No different than maybe the week before with Danny Amendola – similar situation, similar look. Nothing really there that we thought the risk would have been worth it.” On if QB Matthew Stafford’s injury needs to be managed throughout the season or can improve with the bye week: “I think a month into the NFL season, everyone has something that they’re dealing with. Whether they deal with it for a prolonged period of time or whether it is day-to-day or sometimes maybe it’s a couple weeks in, and then finally turns the corner. We’ll see. Everybody’s a little bit different on all of that. Certainly, having this opportunity now with the bye week to try to get everybody a little bit of rest when we can is always helpful, but I think everybody is a little bit from that standpoint. They’ve played four NFL football games. I think everybody is kind of dealing with something. Certainly, like I said before, he’s one of the toughest guys on our team. He goes out every single week, shows up and works hard and does everything he can to help this team win. He did that yesterday, too. Probably pretty normal from an NFL standpoint.” On why they decided to keep three quarterbacks active against the Chiefs: “Really, we had some spots kind of going into the week – we thought we didn’t know if we would get everybody to the game in general, with injuries and stuff like that and where we needed some help. We’re kind of always in those situations, depending on how the week is going; You’re going to keep whoever you need to have up, and I would say where we are right now with the two and the three quarterback position on our roster – we’re still evaluating that, so we thought it would be good to have them both for that game.” On what he has seen from S Tavon Wilson and DT A’Shawn Robinson this season: “(I’ll) start with Tavon. Tavon actually had a pretty tough assignment yesterday. He had a lot of different roles, a lot of different packages, and a lot of different positions that he played. A lot of confidence in him to be able handle kind of all those scenarios and then even with the injury during the game, early in the game with (Quandre) Diggs, that he had to kind of go into more of an expanded role too in that stuff. He always prepares hard, he’s extremely tough, he’s very smart, and he plays fast; He plays really, really fast and he prepares well. He is someone we have a lot of confidence for in those situations that we need them, and he goes out and executes his extremely well, whether it’s on defense or special teams. He is a key component to some of the special teams units that we have out there, too. He really takes charge of a lot of those units and gets them ready to go. I thought he played really hard. I thought he tried to go out and execute everything we asked him to do. Like everybody, I think there are plays out there that we all wish we could have back, and he’s in that category also. From that standpoint he was ready to go and worked really hard at it, credit to him on that. I think A’Shawn is continually trying to get better. We’re four games in and there is some improvement that we’re seeing as we go through. I think all of those guys up front – my number one thing is pad level on both lines of scrimmage, offense and defense. We’re getting there with that, but we have to keep pushing and going forward with it. (We) mixed him in to some different looks, too – kind of being where we were with the defensive tackle rotation for this game. He had some extra opportunities to go out there and show us some of that stuff and that’s great. We’ll always go ahead and go off of where we are coming out of the game, and I think he showed some good promise in some of those different looks that we had out there. Another guy that worked really hard this week and was really dialed in to the different game plans that we had, so I thought that was good.” On how the safeties on the roster give flexibility for the defense: “I think the safety position is kind of one of the critical ones I think in the NFL right now. Just again, maybe a little bit of that plays off of the multiplicity of the tight ends that we talk about all the time in the NFL. They are kind of the two groups, I would say, that have the most variance in what they do. I think Will (Harris again for a young player, prepared really hard and stepped in and really did a good job from that standpoint of filling the roles. C.J. Moore had to go out there and didn’t miss a beat either. He went out and performed well and that was in a critical situation. I think those guys are just working really hard in that room to get ready to go. I think everybody on really all three phases just know that we only have so many guys active for the game, and if your number is called you have to go out and perform at a high level. It’s good to see that. It’s good to see that in games like yesterday. Obviously, all that’s great, but in the end, we’re just trying to win. I think that’s kind of where our focus is right now is: How do we improve? But to those guys credit, just being ready to go in those situations, it was good.” On if RB Kerryon Johnson’s usage was a product of the game: “I think it was really just a product of the game to be honest with you. I think it was something where he was running really well, and then really honestly for the situation that came up where we had the swing there with the fumble on the goal line, just thought it was a confidence thing for me to get him back out there and get him going again. I thought he really stepped up to that challenge, and that was good to see out of a young player. For him to just take that and want to be back in that situation and want to get going. Then the game was just flowing in that direction, so I thought it was good, but those other guys contributed well in their roles. Just, I would say, that was more of that one particular game situation.” On what is most important about the bye week for the players: “I think the bye week, beside the health and all that stuff, it’s really all about self-scout for us. We’re going to have a portion of it – I know everyone is going to have an eye forward, which we need to with the division game coming up, but for us it’s really about improving the things that we’ve not done so well in the first four (games). Again, kind of like I mentioned, most coaches are going to go back and look at the last four games. Some might look a little bit different, certainly now with four games under our belt for the season, we know those games are going to be highly scrutinized and looked at by other teams and other opponents. Those are things that we have to fix first and foremost. That’s kind of where our focus will be here immediately.” On TE T.J. Hockenson’s injury status: “In protocol as far that’s concerned, but really just normal. Today’s fine and everything like that, but he’ll be in that – nope just the protocol right now.” On what went through his mind when TE T.J. Hockenson suffered the injury: “Obviously, just think about that player at that time and that moment. Just making sure they’re OK. I care a lot about these guys, we spend a lot of time together. The part of the game you hate to see is when guys get hurt or guys are down on the ground like that. For me, the relationship is first and foremost, and you forget about the game in those moments and you just worry about the individual. That’s my only focus, just making sure he’s OK and making sure that he’s getting everything that he needs to at that point, from attention – our medical staff does a great job. Those guys were on it right away, but he was good when he sat up, got him to smile and all that stuff, so I felt better, so it was good.” |
