The Kansas City Chiefs have dropped to a 2-3 record after their latest loss to the Buffalo Bills on “Sunday Night Football.” Andy Reid spoke to the media on Monday, providing a 1,000-foot view of what has gone wrong with his team so far this season. He covered everything from defensive pressure to potential personnel changes.
Here are some quick takeaways from what Reid had to say:
How opposing defense’s are playing the Chiefs’ offense
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes told reporters after the game that the Bills were showing a lot of different looks on the defensive side of the ball. Andy Reid explained the nuance behind that a little more to reporters on Monday morning.
“When Pat (Mahomes) was on his first few years, we saw a lot of man coverage,” Reid said. “They challenged us with man and then we started getting pretty good at that. But we went through a phase there — like we are now — where we struggled with it a bit. We pounded through that and now we’re seeing zone, we’re seeing the shell zone. So whether it’s 2-deep, quarters, palms — which is kind of a mixture of Cover 4 quarters and Cover 2 — so they make you work your way down the field. And we’re putting these drives together, but we’re having hiccups within the drive where you’re having turnovers or penalties and those things, they kill you.”
Basically, teams are stopping the running game with a light box and taking away the deep shots and explosive plays we’re all accustomed to seeing from the Chiefs. They’re forcing the short-to-intermediate passing game and they’re forcing it to flow through a certain area of the field.
“It’s not that you’re not racking up the yards, it’s not that you’re not moving the ball. You’ve just got to be more consistent with it and sustain these drives,” Reid said. “They’re not going to give up the big shot there, necessarily.”
The solution, Reid says, is simply to be more consistent in taking what the defense is giving you. If the Bills and other teams force the Chiefs to play small ball, they need to be prepared to efficiently and effectively dink and dunk the football down the field.
Pass rush needs to produce quicker
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The Chiefs notched just 10 defensive pressures against the Bills on Sunday night. That was their second-lowest pressure total in a game so far this season and not nearly enough on the day. Sure, they were without their best pass-rusher in Chris Jones, but Reid wasn’t interested in using injuries as an excuse.
“Well, the third quarter we were able to get more pressure from the guys,” Reid said. “They worked through it and got it done. To that point we probably weren’t getting enough pressure on the first half, I’m saying with the front four. But again, they worked through it and kind of figured it out and got it done. We just got to do that a little bit quicker as we go.”
Playing with urgency was something that Tyrann Mathieu also stressed after the game. It would seem that the pass-rush lacked urgency and by the time they found it, it was too little too late. The team needs to be able to manage pressure in all four quarters, not just the third quarter coming out of the half.
Daniel Sorensen was caught looking
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Daniel Sorensen had a few ugly snaps in coverage including a 53-yard touchdown reception. Reid walked reporters through that play and what exactly happened on that blown coverage.
“So (Dawson Knox) ran a corner route and turned it back up into a swing route as the quarterback moved and he dropped him,” Reid said of Sorensen. “You can’t do that. He had his eyes in the backfield and lost where the tight end was. So, you got to make sure you’ve got your eyes on him and know where he’s at.”
Basically, Sorensen felt that Knox had finished his route and could break off of the coverage. It’s a bad play all around and something that shouldn’t happen to a veteran defender who has been in the league for a long time.
Personnel changes might be coming or they might not
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What are the Chiefs willing to do to rectify the issues they’ve had on the offensive and defensive side of the ball? Well, Andy Reid says the team isn’t unwilling to make personnel changes. He says they evaluate the roster on a weekly basis and if something needs to be changed they’ll change it.
“Yeah listen we try to do that,” Reid said. “We look at all that I would say every game win or lose. You want to try to get the best guys that you got in position to do their job and make you the best you can be as a team. We’ll keep looking at that and if something needs changed then we’ll change it. We’re pretty real with those kinds of things.”
What fans might feel needs to be changed compared to what the coaching staff and front office staff feel might be the big area of difference here. I wouldn’t expect any drastic changes coming, either way.
Injuries not as bad as they could have been
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Reid didn’t have any updates on Clyde Edwards-Helaire at the time, but we’d later find out that he suffered an MCL sprain. He’s expected to miss a few weeks with the injury, suggesting a Grade 2 sprain.
The big update Reid provided was on Joe Thuney, who broke his hand at the beginning of the game and played through it.
“He had that throughout the game,” Reid told reporters on Monday. “He didn’t miss any plays as we went forward there. He actually did a pretty good job in there.”
Thuney is not expected to miss time with his injury and should play against the Washington Football Team in Week 6.
Tyreek Hill, who suffered an undisclosed knee injury during the game, is also not expected to miss any time according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
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