Andy Reid roundup: the field, the ejections, and Belichick on the horizon

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid spoke to the media following Sunday’s 30-14 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, and again on Monday morning.

Let’s round up some of what he said:

On both Sunday and Monday, Reid made a point to emphasize the work done by the Arrowhead grounds crew going into Sunday’s game.

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In case you don’t happen to live in the Kansas City area, you might not know that it wasn’t just raining at kickoff. From Friday morning until kickoff Sunday, close to four inches of rain was officially recorded at Kansas City International Airport.

In a lot of natural-grass stadiums, that kind of sustained rainfall would have meant the field was a mess for the game. But not at Arrowhead.

“I am going to start with the grounds crew,” Reid said on Sunday. “They don’t get enough credit. That field was unbelievable out there. It went through quite a bit of rain and they did a phenomenal job.”

Reid called the Jaguars defense one of the best in the NFL.

“I look at them as one of the better defenses in the National Football League,” Reid said on Sunday. “They have proven that over a couple of years. They are tough. I was proud of our guys for rallying, making plays and getting down there. I felt like we should’ve come out with two touchdowns, we got one, but made a field goal. I am proud of our guys for doing that.”

After watching the game film on Monday, Reid expanded on that theme.

“You got back and look at the tape on it, we did some good things against a good football team — on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We made plays on the defensive side — which we’ve wanted to do, and come close in so many cases. We had the turnovers yesterday, which are big. Most of all, the guys played hard on both sides of the ball — and special teams — and we came out with a nice win.”

Reid said that the Chiefs players ejected during Sunday’s game were reacting to what the Jaguars players were saying and doing on the field.

Going into the game, we knew that Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey had done his best to get under Tyreek Hill’s skin during the week. And it was still going on right before kickoff.

Reid said that during the game, there was a lot of talking and pushing going on, and the Chiefs players were responding in kind. But he said that he and his coaches had expected this because they had seen it on Jaguars game film.

Eventually this led to Dee Ford’s ejection after two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called on him, and Chris Jones’ ejection after a “non-football act” during a Jaguars extra point.

On Monday, Reid said there is a simple solution to the problem.

“You play to the whistle, and then you get yourself in the huddle, and come back for the next play,” he said. “There were a lot of extra-curricular things going on. They did that for a while, and they’d about had enough of it. But you can’t do that. It’s part of the game. So you’ve got to keep yourself under control.”

Reid had more praise for Patrick Mahomes after Sunday’s game.

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“Patrick Mahomes threw a couple of interceptions,” he said on Sunday. “Now all the sudden it’s like, ‘How is he going to react throwing an interception?’ It didn’t even faze him. He just kept going and firing and made some big plays. He made some big plays to Kelce and a few other guys. Hill had a big play and some great catches. Conley, too.

“He spread the ball around and I thought did a heck of a job. It was good to see it didn’t faze him. You are going to throw those when you’re a quarterback in the National Football League. How you react to it becomes very important, and I thought he handled it very well.”

After reviewing the tape on Monday, Reid expanded a bit on that.

“He didn’t hang his head at all. He was eager to get back out there,” he said. “When he had chances, he made plays. He really slowed down that one throw to Kelce after the penalty on Hunt. That was a pretty amazing throw. For him to get back out and just go — and still lead that group — I thought was important. He didn’t let that affect his leadership — when he talks to the defense and the offense, that’s important from that position.”

Reid also wanted to give some of the credit to Chiefs assistant coaches.

“Mike Kafka spends the most time with [Mahomes], and Mike has done a heck of a job. We put Joe Bleymaier in charge of getting the plays together, and really studying Jacksonville on a short week, so he could have it prepped for us when we came back in. Joe did a nice job with that.”

Still, Reid thinks Mahomes is succesful... well, because he’s Mahomes.

“He’s got good study habits. He’s got great vision — he’s been blessed with that,” Reid said. “He’s not afraid to communicate with receivers. he can tell them, ‘Hey, listen. This is what I’m thinking here — coming out against this coverage.’ For a young guy to be able to do that, and put it out there for people to hear.”

Reid said that Bill Belichick is a master at tailoring his approach to the opponent.

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Looking forward to the chess game with the New England Patriots head coach, Reid said Belichick can be surprising.

“[Bill Belichick] is going to form-fit his defense to your offense — do what he feels is best. It might be completely different than what he did the week before. He’s done a great job of that over the years. He’ll do the same thing on offense; they’ll fit it to what they think are your tendencies, matchups and everything else. He’s great at that.”

Reid is pretty good at that himself. He’s faced Belichick three times as Chiefs head coach and won twice.

Other notes from Reid’s Sunday and Monday remarks

Reid said that with the injury to Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, the team would consider Jordan Devey as the leading candidate to replace LDT at right guard on the offensive line.

Reid was asked about being 5-0 this year versus being 5-0 last year. “It’s funny how this thing works. I am getting old. It used to be, we didn’t start fast enough but we always finished strong. Now we start fast but we don’t finish that way and all that stuff. I don’t worry about all of that. Every year is different. We have new players playing. I don’t put any time or thought into that other than you asking me the question. We are just going to take the next game and go through the process and make sure we do the right things and play good football.”

Reid was also asked if it was important for the team to learn there were different ways they could win games. “It’s a team. We don’t point fingers or do any of that. We are all in it. We know that every week we expect every phase, offense, defense and special teams to pick up the other phase if one is down. We have been able to do that so far and we have to keep it rolling.”