Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid met with the media over Zoom conference call Monday following the team’s 35-9 win over the New York Jets. The Chiefs will soon turn their attention to the Carolina Panthers, next Sunday’s opponent.
Watch the full presser above or by clicking here. Here were the most significant takeaways:
Reid explained why the Chiefs were more pass-heavy in Sunday’s win over the Jets.
The Chiefs accumulated 446 passing yards and just 50 rushing yards in the win.
“What we looked at was we were coming in with a top-five (Jets) run defense and they’re pretty stout up front, do a nice job,” he said. “Their scheme allows them to do that, likewise, and so we felt like whether it was the RPO game or it was attached to the run game—that and/or our throwing game—that short-intermediate game would be good. So, we kind of leaned on those areas and it worked out OK.”
The Chiefs have shown throughout the first half of the year that they can win in a variety of ways on offense.
Reid said the Chiefs had Tommy Townsend’s fake-punt pass ready for a few weeks now.
Facing fourth-and-4 at the Jets 49-yard line in the first quarter, Townsend faked a punt, only to pass it to wide receiver Byron Pringle.
“We’ve had it up for the last couple weeks. We were going to do it right there, so [special teams coordinator] Dave (Toub) put it on and we went with it. We have ones where we do read things, but this one here was predetermined.”
Much more on Townsend’s pass here.
Reid admitted he’s been less willing to call a quarterback sneak since Patrick Mahomes’ knee injury last year against the Broncos.
The Chiefs’ head coach was asked about quarterback sneaks given the Chiefs are 50% on fourth downs this season, including running back Le’Veon Bell being stuffed at the line on fourth-and-1 against the Jets defense in the third quarter.
“If I was honest with you, I’d probably tell you yeah,” said Reid. “You hate to admit it, but that didn’t work out so well, and I think we have other things that we can do. We didn’t do very well [Sunday] with it, but for the most part, we’re pretty good with it. [Sunday] wasn’t good enough.”
Reid shed some light on the process of how he finds innovative concepts from outside the building he might want to add to the offensive playbook.
It sounds like Joe Bleymaier — the team’s pass game analyst and assistant quarterbacks coach — takes the lead in that department.
“I got Joe Bleymaier here who does all the behind the scenes with all that,” Reid explained. “He spends a tremendous amount of time going through everything from high school to college to the pros and gathering ideas and whether we rearrange the play or sneak it into our playbook as is, but it stimulates. It’s something that keeps you alive and current and then also helps on the defensive side knowing what’s coming forward and the progression of offensives in this league. I give a lot of credit to him and how he goes about that and the amount of hours he spends there.”
Perhaps Bleymaier played a role in Sunday’s “Stampede Right.”
With 24 hours until the election, Reid expressed pride in his Chiefs players for emphasizing the importance of voting.
As is well known by now, Arrowhead Stadium will serve as a polling place on Tuesday.
“I think it’s neat that they were able to do it right here at the stadium,” said Reid. “There were a lot of things that had to go right to get that done and a lot of it had to do with the players, first of all having a plan, second of all presenting it to management and ownership and then those people in ownership and management supporting it. [Chiefs owner] Clark Hunt, [team president] Mark Donovan have gone above and beyond to support the players and that’s what team is all about and there’s great respect there.
“That’s the part I appreciate the most, just how everyone pulled together to jointly get this thing done.”