Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes working to right the Chiefs’ ship against Buccaneers

After an abysmal, perplexing loss to the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs will be looking to move forward in Week 4 as they face quarterback Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the first time since their loss to the Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.

Both teams are coming off losses — and have largely depended on their defenses to reach their 2-1 records. But Kansas City head coach Andy Reid still isn’t satisfied with his defensive unit.

“Listen, we have room to improve,” he told reporters during his Wednesday press conference. “I’m going to start it with that: a lot of room to improve — and the guys know that.

“But I like the effort. I like what they’re doing with the scheme — the communication part — I like that. We’ve had some offenses that’ll throw some stuff at you now. We’ve got to continue to work to get better — but I like where we’re at right now. I was hoping that we’d be in this position — and that’s where we are. But we’ve got to keep building.”

Reid said that evaluation included the team’s pass rush — which will be tasked with putting maximum pressure on Brady on Sunday.

“Up to this point, I like what I’ve seen,” he noted. “We’ve got a great challenge coming up here — and we will every week. That’s just how this league is. So you can’t sit on anything, and you can’t stop working to improve on anything — and that’s important.”

As the offense’s leader, quarterback Patrick Mahomes said that his focus is on the tape from last week’s matchup.

“See where I can be better at, where I can work the pocket better, where I can get the ball out of my hands, let guys make plays,” he said of the process. “Obviously, I held onto it a little bit too long [in] that game. Their defensive line was able to get to me with me holding the football — so just trying to get better at getting the ball out of my hands and finding the open guy.”

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Mahomes said that the tape makes it clear why the offense could never find its rhythm in the Week 3 loss.

“You look back at the tape,” he noted, “[and] it seemed like there was just one person on every play that wasn’t in the perfect spot — and in this league, everybody has to be on the same page.”

But Mahomes also said that everyone on the offense has to take the responsibility to improve.

“I have to make the right reads whenever it’s my job to make the read,” he said, “[but] the offensive line has to block — [and] as a unit, the receivers have to run routes off of each other. I think if you can get that all together, that’s when you can have those big games like we did that first week — and obviously, when you don’t, you have weeks like we did this last week.”

Mahomes, however, remains confident in his offensive teammates.

“I think we have everything we need right now,” he declared. “It’s just about going out there and executing it. You see it throughout practices — and you see it in games at certain points — but I think it’s just me continuing to build trust with those guys; continue to have confidence to step up and make that throw.”