Photo by Tony Gonzales
INTERIM HEAD COACH TONY SPARANO
On the game: "Obviously, had the game to a one-score game there at the end of the half. I thought the guys did a good job of driving the ball down the field there and being able to kick a field goal there just before the end of the half. Came in here at halftime, made some adjustments, and then we went out there and got to give Kansas City credit, obviously. There's some clear situations there where we had a little bit of Oakland beating Oakland. We had a situation there where we forced the fumble and C.J. [Wilson] made a good play on the ball and we got it down there. Need to score touchdowns when you're on the road. We didn't punch it in there. We came right back and I believe they had a good kickoff return or a good drive…they had a drive and we stopped them. We were off the field. We had a couple of penalties in there that aided that thing which led to a score. We got the ball back and I believe we fumbled the center-quarterback exchange, which obviously cannot happen. And then they hit us on a big play. I thought third down defense, I thought we did a good job that way. I thought we were running the ball pretty well on them at times. Obviously, when the game got out of hand, we couldn't do that. Bottom line is, you have to score touchdowns when we get in the red area. We can't do the things that we did in the second half of this football game to win a game like this on the road against a good team."
On Oakland beating Oakland being a problem again: "Yeah, a little bit surprised, to be honest with you. I felt like some of those things…I'm not saying you're completely by it; you're never completely by it at this point, but I felt like we were way in front of it that's for sure. That sequence there led to a bunch of points. It led to several scores and we can't give them the ball down in that end of the field, whether it's three points they get or a touchdown they get. I believe they scored a touchdown there. I think when you have the center-quarterback exchange, you can't do the things – and I applaud our guys' effort – but you can't do the things that keep drives alive when you are playing real good on third down. At the same time, big plays. I think we stopped them on third down, but I think we gave up five plays in this game, it could be four or five, that were over 20 yards and that's something that we have to eliminate. It's not something, quite honestly, that Kansas City had done before this."
On if Kansas City defensive line beat up on Oakland offensive line: "I don't know about beat up. I'll have to watch the film, but obviously there was pressure there. The two edge rushers caused some problems there. I think any time you get in a game where you're behind in scores and you're playing against those kind of edge rushers, you're going to have a situation where you're kind of feeding their ego a little bit. They can get after the passer that way and we have to throw the ball to get back in the game."
On winning the special teams battle: "No question about it. Field position was critical. We started in our end of the field quite a bit and on the flip side of that, again, if it wasn't a kickoff where there might have been a flag or those type of things happening, I think twice today, on kickoff return. They did a good job of returning the ball and we didn't do a good job of covering it. We knew that was a key to the game was their return game. I said it during the week back home that that was an advantage for them on paper. It was an advantage today."
On if Chiefs long TD was on an all-out blitz: "We pressured them and we had them in man coverage, and they beat us."
On if Derek Carr convinced Coach to let him stay in the game: "The dialogue was fine on the sideline."
On concern for him getting hurt: "Always a concern about the quarterback getting hurt, yes, always a concern."
On working with a banged up secondary: "I thought they held up well for awhile. Again, I don't think a lot of that was a result of necessarily of them in the back end. I'll have to look at the tape. There's a couple plays that came out of there, some things in the middle of the field, one or two things that way. We had to piece a few things together. We had a couple guys who were down. Obviously, we didn't have Sio [Moore] today and we had to do some different things that way. But I thought early in the game, I felt Ray-Ray a little bit in there. But that's not an excuse."
On Sio Moore's injury: "We were worried during the week watching him move around. It wasn't good enough."
On if Carr's struggles were due to lack of time or receivers not being open: "I think it's a combination of everything, I really do. It's a combination of all those things. We had a couple of scenarios out there where we weren't able to separate. We didn't do some things that way. We had a couple of scenarios where Derek didn't necessarily throw it great and he was under some pressure. No question about it."
On the first play after Wilson's fumble recovery: "I thought we had some time on that play. They were rushing five guys most of the day. They covered us up in there and rushed five guys most of the day, that's where you have to win one-on-one match-ups. We knew that coming into the game. We knew that's what they were going to do. We talked about it all week, winning those match-ups. We won some of those match-ups last week and they did a good job here. On that particular play – I'm not positive, I'll have to look at it – but I think there was a little bit of a miscommunication on that particular route."
QB DEREK CARR
On not having the offensive rhythm: "First impression, you have to give them a lot of credit. When a team beats you, you have to give them the credit. They came and they outplayed us. Again, I'll say this, without seeing the film, I don't know exactly what it was, but obviously it was something. We have to take a look at it, but you have to give them credit. They came out and they played really hard."
On not having a lot of time to throw: "In the NFL that rush happens quick anyway. I get trained in my head to try to get the ball, limit the number of sacks when you can, whether it's a throw away or something. You want to limit those numbers but there's a lot of things we need to do better, not just that. You can't just blame one area; this is a team thing. This is a team thing and we all need to do better, including myself."
On if Kansas City showed anything new: "No, they had a few wrinkles, not really new looks. They had a few new wrinkles, but we did a good job seeing them. We had no problem seeing what they were doing; we just have to execute better."
On having to kick a field goal instead of a touchdown after Wilson's fumble recovery: "It's frustrating. At the moment of the game, the way the game was going, any points is obviously good, but when it happens like that, we have to score a touchdown. Yeah, there's no doubt. That's a good job by their defense saying, 'hey, 3-and-out, let's get them off the field.' It's bad on us. We're not going to settle for field goals. As long as I'm here, which will be awhile, I'm not going to let that happen."
On the sack on the first play of that drive: "On that play, I'm trying to remember…They were trying to disguise their coverage. I got confused by it. We had a route versus a certain coverage and we had another route versus another coverage, and some things happened, obviously, that didn't allow the ball to get out. At that point I was just trying to hold onto it to make sure I didn't fumble it."
On hurting is ankle or foot: "It's just the same ankle from this year that's been there. Obviously without being able to get off of it, it's just one of those things. You just roll it up. I'm just happy it wasn't the same thing that happened before. He rolled it and got it pretty good. That's just one of those things, but you just have to keep going."
On not missing a snap: "It's going to take an awful lot for me not to go in. Like in London, if I can't walk then that's probably the only thing that will take me off the field. There's things that go on in games all the time, especially this one, that it's going to take an awful lot for me not to continue to play."
On scoring a touchdown late in the game: "It has to…We have to learn how to score. We have to do those things. Those are the best ways to get better is doing it in a game, so we're trying to build this thing the right way so we have to learn how to do it. Those are good times to get some good reps down there that we need to get in the end zone and get some points on the board. We talked earlier in the year how it didn't matter and then it showed up when it did, so that stuff matters. It was important telling the guys there, 'Hey, let's go put something good on this tape. Let's go finish this thing with a score.' We were able to do it. It was good to see."
On if that was the actual conversation: "Absolutely. I said, 'Let's put something good on here. Goodness gracious, it hasn't gone totally our way and that's our fault.' We don't blame anybody else but the guys in that huddle. It's our fault; let's go put something on there that we can turn on and say, 'that's what we are.' And so, those conversations happen all the time but we answered to that one and we were blessed to be able to put the ball in the end zone."
On the fumbled snap: "At a certain point, on a certain play, I just have to do a better job of holding onto it. You can put it on me always."
T DONALD PENN
Comments on the game:"We started off a little slow and coming out of the second half and we got it to a one score game, I thought, for sure we were going to take over the second half. It goes back to that thing we've been doing all year. We hurt ourselves, we've had penalties. As an offensive line we have to find a way to open up holes better and give (Derek) Carr time back there. Doing it sometimes doesn't get you anywhere. It gets you to 2-11. We have to do it more consistently. Today the full offensive line, we didn't do a good job in one-on-one match ups. As an offense we have done it in the past. That came back to hurt us a little bit. We have to stop with the stupid little penalties that are hurting us. It's been a thing all year. We have to stop with that. We have to find some consistency."
Was it almost like a win for the Chiefs when you only got a field goal after the recovered fumble?"I look at it like that. As the defense of the opposite team, you definitely look at it like a win for them. As a defense you want to go out there with no points. As an offense you want to go out there with seven. To come back with just three was disappointing. We have to find a way, when we get that close, to come out and finish that drive. I thought the defense kept us in the game all the first half and the majority of the second half. When we get opportunities like that, we have to make the most of it and we didn't. I think that was a big turn of events in the game."
What happened? You guys have been a good red zone team all year."I don't know. I thought, for sure, we were going to go in there and score. It didn't happen that way. It's just tough. It's a tough loss. We came in here with a good game plan, a good week of practice this week and it didn't carry over to the game. We have to find a way to, week in and week out, keep getting better. We can't take steps back at this point. We have to take steps forward. Once we figure that out, we are going to be a good team. Everybody is playing hard, but it's just not at a consistent level."
WR ANDRE HOLMES
What problems did the Chiefs defense pose for your offense?"We struggled in the first half. We just weren't executing right. In the second half, we had to go to the pass to conserve the clock. We were able to move the ball a little bit. We've just got to execute. We had some opportunities after that turnover to get the ball in the end zone, but we didn't do it. That's on us. I'm not really sure what the Chiefs [defense] did. I'm not going to make an excuse that it was the Chiefs [defense]. It's us."* *
How tough is the loss coming off the win over the 49ers, knowing that you guys already beat the Chiefs once?"It's rough. After our first win, we went to St. Louis and got beat. We tried to remember that feeling and we didn't want that again. We didn't want to go back on the plane with a loss. But, we just didn't get it done."
* *
DT RICKY LUMPKIN
Defensively, you guys played really well in the first half against the Chiefs. What did you guys do to hold them to only 10 points?"Everybody just did their job. We limited the big plays and stuck to the game plan. In the second half, if you look what we did, we got a turnover and didn't score. Then, we came back on defense, had some penalties, dropped the ball down the field. That play to Knile [Davis] was huge. Big plays in the second half is what killed us."
The third quarter seemed to be the difference in the ballgame, talk about what happened."That third quarter was just shocking. Look at what we did in the first half. We thought, 'let's just keep it up.' We came out in the second half and didn't do anything we wanted to do as a team. We didn't do well on offense in the first series and we didn't do well on defense in the first series."
How tough is it to play in a game with this many penalties? "It's real tough. That's the hidden yardage that coach talks to us about all the time. If you look at it, some of those penalties were huge – whether they're questionable or not. It is what it is – they're penalties. We gave up 15 yards on roughing the passer – first down. We jump offsides – first down. Holding, pass interference, you can't do that and win games. I don't know how many penalties they called. But, when you look at it, that's a huge swing in the game and it hurt us."
What happened on the touchdown play to Knile Davis? "I don't know. I saw our linebacker slip and, when that happens, you're going to get gassed. He's a football player – it happens. The linebacker just slipped. You can't fault him for it. There a couple of times when players on both teams slipped. They made the play. He [Davis] broke loose and scored. You could tell right there that momentum started to swing and we never rebounded from it."
DE JUSTIN TUCK
What did QB Alex Smith do differently today?"His athletes made more plays than he did, that's it."* *
On containing the Chiefs running attack:"That was a bright spot, I guess. We all know how dangerous Jamaal (Charles) is and we were able to take him out of the game, but they did a good job of getting everyone else involved."
On the number of penalties today: "We aided in our demise today. The penalties we had today and the timing of them came back to bite us."
On the change of momentum in the third quarter: "I wish I had more answers for you. Those plays after the first drive in the third quarter, we didn't play regular football. We were in the game, it was 10-6, third and nine, and they made a play. On the next drive, they made another play. That's how it goes in this game. You can't relax, you can't let up at all. It's such a fine line between wins and losses in a game. If we could have four plays back in the third quarter, it's a totally different game, but it's not. We have to find a way to play more consistent football and we didn't do that today."
CB TARELL BROWN
On the change of momentum in the third quarter:"We had the momentum coming into halftime. At the same time, you're in a hostile environment, you have to make those plays. You have to make those plays that come to you and we didn't do that today and you can see why."
Did you feel good enough in warm-ups to play today?"Yeah, I gave it a go. I gave it my all. I gave the team whatever I could. At the end of the day we just didn't finish as a team. We have to find a way to will ourselves to win and we're not doing that now."
How did the turnovers impact today's game? "You can't win on the road and commit turnovers as well. Us as a defense, we have to help our offense by getting turnovers. And offensively, they have to keep the ball as well. When you're in a hostile environment, on the road, you have to do the little things to help your team win and we didn't do that today."
* *
S CHARLES WOODSON
Do you think you beat yourselves by self-destructing?"Kansas City beat Oakland. That's what it boils down to. I think we failed to rise to the occasion this week. We had a great team victory last week. Today we didn't rise to the occasion. I give credit to Kansas City, regardless of what we did. When you get beat in all phases of the game, that's kind of what happens."
Did the defense get worn down by being on the field to long?"I don't think we got worn down. They made some plays and we didn't make plays. That's what it boils down to. We are very capable of getting off of the field in those situations, regardless of what happens. Today we failed to do it. They put up some points. We didn't do well in sudden change situations a couple of times as a defense. Some penalties got the best of us. That's the way it goes."* *
When did you see momentum shift and things start to fall apart?"I don't know. I guess there wasn't one thing to point to. I think the whole second half, it started to fall apart. We were not able to recover and get ourselves back together and it got out of hand."
Did you feel good going into halftime, when it was a close game?"Anytime I have played in this stadium, they have been tough games. We expected it to be a tough game. Going in 10-3, we felt like we were still within striking distance. We wanted to keep it that way in the second half. We weren't able to do it. There were some penalties and some plays we didn't make. There were plays offensively we didn't make. Like I said, when you get beat in all phases of the game that's what happens. Playing one good half doesn't do anything for you if you come out in the second half and pretty much don't rise up to the occasion."
