WR Andre Holmes makes the one-handed, one-shoe catch. Photo by Tony Gonzales
Head Coach Dennis Allen
On the game: "Injuries from the game – really the only guy that wasn't able to finish the game was Miles Burris with an ankle. Obviously disappointed in the results of the game. You can't play a good team like that; you can't turn the ball over seven times and give them the ball in scoring position. Defensively, we have to make them have to kick field goals in those situations and we didn't do that. We didn't do a good enough job tackling on screen plays. Obviously, I think they had three touchdowns on screen plays. That's something that we've got to address and we've go tot be better at that. I thought our guys would come out ready to play. Obviously, we didn't start the game we needed to. They did a good job of fighting back and giving ourselves a chance and getting the score back to 35-31. Then, Kansas City hits the big play on the wheel route to Jamaal Charles and we're not able to get him on the ground. Then we follow that back up turning the ball over again on the very next kickoff return. You just can't do those type of things and beat a good football team. We've got to regroup. We have to get ready to play next week against San Diego.
On Chiefs' big plays: "First play of the game, we let the ball get outside of us. We had a little bit of a misread and weren't able to get off the blocks and weren't able to make the tackles. That's what happens when you get an explosive player like Jamaal Charles in space. He's hoping that people will miss tackles and get out of position a little bit and that's what happened."
On QB strategy: "We had a plan going into the game that we wanted to use Terrelle [Pryor] in the football game. Matt McGloin was going to be our starter. He was going to be the guy that we were going to use at quarterback, but we wanted to use Terrelle as a change of pace. I thought it was effective there in the 3rd quarter when we were able to get Terrelle in there. I thought that helped us and then obviously we put Terrelle in there at the end of the game to be able to get some more evaluation on him. We want to be able to use both those guys because both those guys can be assets for us. We want to be able to utilize both of them."
On if McGloin got hurt: "He got poked in the eye."
On putting in Pryor in after a McGloin TD drive: "Pryor was in and he ran a few plays and then we went back to McGloin and if I'm not mistaken, I think we scored again on that drive, if I'm not mistaken. I'd have to go back and look at the tape and make sure, but listen, that's part of the plan. Obviously, we've got two guys that we want to be able to utilize and we've got to find ways to get explosive plays. And we were able to get explosive plays today. We got a lot of balls down the field. We had a lot of explosive passes as well as explosive penalties. We just weren't consistent enough and can't turn the ball over like we did. We have to do a better job of our red zone defense of making them have to kick field goals."
On McGloin throwing worse balls when he has time: "I think that's what happens a lot of times. When you throw the ball late across the middle those things can happen. Again, there's no excuses. We can't turn the ball over like that, but he is a young player and those are things…he's got to go through those growing pains and that learning process. It's tough; it's tough on all of us, but that's part of what we've got to go."
On preparing for Chiefs' screen plays: "Yeah, it was something that…it wasn't anything where we didn't think they were going to run any screens. We were anticipating screens; we just didn't play them as well as we needed to play them."
On halftime speech: "Really it was more about just coming out and playing. To be honest with you, Marcel Reece, who is a captain on our football team, asked to speak. I allowed him to speak. What was said in the locker room really stays in the locker room, but I thought our guys came out and played well early there in the second half. And again, when you give up a long touchdown and compound it by turning the ball over again, it's deflating."
On fumbled snap: "I have to look at that one. That was a shotgun snap and it looked like on the board up top that it was a low snap. But, again, without having the ability to go back and look at it, I don't know exactly what happened on that one. Listen, we have to be able to handle quarterback-center exchange. That's one of the most fundamental things you do in football and that was a big play in the game."
On the fake punt: "It's something that we've had if we get a particular look that we want to be able to take advantage of it. I thought those guys did a nice job of recognizing and we were able to take advantage of it."
On if team has enough left in the tank: "Listen, I think those guys are focused. We just have to play better. I have to do a better job of getting them ready to play. We'll do that. We'll go back; we'll get ready for San Diego. Listen, that's what your options are. You have to get ready to play."
On going through young player development: "Listen, those are always difficult situations. But, hopefully those guys can learn from those mistakes. It's tough when you're going through a learning process because as the losses mount up, it gets frustrating. It gets frustrating for everybody. We've got a job to do. We have to go out there and try to win football games and we'll get ready to play San Diego next week."
On if McGloin is starting QB next week: "Yeah."
QB Matt McGloin
On his eye: "It's fine. Everything is fine."
On if Chiefs defense did anything unexpected: "I think we were pretty prepared. Coach did a good job getting us ready. Just execution, being consistent. We had some good drives. We had some poor drives. We'll learn from it. I'll get better from it and I know the rest of the guys will get better from it."
On seven turnovers: "I'm at a loss for words for it. It's disappointing. It's frustrating. But at the same time, we were still in the game. It was 35-31 at one point still even with all the turnovers that we had. We had a chance to get back in it, but like I said, we have to be more consistent. We were hurting ourselves out there."
On Terrelle Pryor coming in at different points in the game: "We're getting used to it. We do it throughout practice, throughout the course of the week, and the coaches are doing what they feel is putting us in the best position to win. And I'm on board for that, whatever is best for the team."
On if he knew when he would be coming out of the game: "Like I said, the way the coaches explained it is that Terrelle was going to play. Whenever that may be, I don't know, but that's something I don't focus on. I know that he tries to stay warm because they're ready to put them in anytime."
On passes he wishes he could take back: "There's always passes that you kind of wish you can pull back, but again, that's part of the game. They did make some good plays, but some of those throws were poor decisions. I wish I had thrown the ball away a few times today. But like I said earlier, I know I'll learn from it and I know the rest of the guys on the team are going to learn from the mistakes they made today. As long as we know what they are, I can go away saying that the more experience I get, I'll learn from it."
On throwing late and over the middle: "It's a high risk, high reward. I did it with a touchdown earlier, kind of scrambling to my right and threw back to my left for a touchdown. It's high risk, high reward. It's a cardinal rule that when you're playing the quarterback position you don't do it, but still some guys do it. It's going to be a big play or it's going to be a bad one."
On auditioning for next year: "I'm trying to win games right now and I know that's the mindset of everybody else. It's not looking forward to the future or looking forward to next season and just play this out. We want to win and we wanted to win today. We want to win the next two. It is what it is. I know tomorrow Coach and staff will show up prepared. I know the players will show up prepared and ready to go and be focused this week and try to get a win on Sunday. In this game, in this profession, that's all you can focus on is the next one."
On Andre Holmes: "He's a great guy to be around. He works his tail off. He shows up each and every day at practice. He's eager to learn. He's not a guy that's going to say a lot. He's going to go about his business day-in and day-out and do what he's told. I see that throughout the course of the week so I want to give him opportunities to get the ball."
On pushing ball downfield instead of protecting ball: "As a quarterback, it's your job to protect the football, but at the same time, it's your job to throw touchdown passes and throw first downs and throw passes downfield. I'm going to throw the ball. I'm going to take my chances. I'm going to try to get yardage and get completions in big chunks. That's the way I play the quarterback position; that's the way a lot of guys play the quarterback position."
WR Andre Holmes
On closing deficit to 35-31:"We felt like we had the momentum and the game was in reach, especially just coming out of halftime and scoring and being down 11. We just felt like the game was ours."
On disappointment after pulling so close:"I think anytime you lose it doesn't feel good. Yeah it bites a little more to lose like that, but a loss is a loss."
On the seven turnovers:"When you turn the ball over seven times you're going to be surprised by it. No one goes out there, no team goes out there, and expects to turn the ball over that many times. We just have to be more consistent with that and we'll definitely have a shot. "
On one-handed catch:"It happened so fast, I was trying to get back on top of him [the defender]. I haven't seen the film or anything, but I must have my other hand pinned down, so that's how I brought the other hand up, or I was trying to hold him off."
On possible distraction of playing with two quarterbacks:"It's not distracting at all. We're just going to go out there and play the same way. I don't think it's distracting; it's in the game plan. On my side of the ball you just have to go out there and make plays and play hard."
On if he makes adjustments to each quarterback:"No, because when we practice I'm catching the ball from TP [Terrelle Pryor], I'm catching the ball from [Matt] McGloin, we're used to it. We're used to [catching] both their balls."
On closing deficit to 35-31:"We felt like we had the momentum and the game was in reach, especially just coming out of halftime and scoring and being down 11. We just felt like the game was ours."
On disappointment after pulling so close:"I think anytime you lose it doesn't feel good. Yeah it bites a little more to lose like that, but a loss is a loss."
On the seven turnovers:"When you turn the ball over seven times you're going to be surprised by it. No one goes out there, no team goes out there, and expects to turn the ball over that many times. We just have to be more consistent with that and we'll definitely have a shot. "
On one-handed catch:"It happened so fast, I was trying to get back on top of him [the defender]. I haven't seen the film or anything, but I must have my other hand pinned down, so that's how I brought the other hand up, or I was trying to hold him off."
On possible distraction of playing with two quarterbacks:"It's not distracting at all. We're just going to go out there and play the same way. I don't think it's distracting; it's in the game plan. On my side of the ball you just have to go out there and make plays and play hard."
On if he makes adjustments to each quarterback:"No, because when we practice I'm catching the ball from TP [Terrelle Pryor], I'm catching the ball from [Matt] McGloin, we're used to it. We're used to [catching] both their balls."
LB Nick Roach
On whether the defense has hit a wall:"I'm not going to say that. It's hard for me to say that. I have the most faith in our guys and I know how much pride is in the room. We don't ever come in thinking that we're not going to be at our best, so for that to happen, it's like, we just know we have to get it fixed. One thing I do love about this group, we're not going to quit and there's nobody that's backing down from the challenge. Nobody said it was going to be easy and we're going to try to get this thing right, so that's what we're still going to try to do."
On what's happened to the defense the last few weeks:"I think that's part of it, but the other part is doing it right, being good in the right situations. It's just that football is a very complex game. You can be technically in the right spot one play but if they make a play and they beat you then it goes to them. It's just a lot of things: making plays when we're in a spot to do it, knowing how they're going to try to attack us in certain places of the field, situations. It's a lot more than effort but if you don't have effort you don't have a chance."
On whether the last few weeks have been frustrating:"For sure. I think it's frustrating in anything you do when you have expectations, you practice, and then it doesn't go well, of course you leave a little disappointed. But everybody's going to get knocked down so if you don't get back up the right way, that's when the problem comes."
On why the Chiefs' screen passes were so effective:"Even if you know it's coming, you still have to stop it. You have to give credit to them for making the plays, but if we have some missed tackles on big plays like that then it's kind of our fault too for not getting him down. It's just one of those things that when you're trying to get things right it can be a number of different factors and a good team will take advantage of it."
LB Sio Moore
On today's game:"I think we just have to be simple and do our job. Once you do your job and execute and take care of your own business, everything else falls into place. There are not many surprises. We prepare all week so by the time the game comes there shouldn't be anything shocking or a big surprise."
On Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles: "He's a great player and he's going to take advantage of opportunities if they're there for him and that's what he did today, along with the offense. Credit to him, he's a great player and great players are going to excel when opportunities come up. We have to give him that, but at the same time, we probably didn't execute as well. That's where the big plays come from."
CB Tracy Porter
On today's game:"When we're not making tackles, when we're not forcing turnovers and they're forcing turnovers, you're going to lose, simple as that."
On possible answers for the defense:"We have to force turnovers, we have to stop these guys on third down and we have to get more guys around the ball. We have to create population around the ball. We have to get all 11 guys flying around the ball."
On why defense is having trouble executing:"Honestly, if I had the answers, I would change it myself and we'd be sitting at 10-4 right now instead of 4-10."
FS Charles Woodson
On the game:"We made it difficult on ourselves. This is a game that's all about fundamentals and when you don't carry out the fundamentals, things like what happened today happen: big plays happen, long runs happen. If you don't play good, sound football and take care of your responsibility, you can't get away from it."
On why the defense struggled to contain Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles:"I really wish I knew. The last few weeks have really been frustrating and unexpected simply because we really played pretty good defense, for the most part, all season and we've been letting some things get away from us out there on Sundays. It's really unexplainable and inexcusable at the same time."
On maintaining the team's morale:"The goal is still to win. Regardless of what happened out there today, we have another game next week and the goal is still the same, that's to go down there and win a game at San Diego. It's not about trying to keep the morale up; it's about trying to win games. Whoever's going to be out there on that field, we're trying to win a game."
On why the Chiefs' screen passes were so effective:"I have no clue. You've seen screens get out of the gates before, but to have a team go back to it and beat you almost every time, there's no explanation for it. It shouldn't happen. It did happen, but it shouldn't. I don't know man, that's hard."
On whether the defense's youth was a factor:"It doesn't matter if they run the same play or not, you have to do your job. If the guy catches it on the screen and you're an inside player, you play inside, if you're an outside player, you play outside and somebody makes a tackle. We didn't do that on either one of those and they went for scores, so we'll look at it tomorrow. People are going to be looking at the film saying 'man, all I had to do was this or that and they would've been stops.' The games not hard; it's not hard by any stretch. If you go out there and do what you're supposed to do those things will minimize, and we didn't get it done today."
