QB PATRICK MAHOMES
Q: Is there anything you can pinpoint that you need to fix on late fourth quarter drives?
MAHOMES: “You just have to continue with it. It’s not always going to go your way – we want it to. I thought we were doing a good job on that drive before I threw the interception. Even on the last drive, I thought we got down the field and gave ourselves a chance in kind of a bad situation. You just keep with it and trust that the guys are going to make it work in the end and hopefully in the playoffs and the last part of this season we can convert some of those drives.”
Q: How have you seen Wanya Morris come along?
MAHOMES: “He’s played well. If you watch his tape of the last game and the limited snaps that he’s been in the game, he’s done a great job in the run game and the pass game. I think now just trying to get him prepared for a great defensive line – a lot of the games and stuff they do, the stunts. As far as playing the position, he’s done a great job.”
Q: Is there anything different you can do to build more chemistry with the receivers?
MAHOMES: “You just come into work and try to get better, that’s all you can do. I think the guys have done a great job of trying to do that. We’re going to continue to get better. I thought we had a lot of great things in the last game, obviously just didn’t execute in the redzone. It’s the little things in this league that are the difference between winning and losing, so we’ll continue to focus on those and try to get better going into this week.”
Q: Nothing special you can do to elevate the chemistry other then just working each day?
MAHOMES: “You can work on the stuff that didn’t work in the game, you try to adjust those things and maximize the stuff you did well. At the same time, this league is close, these games come down to one score, and it’s whoever executes the small things that come out with the win.”
Q: How are the receivers mentally?
MAHOMES: “They seem like they are in a great spot. In the locker room I think everyone knows we’re all trying to go out there and be great and trying to win football games. I have a lot of trust in those guys. I see how hard they are working. For us it’s about keeping it within the locker room – I mean we’re still sitting there atop the AFC West, and I think a lot of the stuff is out in front of us we just have to go out there and capitalize on it. I think if we can start this week with a great week of practice and try to beat a really good football team, the Buffalo Bills – it’s kind of like next week, we’ll be talking about how great we are. It’s kind of how the NFL works.”
Q: Have you felt any waiver of confidence in the locker room when the team goes through rough stretches?
MAHOMES: “I haven’t. I’ve been on a team that was 6-4 and ended up winning the Super Bowl. We have confidence every week that we’re going to find a way to win the football game. Obviously, these last few weeks we’ve lost a couple, but we still have that mindset. We understand the challenge that’s in front of us. At the same time, all you can do is go work every single day and get better, then go out and give whatever you can on the football field.”
Q: Does this situation feel any different than teams that struggled in the past?’
MAHOMES: “Not necessarily. For me, you just have to continue to get better and better throughout a season. We want to always win 14 or 15 games every year, but that’s not how the NFL works. It’s about parity and bringing teams together. Like I said, we’re sitting here 8-4, and we’re going up against a great team. If we can go out there and find a way to get a win, we can just try to build off that momentum and try to ride that through the playoffs. 8-4 is 8-4. At the end of the day, and we have to try to get better and better.”
Q: Has going through rough patches in the past helped you as you go through one now?
MAHOMES: “I think just seasons – you never know how they’re going to turn out. You don’t know if you’re going to lose games in spread out fashion or clump them all together. All you can do is focus on that next week, you wash it and focus on that day, how can I get better today and how can I focus on the opponent we are playing upcoming. You never know how a season is going to go, but if you can continue to get better and better throughout the season and be playing your best football going into the playoffs that’s usually a good thing.”
Q: How do you manage your reactions on a week-to-week basis?
MAHOMES: “I think I learn from (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid. You always see him, and he’s never too high, never too low. He is just focused on the task at hand, how can he get us in the best position to play the best football we can that day. That’s my mindset, no matter if we win and everybody is loving us, or we lose and everyone is down on us. You just have to focus on how to get yourself better and prepare for that next game. I think if you do that it puts everything in perspective where you can go out there and be the best you, you can be.”
Q: How do you try to execute Hail Mary plays?
MAHOMES: “It’s tough because there are so many guys that are all in the same area. We talk about it and say, ‘they’re not going to throw flags.’ They are going to let the guys go out there and play. The one on Trav (Kelce) was a little aggressive just because the guy full pushed him out of the way and that’s the guy that we want to be in the middle going up and getting the ball. At some point, there’s got to be a flag, but at the same time, we do tell the guys they’re not going to throw a lot of flags in that situation.”
Q: Do you see signs of progress in the offense the last two weeks?
MAHOMES: “When I was watching the game (film) after the game, I thought we did a lot of great things. If you can capitalize on those redzone – ball on the 5-yard line, you’ve got to find a way to get in the endzone on those first two drives, you get 14 points and it’s a whole new football game. That’s the little things we have to continue to get better at. We did a lot of great things until that fourth quarter. I made a few reads I probably want to take back and go to other spots because of the way the play was designed. Other than that, I thought the guys did a great job and if I can just not make that mistake at the end of the game, I think we have a chance to win.”
Q: What are your thoughts on being nominated for Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award again?
MAHOMES: “It’s amazing. The group, the fraternity of guys that have come before me that have won the award. Not only that, but this team and how much it means to give back to the community and be a part of the community that has given so much to us. It truly is an honor. It’s got to be hard to pick when you look at guys like Travis Kelce, Justin Reid, Trey Smith, there’s so many guys that do so much for the community. I’m just glad that I was able to be honored to be in that group that gets to go and be at the Super Bowl and listen to all the stories of all these guys giving back to these great communities, it truly is an honor.”
Q: Packers CB Keisean Nixon said he picked up a gesture you did that was a tell on the interception. How do you have to disguise stuff like that?
MAHOMES: “We change it up a lot. I saw that he (Packers CB Keisean Nixon) said that he saw the thing and he knew the play, but it’s the first time I’ve checked to that play in my history of playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. He definitely saw a signal, he did a great job, made a great play, a game changing play. Just try to be more subtle I guess to try to get us to the right spot where we can make a play happen.”
Q: How much does it happen where you get the opportunity to make those checks?
MAHOMES: “(Head) Coach (Andy) Reid gives me the freedom on every play to check us and get us into the best play. I do a lot of signals, some are real, some are not real, it’s all about playing the cat and mouse game like you were saying of trying to confuse the defense. They got me on that one, made a big time play, and I’ll learn from it and try to be better the next time.”
Q: What percentage of plays that you check out of would you say are successful?
MAHOMES: “It’s been pretty high I would say. We’ve been able to score points in my career. I think just trying to be better this year because obviously we need to score more points and win more football games.”
DT CHRIS JONES
Q: What do you see in the challenge of facing the Bills and QB Josh Allen?
JONES: “They’re a good team. We have to prepare, watch a little more film to be able to stop their explosive offense. I think they played 97 plays last week against a very, very good Philadelphia Eagles defense, so they’re able to put up a lot of points. Running the ball, they had I think 177 rushing yards or Josh Allen throwing the ball – I think he threw the ball 53 times last week, so they were able to put up points. We have to watch a little more film and see how we can stop him.”
Q: There seems to be a lot of intensity when these two teams play. Why is that?
JONES: “I think any AFC game we play is intensified because of the magnitude of the game.”
Q: What does it take to get out of a stretch where you lose a few games?
JONES: “We can’t lose three out of four, or three out of five. It’s a critical situation for us – especially where we’re trying to be in the next few weeks. We have to correct the errors, and we have to correct (them) fast.”