Submitted by KC Chiefs
Q: On the linebackers performance as a unit and with Nick Bolton out.
SPAGNUOLO: “Well, we certainly got a real great replacement for Nick (Bolton), didn’t we? I mean we didn’t skip a beat. We didn’t change things, that’s a credit to Drue (Tranquill) and how he operates. Going back to the tight end, I would add in there that our defensive ends help us out a little bit, too. We talk all week long about what we call possibly ‘chucking the tight ends’ as they came off, and I thought Mike (Danna) did it a couple times, I know George (Karlaftis) did. So, they helped in defending the tight end, but yeah, I’d give credit to the linebackers and what they did. You know Leo (Chenal) had that missed tackle early, but other than that, he played pretty good for the limited snap he had. I thought you’re right about Drue, Willie (Gay) ran around a little bit and did some good things for us. All those linebackers helped us out. I wish I got Jack (Cochrane) in a little bit more; the game just didn’t dictate it that way. But he was – that tight end (Vikings TE TJ Hockenson) was a challenge, and I thought our guys overall did a pretty good job with it.”
Q: What does L’Jarius Sneed’s physicality help your defense overall as he follows teams top target out a lot?
SPAGNUOLO: “Listen, that’s been our M.O. here. I mean (current 49ers CB, former Chiefs CB) Charvarius Ward would do it for us, (former Chiefs CB) Bashaud Breeland when we had Breeland and LJ (L’Jarius Sneed) – just kind of fit right in that same mold. We believe in that philosophically to be a press coverage team and LJ does it as good as anybody. The thing about LJ is he loves a challenge, he wants to go against their very best. That’s why we do it. Listen, when you have a guy like that, that you have confidence you can put him on their best guy, I think the other ten guys rally around him. They see it, I mean they saw it two weeks ago when he was on number 17 (WR Garrett Wilson) from the Jets and how it helped us play good defense in that game. I think the same thing happened yesterday. We would’ve liked to have a few less points on the board there but I thought overall LJ did a really good job. Now he’ll probably admit to you that he got a little overzealous on that one play, but you know all in all, that might help us going forward so I’m ok with that.”
Q: What are you seeing from Mike Edwards?
SPAGNUOLO: “I’m really glad you brought Mike (Edwards) up. He’s really – we’ve given him a little bit more playing time if you notice, and he went in I think on the third series, the second or third series, and he’s earned that. He’s got a really good feel for the game. He’d tell you he’d like to have made the catch over there on the sideline, (he) kind of had it in his hands. He is a ballhawk, I mean he goes after the football, he’s had interceptions when he’s down there in Tampa Bay playing. I thought he did some really nice things for us in the red zone, (Assistant Head Coach/ Special Team Coordinator) Dave (Toub) and I were talking about that this morning. I mean he deserves to be out there; we have him in certain packages, maybe we’ll get him in a couple others but really glad we got Mike. You know guys like Mike and Drue (Tranquill) coming in here and adding to the guys we have has been really really important.”
Q: How impressed are you that Chris Jones has had a sack in each game he’s played in this season?
SPAGNUOLO: “Yeah, that’s kind of nice. I’d be ok if Chris (Jones) started getting multiple sack games, that would be even better. But he had that, and then I think he had three quarterback hits, so he’s always applying pressure. You know I will say this, I do think that that Minnesota offensive line actually did a fairly good job overall. I thought we would kind of be able to get inside a little bit more and Chris we moved around a little, but all in all, I thought our guys did a decent job. Chris, when he can finish, I think there was one other opportunity in there where he had the chance to finish with a sack and he kind of slipped off or I think (Vikings QB Kirk) Cousins got the ball away. I’m waiting for the multiple sack game, try to get off the one per game average and get to the multiple (laughter).”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR MATT NAGY
Q: Is Rashee Rice earning more snaps with his level of play?
NAGY: “Yeah, I absolutely think he (Rashee Rice) is. I think it’s a growth process for him and just as we’ve talked about, and I’ve talked about, this process for these wide receivers, learning these positions and learning what they’re supposed to do within the route does take time. When you’re a rookie wide receiver nowadays coming from college (where) there’s so much no huddle, the sooner and quicker you can learn the verbiage that we have in the huddle – the next step is taking it to the line of scrimmage and being able to run the right route followed by, what’s the defense doing? And oh, by the way, you’ve got to make the catch too. Yesterday you saw that one catch he had over the middle, the middle of the field where he was running a basic cross and the throw was a little bit behind him, but he was able to maneuver himself and make a strong handed catch and still get vertical. To me, that’s immense growth from him where week one in preseason we may not have seen that. He’s starting to understand the different levels that you see with the linebackers (and) safeties, finding different holes in zones. Also, his touchdown catch of course, making a strong catch, he was physical, he was fast. What I think what we’re seeing right now with Rashee is someone that’s slowly gaining confidence in himself. He knows that we as coaches are slowly gaining more and more confidence in him. There’s immense growth ahead of him and I think that’s the exciting part that we all see.”
Q: On the play of Justin Watson and his ability to play at a higher level in year two with the team?
NAGY: “I think for him it’s that trust element him and Pat (Mahomes) have built over the last two years. You know about his speed – last year when he got here we knew, ‘Hey, this is a guy that can take the top off. This is a guy that has good hands, this is a guy that can run good routes.’ Putting it all together in this system, in this offense is the first part, the next part is understanding how to mesh with Pat and get to a point where yesterday in cover zero Pat just throws the ball up in cover zero and trusts him to go up and make a play. Not to mention also there was one earlier in the game and they hit us with a cover zero and Pat threw the ball up and J-Wat (Justin Watson) was running down the seam and the ball was a little under thrown and naturally I think he did a good job too of knocking the ball down and preventing an interception. When you do that the first time and you throw a ball up to a guy one-on-one and there’s not an interception it’s going to give your quarterback more trust in that guy (to) throw it up a second time and seeing what he can do. J-Wat made a strong catch, big play and they’re communicating more on the sidelines in between series. All of that is just a credit to Pat and his relationships he builds with these guys (and) credit to these wide receivers and their coaches, (Wide Receivers) Coach (Connor) Embree and (Pass
Game Coordinator) Coach (Joe) Bleymaier of just – you know really making sure these guys talk through everything and create more and more trust. Because we know somebody different in this offense every week can have a big game and I think that’s probably some of the strengths of this offense that we have.”
Q: How did you feel about how you handled the high volume of blitz in Sunday’s game?
NAGY: “We knew going into this game yesterday that (Vikings Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Brian) Flores was going to do a lot of different looks. He’s somebody – probably more than any defensive coordinator in the league – (is) going to throw more double A, double B, different types of fronts, looks, everybody, seven up, eight up, guys at you, to try to get you to either max protect or throw deep, that’s what he (Vikings Defensive Coordinator Coach Brian Flores) does, that’s his DNA of who he is. We knew that going into it, it’s just a matter of when you’re in it, how do we handle it? I thought the guys – our players – did a pretty good job at handling that for the most part. Now there were a couple plays here and there where – like every game – where we feel like, ‘Hey we could have been better on this play and made this play a little easier to be successful.’ That’s a part of playing the game, that’s a part of learning as we grow through the scheme and protections and cover zero checks, whatever it is. I thought our guys did a good job, I thought Pat (Mahomes) did a good job of staying in there. There’s so much that goes on within a play – it’s one thing to just call a play in the huddle and get to the line of scrimmage and see what they’re doing. The next part of it is being able to make the play during created chaos – it’s what they (The Vikings) like to create, is a bunch of havoc and chaos and make you think fast and throw the ball out quick. I thought our guys handled it really well. Situationally as well, I thought they did a good job in situational football whether (it was) red zone, four minute, end of half, end of game, I was really happy with the way they did that.”
Q: What do you see from the Broncos defense?
NAGY: “This is a defense that, you know you look at the personnel that they have – they’ve had some changes here and there, they’ve had a few injuries here and there. We know – first of all in this league there’s a lot of great NFL defenses and you can take stats and throw it out the window. These guys play hard, they’re in a lot of these games. I know right now their record may not show that, but they play hard and the DNA of their defensive coordinator Vance Joseph is an aggressive one yet playing fast and knowing where to be. It’s obviously a short turnaround for us, just coming from the game yesterday you get right on into it and you got to dig into knowing what they do and don’t do. We just have a lot of respect across the board, and I think you always start with (CB Pat) Surtain (II) back there and who he is and how he plays. He's going to follow guys and he’s going to also make plays when the ball is in the air. Then that front seven they move around pretty good, and I think they’ve got some guys that get after the quarterback. We just got to make sure we do what we do, stay within our system and just they are a good defense.”
ASSISTANT HEAD COACH/ SPECIAL TEAM COORDINATOR DAVE TOUB
Q: On the fake punt the Vikings successfully converted on.
TOUB: “Yeah, it was a pretty cool play. I mean it’s not like we didn’t know they were going to run a fake, I mean I would’ve been surprised if they didn’t run a fake right there. The fact that they didn’t even go for it on offense, and they put their punt team out. We knew it was going to be a fake, we had our big guy,
our defense out there obviously, they got the yards they needed. It was a good play, it was a little bit of a misdirection, a handoff in the backfield got us a little out of position, well executed, good blocks, a well-designed play that got the first down. Sooner or later, we got to have to stop these things otherwise were going to keep getting them. Obviously, that is going to be a point this week, and going forward. You know, we have to stop them. Teams are going to keep doing this to us because they want to stay on the field obviously and it seems like that’s something that they think they can get on us and we have to stop them, so that’s it on the old fake punt.”
Q: How much time do you spend each week preparing for fake punts?
TOUB: “We do spend – once a week, we spend on, we call it ‘Big Red’ which is our big defense out there for a punt situation, so you know we practice different fakes every week and that’s really all you can do. They’re on their toes, they know the fake is coming but you still have to stop it and it’s tough and obviously we have to get some wins under our belt here.”
Q: Yesterday was your first kick return of the season. What did you see from the blocking as a unit?
TOUB: “It’s been only one. I mean obviously it’s good that we got one because now we can coach off it and we have some young guys out there but still, it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t a bad return. We got it out at least past the 25 (yard-line), we got it at I think (the) 28 or 27-yard-line which is a positive, but we can be better, there’s a lot of things that we can coach off of on that. We can be a little bit more aggressive on our blocks and sustain and get better cutoff blocks on the back side, that’s the guy that got us – that did eventually tackle us, but I like the way t