Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid Quotes
December 8, 2025
OPENING STATEMENT: “Really don’t have anything injury wise to give you yet. Wanya’s (Morris) did not look good, but we’ll be able to get you that later as we go. Listen, it was a great atmosphere for a football game. The fans were phenomenal. We came up short obviously. I need to make sure I give the guys an opportunity on those fourth downs to make plays. I take full responsibility for that. (I) thought we could have mustered something up there, and I knew points were important. But that’s my responsibility to make sure those work. The obvious is we’ve had too many drops, you’ve got to take care of that. I’m not sure where these came from. We’ve been catching the ball pretty good there the last couple of games, so we have got to go back to that and make sure – these are great players that have had some drops and the quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) I know would have liked a couple of those throws back. We have to start making those kind of plays offensively. Defensively, I thought again the second half of the game, we played really good sound football and made plays. We were able to put the ball back into the offense’s hands and special teams I thought they did a good job too. With that, time’s yours.”
Q: What were your intentions on the 4th-and-one? It looked like you were trying to hit Hollywood Brown.
REID: “Yeah, so Jesse (Newell), we thought we had a good play. Some of that going for fourth is you’ve got to feel what you’ve got. We thought we had a good one for him (Hollywood Brown) and you’re seeing that right, there was a throw to Hollywood (Brown).”
Q: How do you feel after the fourth down decision, now that you’ve had time to reflect?
REID: “We’ve been so good in that area. Whether it was run or pass. I felt we were in a good position. I thought we had a good play. Again, I thought it was the right thing to do then – this is terrible to say in a situation like this because we didn’t win and we didn’t get that, but I would probably do that same thing again. I also know when you don’t get them it can be a problem, especially when they’re in that field goal range area. Very aware of that. I thought the risk-reward was right for that time. It slapped me in the face though; it didn’t go that way.”
Q: Based on your experience, how do you keep the team motivated and have faith?
REID: “You hate for it to come down to that Pete (Sweeney), but I have learned over the years that anything is possible. I communicated that to the guys that were down in the dumps after the game. They put their heart and soul into that thing, and we came up short. But at the same time, there’s a way you got to pick yourself up and get yourself going again. Hope is always a good motivator there. I think our guys realize that I mentioned it to them after the game – not that that’s what they wanted to hear at that particular time. They were still very upset about what had just went on. They wanted to win that game, obviously.”
Q: What was the thought process of putting Wanya Morris at the left tackle position and Jaylon Moore at the right tackle position?
REID: “Well, Matt (Derrick), you saw the matchups and all of that, so we always take matchups into mind. But also, where the player is comfortable too. So that’s what we felt was right. I can’t tell you if that will be the case this week. We’ll see how things go in the game plan part of it. With the exception of the pressure on the 4th-and-one there were some pretty good things that I thought we did there. 51 (Texans DE Will Anderson Jr.) got us a little bit on that 4th-and-one to where we wanted to go with the ball. Other than that, I thought they did a respectable job.”
Q: What were your thoughts on the Nohl Williams holding call?
REID: “I think my reaction probably to it said it all. We’ll just leave it at that. You can go back and look at the tape. I’m sure you have Matt (Derrick).”
Q: On going for it on 4th-and-four with 5:31 left.
REID: “There were five minutes, and [31] seconds left on the clock in that area. I really felt like we had a great play there that we could dial up that fit into what they (Houston Texans) were doing defensively. By that time, you have a pretty decent feel on what’s going on. I thought we were within striking distance there to take care of it. It didn’t work out.”
Q: On the decision to not go for it on fourth down after a penalty moved the ball up.
REID: “I think through them all but I’m not going to tell you I don’t go through it. The one we went for I felt real good about and the one we didn’t go for I wasn’t feeling it. Listen we had a productive play there – or a chance for a productive play and we just have to make sure we take care of business there.”
Q: What did you see from Esa Pole?
REID: “Yeah Soren (Petro), so after the game I mentioned I was proud of him (Esa Pole) because he had no reps in practice for the most part and then just a couple fill in things. I thought he did a nice job for what he was asked to do. We just picked him back up here and he again had limited reps and jumps in and I mean he’s a rookie. He jumps in and did some pretty good things against what I think is a pretty good football player.”
Q: Why do you think drops happen?
REID: “It’s not from a lack of effort part. It could be as simple as taking your eyes off the ball to see where you’re going to want to go in these traffic throws. That can be the case or maybe the ball’s a little bit on your back shoulder and you have to squeeze it before you finish it and try and take it up the field so there’s all kinds of things. It could be part is the throw (or) part is just making sure you look at it all the way into the tuck.”
Q: Do you feel like you need to cheer up the coaches and players in the facility?
REID: “It falls on me, first of all. Our guys will be ready; they’ll be ready to go. You go through this and you kind of regather your thoughts and time is a friend here for you in that area because you spend a lot of time on this Todd (Leabo), as you know, getting ready for these games, and there’s a lot of effort that goes into it and you should feel that. If you’ve put everything out there and you’ve come up on the short end, you should feel a sense that listen, we’ve got to do better here and that’s not a great feeling normally. On the other hand, you go back through and you still have an opportunity to go (and) that fires you up. You just need a minute here to catch it. Now, we don’t have the players in today, so they’re going through that. We’re deep into the Chargers right now as we speak, so that’s how it rolls.”
Q: You’ve been in fourth quarter situations before; do you feel the same energy on the sidelines in those moments that are similar from the rest of the season?
REID: “I do feel it. I thought there was great energy, actually going into that. I don’t think it was an energy thing that got us in this game here. I felt like the guys were into it (and) were encouraging each other. It seemed very positive. We just had a couple negative things go wrong, that’s where I’m kicking myself in the tail. On the fourth down, we did have some momentum if you want to call it that. There at least was a positive feel going and tried to build on that, but it didn’t work out. When they don’t work, it’s not a good thing.”
Q: Was there a missed opportunity on the missed play of potential offsides by the Texans?