HOUSTON TEXANS vs. KANSAS CITY CHIEFS

Transcription

1 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sunday, September 18, 2016 POSTGAME QUOTES FROM HOUSTON TEXANS Founder, Chairman and Chiefs Executive Officer Robert C. McNair Head Coach Bill O Brien OLB Jadeveon Clowney WR DeAndre Hopkins CB Kevin Johnson CB Johnathan Joseph OLB Whitney Mercilus QB Brock Osweiler DE J.J. Watt NT Vince Wilfork Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert C. McNair (Transcribed by Allie LeClair) What do you think about beating the Kansas City Chiefs after all that you have been through the last year with them? They have a very good ball club. I m just so proud of our guys. When we really needed them to step up, they did. It was just a great win. It was as close as I thought it would be. What did you think of the defense? The defense just is playing lights out. Our offense is doing fine, but we were up against a terrific defense. You have to give them credit. Their special teams did a good job, too. It was a tough win but I m delighted. How do you feel going into New England off of a win? That s great. We needed that. We needed that. That will be a tough game up there. They have a good ball club and they re very well coached. They will have a good game plan. So, we will have to play our best. What are your thoughts on DE J.J. Watt? J.J. (Watt) and (Jadeveon) Clowney and (Whitney) Mercilus, (John) Simon, they all put so much pressure on the opposing team. Alex Smith is a good player. He s very reliable. He throws very few interceptions, makes very few mistakes, so when you contain him the way our guys did, that s a real accomplishment. WR Will Fuller V is the first rookie receiver in franchise history to open his career with two 100-yard games. Your thoughts on that. That s a very nice start, I would say. He s a terrific player. He s going to do nothing but get better. Of course (DeAndre) Hopkins had a great day, too. We are blessed with some good, young receivers. It s going to be fun watching them. (Brock) Osweiler did a good job. He made some big plays when we needed him. He s going to do nothing but get better, too. How satisfying is it to win against the Kansas City Chiefs? The players said it wasn t revenge. It was for me, I don t know about the others. They beat us twice last year. We needed to step up and our guys did. I was really proud of them. Your team has started 2-0 a lot over the last few years. Does this feel different than previous years? I think we are a better team. We ve played against good teams who ve played well. It wasn t that we came up against somebody that was having an off day. They played very well today. I m proud of what we ve done. We still have a lot of work to do. It s a great way to start. WR DeAndre Hopkins now has 250 career catches. What do you think about that? He s a great athlete. He has tremendous hands, so if you get the ball close to him, he s going to catch it. He s just so reliable, very valuable. I told him, I said The last catch you made was the most important of all. Of course that was the one on the onside kick. We really think a lot of him. He s playing well.

2 HEAD COACH BILL O BRIEN (Transcribed by Katie Karsh and Nathan Edwards) Can you talk about what this victory means to the team? It was a good win. I thought it was a good team win. Guys played hard, took advantage of some turnovers. Got to do a better job in the red area on offense. We had a couple interceptions, but overall I think we won the turnover battle basically. That was important. I thought our defense really stood up there and when they had to, in critical situations, played well. Got to shore up some things in the special teams game. It was kind of inconsistent and I think offensively, you know look, it s something that we re getting better every week. It s not necessarily where we want it to be, but it s a good team win. Really good team win. Can you talk about CB A.J. Bouye and the strategy he used against TE Travis Kelce? I thought that one of the things that the defensive staff did a good job of, Romeo (Crennel) did a good job of - you know in practice, quite a bit on the look team, A.J. covers Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) and that s obviously a very tall task. There s some similarities between Kelce and Hopkins from a size standpoint. I m not saying he s a receiver, I m just saying there s a little bit of similarities there, so we felt like that would be our best bet to put on him. Obviously we doubled him and did different things there, too. I thought A.J. looks like he played a pretty good game. WR Will Fuller V and WR DeAndre Hopkins both had over 100 yards receiving. Can you talk about the impact this had? We take a lot of pride in our offense and I thought we did some good things. I m not saying that we didn t. I m just saying that I know that there s a lot of improvement we need to make, but I was obviously happy with how the whole team played. What does it mean not only to be 2-0, but also to beat the Chiefs and put your loss to them last season in the past? Every year is different. That wasn t a good day for anybody involved with our football team, but this is a different team. There s a lot of guys on this team that weren t here on that team. I think it was just a really good early season victory for our football team. QB Brock Osweiler has thrown three interceptions in two games. Are you concerned about this going forward? No. I think I have to do a better job there of coaching him just on some of the things that we re looking at from a defensive standpoint, and I know that he s going to work hard not to do that. I m not concerned about that at all. This is the second game in a row that the team is split down the middle when it comes to running and passing plays. Is this a sign that the offense is coming together or just the circumstances of the game? I think it s a little bit of both. I know that we want to run the football, so I think we go into each game just trying to do what we think we need to do to really win that game and take advantage of what they re doing defensively. We try to stay balanced. We have a good running game, we think. Sometimes it doesn t look great and it ll get better and better as we go. But I thought in the fourth quarter there when we had to have some runs, I thought our line blocked well, our tight ends and I thought Lamar (Miller) and Alfred Blue pounded in there. Jonathan Grimes had a big third down conversion there at the end, so I thought our backs played a good game too. You ran a lot better in the fourth quarter than the rest of the game. Can you talk about that? I think you have to stick with it. I think you have to stick with it. I don t think you can really judge your running game by the first quarter. That doesn t really give your players any confidence at all if after the first quarter, you just abandon the run. I think that it s a 60 minute game and I believe that, what I ve learned in calling plays, what George (Godsey) is learning calling plays is that, you know, you got to stick with it. Maybe in the fourth quarter these gains that were two in the first quarter, maybe they ll be four in the fourth quarter, which will be good. Got to be patient with it. Do you have an idea on the extent of WR Braxton Miller s hamstring? No I don t. I don t. I m sorry. You talk about starting fast in games and in the season. Can you talk about being 2-0?

3 In order to be a team that is a good football team, you have to win your home opener. I think we really believe in that. I believe that you have to beat your AFC opponents. If you think you belong in the AFC, then you need to beat your AFC opponents. That s a very, very good team. I probably should have said this right at the beginning. I think the way that they coach their team, the players that they have, their coaching staff. Andy Reid. Bob Sutton. Those guys are really good coaches. It s a very, very difficult win for us. Can you talk about forcing three fumbles in the first half? I think our defense, we work on that a lot. We really do. We re constantly working those types of drills. I m sure every team does that, but for some reason, based on the players that we have, we have a lot of guys that understand not only securing the tackle, but getting their hands on the ball and trying to get the ball out. I think our coaches do a good job of coaching and our guys did a good job of executing it today. Were you surprised that TE Demetrius Harris fumble was overturned and WR DeAndre Hopkins incomplete catch in the end zone was not reversed? I don t know anything about the catch rule. I really don t. I might get fined for this, I don t know. But somebody s going to have to really sit down with me and explain to me the catch rule. Because basically to me a catch would be like when I was 10 years old in the backyard and we were playing football with our buddies and we all knew like okay he caught that ball. I m going to stop right there. I mean, I don t know the catch rule. I m sorry. What would you say has been the problem in the red zone thus far? Is it execution? Is it play-calling? Penalties. Penalties, not play-calling. Penalties. I think we ve had holding penalties on probably, what I would venture to say, three or four drives that have been in the red area. We ve had holding calls, false starts, offensive pass interference. I really do, I really think its penalties. If we can really make our players understand that if we can just avoid the penalties, we re going to get in situations where we can be a lot better in the red area. But we definitely have to improve down there. How much easier is it to call plays and make decisions on offense when the defense is controlling the game the way you did? I said to George (Godsey) going into the fourth quarter, I said, Look, we re going to keep playing the game. We re not going to get conservative here but let s make sure we ll calling plays that we ve executed well in practice because I think our defense is playing really good right now. You got the feel for the game exactly the way I did. It looked like the defense was having a really good football game. I thought offensively we were doing some decent things but it was more about execution and sustaining drives, and I thought we did that a little bit better in the fourth quarter. If there s a 24-hour rule for a normal week, does it become a 24-minute rule for this short week? Yeah, you re right. As soon as I leave here, do one more deal with the Houston TV station, then we re moving on to New England because it is a very short week. We re going to meet tomorrow on New England and then probably do something Tuesday and Wednesday and travel on Wednesday morning to New England. Does it give you any advantage at all on the short week that you re as familiar with New England as you are? No advantage. No. They re a really good football team, great coaching staff, great players, very good at home. Not sure how many games they ve lost over the last 15 years at home but it s not many might be single digits so it s a very, very big challenge for our football team. Our guys will be ready to go and we ll have a good week here and we ll go up there and we ll give it our best effort. OLB JADEVEON CLOWNEY (Transcribed by Adam Rauch) Is there a mentality for you guys to get turnovers in bunches like this? We just want to win. All of us want to win. We re hungry, we re trying to be better than last year, that s the whole goal. We had to beat the Chiefs, they beat us twice last year. We ve had a chip on our shoulders and we said we can t let this team beat us again and we came out there and played. Is this win more special because the Chiefs beat the Texans twice last season? All of them are special, but, of course yes. They beat us in the playoffs last year and stopped us from going forward in the playoffs. So, yeah, that win was a good win for the team and the organization.

4 How do you think the defensive front performed today? I thought we were very disruptive. We had them throwing the ball all over the place, causing turnovers, guys punching the ball loose, making plays and we have to do that week in and week out. How good does it feel to continue to be effective week in and week out? I ve got to keep going and keep pushing. I ve got to get sacks. Pressures are good but you want sacks at the end of the day, so I have to get there a step faster. But, being disruptive is good, getting them all messed up in the backfield and guys come and make plays. How do you feel physically? I feel pretty good. Everything is coming along pretty well. (We ve) got to keep pushing forward. We ve got a lot of football left in the season and it s going to be a long season. Do you feel like this could be a special defense? Yeah, I think so. We ve got a lot of great players on this team and we have to keep playing as a unit and we ll be all right. WR DEANDRE HOPKINS (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) What did you think about that play that was not ruled a catch for a touchdown? We should put up a survey and ask the world, Was it a touchdown? How hard is it to make contested catches? When you ve been doing something for so long repetitively, it makes it easy when you go out there in the game and do it. Once you do it in practice and training camp all season, when you go out there in the game, it s like clockwork. How difficult was it to move the ball against the Chiefs defense today? They re a great defense, a lot of young guys that make plays and very active. Third down, we were having trouble dealing with the blitz. The only touchdown, I had, so that just goes to show how good that defense was. But we knew if we stick to our game plan that we could pull it out. What has it been like to have WR Will Fuller V opposite you? It s been good. Defenses can t just focus on me. It s only been two games, and I m still seeing double teams. This is his second game in the NFL. He still has a lot to prove. How would you describe the level of competition between you and Chiefs CB Marcus Peters? Peters is a great football player and a great guy off the field, also. I love going up against him. I look forward to matchups going up against big corners like him. He s a Pro Bowl-caliber DB (defensive back) makes plays. If you give him a chance, he s going to pick it off. Can you take us through your touchdown catch? It was great defense. He had outside leverage. I just stuck with the route and trusted Brock (Osweiler) just to put the ball in there and let me make a play. Where do you want to see the team get better on the short week? We have a lot to work on. We have a short week, short turn around, a lot of young guys on this team. So, the main thing is just taking care of their bodies with this short turnaround and recovering to be able to come out Thursday. How does it feel to now have 250 career catches? A lot more to go. A lot to improve on. I feel like I could ve had more catches. Just improving on my game. I don t want to look at that and feel like I ve made it because I haven t. CB KEVIN JOHNSON (Transcribed by Julien Demers)

5 Kevin we talked about QB Alex Smith during the week and how tough he is. How difficult is it to do that to a quarterback like Alex? I thought the coaching staff put us in great position to make plays all day. I felt like we did a pretty good job of executing, and we ended up getting the victory. Do you think the defense can improve? I think we can be a lot better. We definitely got to go back and watch the tape. I think there s a lot of things we can improve on out there. At the same time, there s some good things we did as well. Can you talk about what the defensive front was doing out there? I thought they were wreaking havoc. Every time I looked down, I saw a lot of disruption. That s great to see and I expect that every time we step out on the field. How big is this one for you guys? It was a good win. It s good anytime you get a win in the National Football League. Wins are hard to come by. Anytime you can get a win, it s definitely good to build on. Do you feel good about the defense making those plays happen, not just falling into them? You guys were making them happen. Right, that s something that we pride ourselves on is getting the ball. We practice a lot of that stuff in practice just taking the ball away from the offense. Hopefully it translates to the game like today. CB JOHNATHAN JOSEPH (Transcribed by Alison Chastain) Talk about up front some more and especially what OLB Jadeveon Clowney is doing? He is playing his butt off right now, and it s good to see him have some success. He started off slow with a couple of unfortunate injuries and things like that, but he is finally healthy, so that is good news. Of course, J.J. (Watt), (John) Simon, (Whitney) Mercilus, all across the board, all those guys, big Vince (Wilfork) playing the run strong. (D.J.) Reader when he is in there, (Devon) Still, and all the linebackers playing really well. I think anytime you have a front like that it makes our job easier in the back. What is the key to get ready for the Texans next game against the New England Patriots? First and foremost, get everybody healthy. Rest up because it s not going to be easy going on the road, playing those guys up there. It s probably good for us coming off a win like this to go up there on a short week and carry some of this momentum going up there. Although this win doesn t have anything to do with New England, but obviously playing some good ball from a team confidence standpoint, I think that s big. How does it affect the Texans defense probably not having to face New England Patriots QB Jimmy Garoppolo? It seems like whoever fills in for those guys up there seem to do a good job. You can look back over the last eight years, anytime (Tom) Brady hasn t been in there, they have had somebody step in and pick up the pieces. For us, we have to go up there prepared as if he is going to play and if he doesn t play, we still have to go up there and do our job. Does it make preparing harder when you are not sure who will be playing quarterback for the Patriots? Not really. The quarterback position is the quarterback position. He is going to get back there and hand it off or he is going to throw the ball - one of the two. Obviously, some guys can scramble better than others, but for us, it s more about what we are doing and how we execute on our defense. OLB WHITNEY MERCILUS (Transcribed by Crystin Pactor) How gratifying was this one starting off the season 2-0 and obviously beating a pretty good Chiefs team? Yeah, it was really good. Shows the progress we ve made over the last couple years you know coming from the playoffs and everything. Two different teams, but we came in and definitely showed out.

6 Talk about the ability to get to the quarterback. You guys have done it two weeks in a row overall and it s coming in numbers. Yeah, definitely. It s great to have guys that we have on defense upfront and that can get to the quarterback. You never know who is going to get there. We can do a whole bunch of schemes and everything, run games - things like that and get pressure on the quarterback. Short week coming up. What are you telling the younger guys to make sure they are ready in four days? Recovery, recovery. That is the biggest thing, especially now. After this game, we have to be able to turn the page and we can t enjoy this win, unfortunately, as long as we would like to. But, now we have to think about getting our bodies back, so that we can be ready for Thursday. It seemed like DE J.J. Watt goes out there and looks like J.J. today, you re playing well, OLB John Simon is playing so well. This whole front 7, it just seems to be everywhere right now. What s working so well with you guys? It s the chemistry on defense. We have been together for a number of years now, and we know the ability of each other and everything. We know how to play off each other and when the call comes in we make it work. It is great to have guys like that. You can t double team just one person, so it s great to have many different weapons. I know you guys talked about this being just another game, but now that it s over, it has to be satisfying to get a little bit of payback or some sort of retribution on the Chiefs, yes? It s cool, definitely. The last time we played them, twice, it didn t end the way we wanted it to, but for them to come into our house and for us to win, it was great. It shows a lot of progress that we ve made, and so we just have to continue that into Thursday night. QB BROCK OSWEILER (Transcribed by Stephanie Weaver, Hannah Pietsch and Carrington Gilbert) Can you comment on the touchdown pass to WR DeAndre Hopkins and the two interceptions? Yeah, that is a broad spectrum, but certainly to start, first two games out of the gate, first to series, a turnover. You know, that s something I need to clean up. Today s turnover on the first series was just a poor throw by myself. I felt that Braxton (Miller) ran a great route and that s something I ll get cleaned up. Obviously, turnovers are never good, and then when you turn the ball over in the red area, it s really not good. So, that is something that I know I need to improve upon as far as protecting the ball and protecting the ball early, especially when we have a good drive going. And then to be able to make a big play with DeAndre (Hopkins) coming off of a turnover. You know, Coach (O Brien) is always talking about complementary football. You know when your defense makes a big play or when the special teams make a big play, offense you need to take that momentum and finish with a touchdown, and I think that s exactly what took place in that moment. DeAndre did a heck of a job. I think he got walled out of bounds. He kept fighting. He kept playing the play. He got back in bounds, made a heck of a catch and scored a touchdown. Once again, on the second turnover, that s just me. It s miscommunication that I think needs to get cleaned up, and it will get cleaned up. We spend a lot of hours in here throughout the week meeting, trying to get on the same exact page on a lot of different plays. That s something between DeAndre and myself that I know we ll get it cleaned up and be better in the future. Can you comment on the WR DeAndre Hopkins catch that was ruled incomplete? You know, I haven t really seen it, just the quick replays in the stadium, but once again I think that just shows what kind of football player DeAndre (Hopkins) is. I m not sure if he was kind of getting pulled down or tripped or what the deal was, but once again, he kept playing the play. It looked like he made a heck of a catch, but obviously it was ruled incomplete and that is what we are going to go with. I think it just shows the competitive fire that DeAndre has. It seems like it doesn t matter if he is double covered or if he s in press or whatever it is. He s going to fight, and he s going to play the whole play. He s going to come up with the football and make some big-time plays. What was it like watching the defense keep QB Alex Smith and the Chief s offense at bay? What our defense did today was absolutely incredible. They should get a ton of credit for what they did today. Offensively, did we play where we wanted to? Absolutely not. We have a higher standard. We ll continue to work and get better, and we will get better. But what our defense did to allow us to stay in the game, like I said, it s truly incredible. It was a lot of fun to watch. Those guys were flying around. They were making plays. They were sacking the quarterback. They were pressuring the quarterback. The secondary was making plays. My hat s truly off to our defense. They had a hell of a day today.

7 What does it mean to you to have two 100-yard receivers which has been rare around here? I think that s a credit to how hard those guys work in the offseason. But more importantly than stats, I think the best stat right now is 2-0. I m not worried about who has what yards receiving, who has what yards rushing, what I m throwing for, all I care about is wins and losses and right now we have two huge team wins to start the season and that s what I m truly proud of right now. How would you evaluate your first two games overall quarterbacking the team? I would imagine there is another level you know you have to get to in leading this offense. "Without question and it starts with eliminating the turnovers. If I just protect the football with the way our defense is playing right now, with the way (Shane) Lechler's playing, the way our running game is going - good things are going to happen for this football team. Obviously, my main emphasis going in to this practice week is protecting the football. I think if I can do that, we'll continue to put the offense in good situations. We have a very high standard for what we expect our offense to do this season. Have we met it? Absolutely not. But are we working every single day to meet it? Absolutely." On the last drive, when you all need to kill some clock and get some points, you've got to run it. What did the group up front show you during that run? "They showed a lot of grit and a lot of toughness. Those boys up front, they wanted to run the football. They wanted the game to be on their shoulders, which is huge for a football team to see. To see your offensive line really say 'Hey, let's run the football here, let's finish this game.' I couldn't be more proud of those five guys, the tight ends, the receivers. The receivers were diving in there and making blocks. The backs were running hard. I think that's a testament to the grit of this football team. Has anything the past two weeks been perfect? Absolutely not. But bottom line, we found a way to get it done when we needed to." You beat the New England Patriots last year. How much of an advantage is that, not just for you, but for the team? "I think it gives me some confidence going into the football game, but last year's football game that I played in against the Patriots is almost irrelevant because it was with a different football team and a completely different situation. The one thing it does give me is some knowledge of how the Patriots schematically like to play, how they want to play. It gives me a little bit of information on their personnel, but these are two completely different football games, and that's how we're going to approach this." After the ruling when the Texans were on defense today does it make it even more complicated to figure out what constitutes a catch in the National Football League? That s not up to me to decide. Bottom line, my job is to go out there play to the best of my ability and play the next play. So if they signal a touchdown, if they signal incomplete, that s not up to me. My job is just to play the next play. On that final field goal drive you guys had a 3 rd and 6 th at the 48. You had that quick pass to RB Jonathan Grimes. Can you take us through that play, it seemed like you caught the defense a little bit off guard there? Yeah, that was something that we talked about during the week. We had seen that their defense at times had some miscommunication as far as tracking the back when we aligned him in an empty set. That was a situation that I had noticed that the linebackers were having some communication. Nobody had gone out with (Jonathan) Grimes and so we just have a quick cadence where we snap the ball and throw it out to him. Hop (DeAndre Hopkins) made a heck of a block and Grimes made one guy miss and made a big play for us in a time when we really needed it. I think that goes back to kind of the theme of this football team right now. Nothings perfect, but there s a lot of grit and there s a lot of fight in this football team. When a play needs to be made, players are stepping up just like Grimes did today and making plays. I know you have to go back to watch the film, but in the red zone you guys have been having some issues. What would you say off the top of your head is the biggest cause of all those? Bill O Brien says the penalties have been a big killer. Yeah, anytime you get a penalty in red area and move yourself back, you re making your job harder. So that s one. Obviously, the tur over early in the game, completely my fault. I made a poor throw, an inaccurate throw so, there s another problem. But until I see the tape it s really going to be hard to judge that one. Maybe it s just a little bit more focus needed in the red area just to finish that drive in the end zone. But like I said, until I see the tape I won t be able to really answer that question for you.

8 WR Will Fuller V is the first rookie receiver in this franchise history to open his career with back-to-back 100 yard games, what do you think that says about him? Well I think it says everything about his work ethic. You don t just randomly have back-to-back 100-yard games in the National Football League. That takes somebody who works extremely hard and somebody who is constantly getting better at their craft. So, like I ve told you guys from day one, Will (Fuller) comes in here and sits in here. He always has he notepad out. He s always taking notes, he wants to get better. He works hard at practice. He never takes a single rep off in practice, which as you guys know, a Houston training camp isn t exactly the coolest thing in the world temperature-wise. For a receiver to take every single rep, that says a lot. That s exactly what Will did during training camp. So, he s a hard worker, back-to-back 100-yard games for him doesn t surprise me one bit. At this point in the season do you take away more of the frustration of interceptions or the encouragement of rhythm that you guys have had at several drives so far? You know I think it s everything. You know it s always easier to correct mistakes when you get a win. It helps a little bit. But certainly the turnovers are something that I know needs to be cleaned up and they need to be fixed. Like I said, that s going to be my main point of emphasis this week going into Thursday night s game. Bottom line like I said, defense has been playing lights out. It s so fun to watch those guys play. Our special teams have been doing a great job and the offense has been making the plays we need to make when the game is on the line. Once again, can we be better? Yes. And we are striving every day to get there. The second pick it seemed like the ball got away to WR DeAndre Hopkins, where it was thrown a little out of his reach and CB Marcus Peters took it. The first drive one in week one and today, are you trying to do too much at times especially in those tight areas? I mean not taking the smaller, simpler thing that s in front of you. I don t think so. To be honest with you, I just think that if you look at Chicago s interception and you look at today s first interception, I think they are just inaccurate throws. Hops (DeAndre Hopkins), the ball I tried throwing to Hopkins against the Bears on the first drive, I think if I just throw that ball a little bit more outside, it s honestly completed. Today, the same deal. If I just put it in front of Braxton (Braxton Miller), I think we have a completion there. I think they are just two inaccurate throws that certainly can be cleaned up, because I take great pride in my accuracy and our timing and we work every single day to build that at practice. So, I really think those are two things that can be easily cleaned up. Is the cleaning it up making sure that your footwork is right? Yeah, that can be a part of it. I m a firm believer that if you have great feet in the pocket, that s going to help you make a great throw. But once again, I think a little bit of it is timing. It s just we re working different routes all the time. Obviously I know that the turnovers need to be fixed and that s a high point of emphasis. But I m not really sweating over it, if you will, because I know that they were just because they re inaccurate throws, and that s something that can easily be cleaned up. What do your next 24 hours look like as you try to get a jump on Thursday? Yeah, there s a lot that needs to be done. I think I m going to go enjoy this victory with some friends and my wife right now for a few hours over some dinner. Right after that, it s going to be watch this film. Clean it up. I ll have a conversation with Coach tonight to put this game to bed and then tonight get a jump on New England. Every single hour, every single minute counts as extremely precious moving forward with the Thursday night game. DE J.J. WATT (Transcribed by Adam Rauch) With the fumble recovery and sack today, do you feel like you re all the way back? I think we re getting closer. I don t think I m all the way there yet. But, I definitely felt a little bit better today than I did last week and I think it s going to continue that way. The short week is obviously going to be a little bit of a challenge but I m really looking forward to the game. I think today was just a lot of fun. Where do you feel the defense is at right now? I think everybody s playing well. I think it s a whole team effort. Everybody from the front with Vinnie (Vince Wilfork), I mean, everybody, (John) Simon, Whitney (Mercilus), J.D. (Jadeveon Clowney) and the guys in the back, all the DBs are playing so well, the linebackers. It s really a whole team effort and I think it s a lot of fun when you play that

9 way because the ball is flying out, the guys are flying around, tackles are coming from everywhere and it s really kind of a race to make a play. That s what makes it fun. When you guys are playing well, do you get a sense of confidence in how good this defense really can be? I think it s just a building process. We re just building blocks. We re putting one block on top of the other. It s a tough football league, but that was a good team, a very good football team. We were talking a little bit in the locker room and that was just a true, full NFL game right there. It was a grind. They re a very good team and you have to continue to play all four quarters. There was never a time you could have a lapse of judgement or a lapse of focus and I think our guys did a good job of really staying locked in all game. The defense gave up some big runs, what was the key behind that? I don t know yet. I ve got to go watch the film. I ll watch the film and learn from it. Obviously, you want to stop the run first. But, I think - I don t know what their passing yards were but, overall when you hold a team like that to however many points they had (nine), I don t even remember. But, they re a very good football team. They ll get their yards here and there. But, overall we did a good job and we ll learn from the tape and play great on Thursday. Chiefs QB Alex Smith had a great comeback against San Diego last week. What was the key to not letting him repeat that today? Full-team effort. The offense, running the clock down in the fourth quarter and not really giving them a ton of time. The defense, we didn t exactly do a great job stopping them, but we did what we had to do in the final drive there. We kicked a field goal, recovered a kick and got out of there with a win. It s good to start the season 2-0. This game was circled on your calendar. With the sack today, do you feel you made the most of this game? Every game is circled on my calendar. I don t care more about one than the other. We have to win, that s all that matters to me. What would you like the country to see about this defense on national TV Thursday night? I just want to go out there and play well. I think we want to go out there and continue to build, continue to grow, handle the short week well--short weeks are always a little bit tough when you re the road team so we want to do a good job at handling that and we want to go out there and put up a performance that we re proud of and continue to grow. These first two weeks, there s definitely things we can take away from and learn. But, we want to go up there and put on a solid performance that shows what we re all about and continue to take another step in the right direction. Do you feel like because Head Coach Bill O Brien spent time in New England, that will give you all a little bit of an edge come Thursday? I don t know. We played them a couple of times before and it s been a little bit since he s been there. We ll take whatever advice we can get. They re a very good football team. They re obviously a perennial power in this league. They have some great players so we re really looking forward to that challenge. Is there confidence you guys can take away from beating the Chiefs the way you all did today? I think it definitely builds confidence. I don t think it necessarily references the past, I think it s just more just - they re a very good football team and they re going to do a lot of good things this year. For us to go out there and have the performance that we did, it definitely helps build your confidence because that s a very strong football team in your conference. So, you want to go out there and start 2-0 and get off hot and we did a good job at that. It s more about beating a good football team now than it is about revenging an old loss. How much of a benefit is it to win the time of possession battle like you all did in the second half? It s great. They did a great job. When they run so much of that clock in the fourth quarter, they really don t give them a chance to get the ball back and get in a rhythm. Our offense did a great job putting up points. As a defense, you don t want them to have to put up too many points, we want to be able to take care of our job, but the more points they put up the better and I think they did a good job today of getting their job done. The offense is doing a great job. What can you do tonight to help start getting ready for Thursday? Today, it s all about massages, ice tub, flow tank, whatever you can do to get healthy. So, it s a whole lot of recovery, eating right, getting the right sleep. A short week like this when we have to travel, we leave Wednesday, you just really have to take care of your body and get the proper sleep, eat the proper food, know how to take care

10 of it and get yourself ready to roll. Especially, for myself, I know I need to do a really good job, especially considering the situation I m in. So, yeah. That s a for a professional football player, you have to be a pro. NT VINCE WILFORK (Transcribed by Stefan Nolet) What kind of tone do you think you set today? I think we set the tone from the get-go. Good football team coming in and they want to run the ball. I think a couple plays got away from us about three or four runs, big runs that made our rush defense look kind of bad. But, I think for the most part, I think we did pretty good of going out there and playing hard. It s a good team win for us. Have to turn the page quickly, though. Thursday comes fast, and going on the road against a really good football team, so enjoy this one tonight, but tomorrow we have to get back to work on a short week. All hands have to be on deck this week. Is causing the turnovers caused by effort? It happens. It s something that we preach, something that we practice. Guys rallying to the ball, being aware of the ball, where it s at and locating it knocking it off guys. Turnovers will always be a big part of this game, and that s one of things about this defense: it s a ball-hawking defense. We rally to the ball pretty good. Tonight, it was really, really good tonight. We give our team a chance if we can create turnovers and put the ball back into the offense s hands and let them do what they do. That s something we re always going to continue to preach and continue to be better at it. I think the more we can do that, the better we can be as a team. What do you think about the defense two games in? Two games in, by far we haven t played the way we re capable of playing, but at the same time, it s a start. We re doing some things well. You have a long season, but some things you always have to take away and watch film to see, you have to get better at. But for the most part, we re playing well. We have to continue to play well: that s the goal, and continue to get better. We re going to keep on chipping away at that. We can t get complacent with where we re at, because we can be a lot better, and I think the guys understand that. Is it special going back to play a game at New England? I don t know. It will be a little different going into the visiting locker room and getting dressed in different uniforms. As far as the game goes, the game is played between the lines. I spent 11 great years up there and made great friends, and to this day still have a bunch of friends up there, but I m a Texan now. I have a job to do, and I m going to do my job. POSTGAME QUOTES FROM KANSAS CITY CHIEFS Head Coach Andy Reid LB Tamba Hali QB Alex Smith RB Spencer Ware RB Charcandrick West HEAD COACH ANDY REID (Transcribed by Hannah Pietsch) Opening Statement On the injury front, the only one to mention is Jah Reid. He sprained an ankle, but he was able to keep going. All in all, we made way too many mistakes today. Too many penalties, dropped balls, you name it. Three turnovers all of these things led to points. That s my responsibility. A kickoff out of bounds three points. You can t do that against good football teams. That s what the Texans are. You give them that many opportunities, and you re not going to win the game. My responsibility as a head coach is to play more disciplined football than what we displayed there. We ll get back on it here this next week. Today, you got the best and worst of CB Marcus Peters today. Do you have to live with the worst to get the best?

11 He had some good plays. There s some things he ll continue to work on. He s a competitive kid and that happens. He ll get better at that. You talk about playing with more discipline. Does that include CB Marcus Peters? That s everybody. As many mistakes as we had all the way around, it s everybody, me included, we re all in it. What did you say to CB Marcus Peters about the penalties? He knows. He knows he s got to clean that up. The officials are cracking down on those kind of things, and maybe what went last year is not going to go this year. That s how they re called. What does CB Marcus Peters need to work on? The emotions? In that case, he s a competitive kid. In that case there, he was competing against a guy and made a nice play on the ball. But you can t do it. You wag your finger, and they re going to get you on those type of things. It happens. Was the finger wag a specific thing they had told you about before? Not necessarily a finger wag, but they ve got all eyes out, so it s one of those deals. Any kind of taunting type activity, they re going to call. They got it down to the nitty gritty right now. How did missing RB Jamaal Charles today influence the game? I thought we did some good. We had a fumble on the ball. I don t think this was a thing where it was Jamaal, or not Jamaal. That s not where we re at. We ve got to play better football. He didn t cause three turnovers and nine penalties. That wasn t due to Jamaal. If we take care of those things, we re a pretty good football team. Was there a silver lining to still having a chance to win the game despite the self-inflicted issues such as the turnovers and penalties? That s what s real. You can t do that in this league. The margin between winning and losing is so small in this league. You do stupid things, and it s going to be tough to come out on the right side of the score. That s something we ve got to learn from this, and get ourselves back and ready to go. The ability is there. I m not denying the ability is there. We have a chance to be a good football team, but we ve got to learn from this right here. QB Alex Smith hesitated in the pocket a few times. Based on what you could see, how much of it was the Texans having your plays covered? There s some things they did a good job with coverage-wise. That s how it goes. We threw the ball a few times, so they made some nice plays. On the other hand, he completed some nice balls and a couple of them came back on him just with penalties. When the offense is struggling to throw it like your team did last week, was there any temptation on your part to go no huddle? That s what we did in the second half. Should you have gone to no huddle faster? What s the dangers of going to no huddle too fast? Well, you put the defense in a little bit of a bind just by the number of reps. That s what you re doing. I think that s been proven. But we ended up going to it when we were down two scores in the fourth. LB TAMBA HALI (Transcribed by Hector Castelltort) Can you give us your general thoughts on the game? I think the Texans played well. They have a lot of speed on offense and a really good coach. I think they executed. I think for our team, we just need to stop making mistakes. What s the room for improvement that you find with the Kansas City Chiefs? Just stop making mistakes. QB ALEX SMITH (Transcribed by Christiana Johns) Did the Texans do anything to keep you from running downfield?

12 They did a bunch of different stuff today. They had a good plan. Even when there were opportunities there, it felt like we didn t do our part. We left a lot out there as well. It was tough. They mixed it up as far as pressure and then a lot of times they were dropping eight, dropping guys out, kind of spying, trying to take some of that stuff away. Tough to totally say right now. They did a good job of mixing it up, mixing up a lot of different stuff over the course of the game. Do you feel like that had your pet stuff covered? Yes and no. Certainly, I felt like there were times when they had some good calls on. I felt like that s every week though. You re never going to hit a thousand with that stuff. I felt like (there was) sloppy play between the turnovers, and penalties and just lack of execution at times when it was there for the taking, and just absolutely zero rhythm and production going in that first half. It was not good enough. How did you start getting stuff going in the second half? Yeah, it got going. You hate to always have to be like that, that you have to go through that stuff to get a rhythm and get moving the chains. We ve got to find a way to get it going earlier. With all the turnovers, the penalties, you can t settle for four field goals in a game like that too. You have to find a way to get into the end zone. What are the negatives to running a no huddle offense earlier? It s a give and take. I certainly think there s times you can jump in and out of it. It s not something you re going to live in the whole time though. At the same time, you re not going to be in it all the time. Even when we re huddling and going, we ve got to get it rolling. Once again, I felt like our first possession, we moved the chains a couple of times, and then they just came up with a turnover at third and manageable at that point. It was a big play in the game, giving them a touchdown. Did you have any sense that this was not going to be your day? No, I think that s really hard. I think there s weeks that practice-wise have been really difficult, challenging, things aren t going your way the whole week, and then you come out on Sunday and you light it up, and then vice-versa. (There s) weeks where everything is real sweet in practice, you don t miss a beat, and then you come out on Sunday and nothing s working. So, I don t know. It s hard to read into. I think looking back, yeah, but when you re in the middle of it, when you re in it, it s tougher. Looking back at the way last week s game ended, do you feel like you guys were all into it this week? I felt like we bounced back as far as anything kind of hanging over a little bit. I didn t feel that. I think this team was ready. We knew what we were in for coming down here. This is a good football team. On the road, this is a playoff football team. You re coming down to their place, we just played them not that long ago, and you knew they were going to be ready. We certainly weren t, especially offensively in that first half. Just sloppy, sloppy football. We ve got to find a way to get better. On that play with a high snap, was it as simple as the snap was too high? Yeah, it s just him and me. We can t have that happen. Whatever it is, we ve got to get it worked out. Did the snap come before you were ready? Obviously, just missed it. I felt ready. Like I said, he and I have got to get that fixed. Were you good with your accuracy today? There s a couple early there, certainly the one to J-Mac (Jeremy Maclin), and not so much missing the throw, as I felt like the one on their sideline going down, I m thinking one thing, he kind of rolls out of it another, and the ball ends up high. There were times certainly I felt like throw-wise it s not just accuracy, it s a decision too. I wish I had of gone here, I wish I had seen this, so to speak. Is your elbow good? Yeah, good. Nothing. Swelling left quickly. It was good. It felt great all week. It was never really a pain thing, it s more just kind of moving around. It never inhibited me, no. RB SPENCER WARE (Transcribed by Alison Chastain) Can you talk about what the Texans were doing defensively to make it tough on your team?

13 First of all, the Houston Texans are a very great team. Anybody in the NFL knows it s hard to win on the road, but that still doesn t and that still shouldn t affect us playing our type of football. They made some plays and some of those plays they made were because of us. So we need to go back to the fundamentals, eliminate the takeaways, eliminate the penalties and learn from this and move forward. How much did their scheme changing with OLB Jadeveon Clowney on the line impact how the Texans defense looked against your team? Clowney is one of the many great players they have on their defense, let alone on their team. They made some additions on offense. They made their plays as a team. We just have to play our ball. We knew their personnel. We knew what they were going to do. They just wanted it a little bit more today. Is it true you never had a fumble in college? I never lost a fumble. I think in college I may have put it on the ground twice in my entire career, but I never lost a fumble. That is something that we don t condone and it s not acceptable. I am going to move on from it. RB CHARCANDRICK WEST (Transcribed by Omar Majzoub) How would you assess the Chiefs defensive performance? The defense did a great job today. As an offense, this game is on us. We have to pick that up. Hats off to the defense. We didn t do our job today. What areas do you need to improve on offense? We didn t execute our game plan like we were supposed to and it cost us the game. Anything specifically you need to work on? Just executing and being consistent. Then staying on it. You guys face the Jets next week. Oh yeah, we need to put this loss behind us and focus on next week. -END-