Andy Reid
OPENING STATEMENT: “Alright, thank you to the fans and the great job that they did along with the grounds crew of cleaning things up and making that field playable. They did a great job. Hats go off to our team for the job that they did and really for the Dolphins. I thought they came out and handled all the weather. It’s a little bit different than down in Miami and I thought both teams handled that pretty well. Then there are a bunch of things but our defense with the third down ratio was incredible and the job that they did. One-for-12 on third downs, that’s quite a stat there, and then there are a bunch of individual efforts. Offensively, I’d start with the offensive line. Defensively, I’d start with the defensive line. Then there are good individual efforts in there – whether it’s George (Karlaftis) with the couple of sacks that he had (or) Chris Jones. Those guys brought all of their mad money with them (laughter). Leo (Chenal) on special teams did a great job. I think he was getting used to it on the second return and was feeling himself a little bit, but he did a nice job there on the kickoff returns. (Rashee) Rice for his day – I mean it’s hard to believe that he’s a rookie – but he catches for 130 yards. That’s tremendous. (Isiah) Pacheco (had) 23 carries for 82 yards. (Harrison) Butker kicking a ball that was like a rock out there and he did a great job. (Nick) Bolton – another one – and all those tackles that he had. The biggest part – he’s doing this with one hand. I mean he’s got a cast on his other hand, and he was – at the same time he’s leading that defense and making sure that everybody’s going in the right direction. Pat (Mahomes) had a nice day, just right from the get-go. I mean, don’t think they were anticipating us throwing the ball quite as much as we did but we were able to come out and sling it. A lot of quarterbacks can’t do that – what he did – in that kind of weather. Anyways, (Travis) Kelce, I mean the list goes on. So, it was one of those good days. My hat goes off again to the Dolphins. Their head coach (Mike McDaniel), their coordinators, they’ve really done a nice job down there. Anyways, time’s yours.”
Q: Did you reach a point this season where you realized that Rashee Rice would give you more than maybe you anticipated as a rookie?
REID: “Well, we were hoping that he was as good as what we saw at SMU and I tell you, the best part about him is he just keeps working. I mean he’s relentless with that. He’s got a good relationship. He’s got Pat’s (Mahomes) respect, and he wants to do it the right way. I don’t know how many times I’ve stood up in front of you and go, ‘we’re this close with him.’ He’s getting better every week. So, I think we’ve seen that the last four games, five games.”
Q: Patrick Mahomes’ rush where he got hit and the piece of his helmet came off. Was that a rarity, would you have rather seen him slide?
REID: “Yeah that was tough one because he was going to get the first down, right? And then they missed a tackle then he got caught kind of caught in the washing machine. Once you go now you’re just survival right there. You’ve got all those defensive guys baring down on you trying to score.”
Q: Is it a little bit of a testament to his will to win that he decided to do that?
REID: “Yeah, I mean I don’t think any of us in here have any question about that, Vahe (Gregorian), just his will to win is just ridiculous. So I mean he’s a great competitor.”
Q: On Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defensive plan tonight. How impressed were you with it?
REID: “I thought (Defensive Coordinator) Steve (Spagnuolo) had an unbelievable plan. I thought the guys executed it well. That’s not an easy defense to learn and that’s why when I tell you about (Nick) Bolton being able to get everybody lined up and ready to go in the front end and back end, he does great with that. They’ve got a great connection. They’ve got a great connection between them (Bolton and Spagnuolo). So, Bolton’s like a coach out there and Drue (Tranquill) was able to come in and pick that up too and Bolton’s out and he jumps in and does the same thing. Spags – he’s a great mind and does a heck of a job with his guys. I’d tell you the same thing on the offensive side. I thought (Offensive Coordinator Matt) Nags (Nagy) had a great plan. The guys executed it. I thought (Offensive Line Coach) Andy Heck’s group really did a good job, as did (Defensive Line Coach) Joe’s (Cullen) on the defensive line. You get in the playoffs, that’s kind of where it starts (up front). So you’ve got to make sure you’re sound.”
Q: What about specifically the coverage of Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill?
REID: “Listen, Tyreek’s (Hill) a great player. I mean great player and you saw the long catch he had so, but you don’t see Tyreek get knocked down very often but (L’Jarius) Sneed did that. I have a hard time believing that there’s another corner that’s as good as him (L’Jarius Sneed) in this league. He’s really playing well and challenging. And you’ve got (Trent) McDuffie on the other side who is doing the same thing. I mean he’s playing great football – as is the secondary. (Defensive Backs Coach) Dave (Merritt) has done a nice job with that group.”
Q: You won’t know your opponent for the Divisional Round Game for a couple of days. How do you handle that?
REID: “Well, you look at a couple of different teams. Yeah. We’ll find a way to make it work, you know, but the rest is good for the guys.”
Q: It looked like there were some icicles in your mustache. Did you just say, ‘bring it’ to the weather?
REID: “Yeah. The worst thing that can happen is it falls off, right (laughter)?
Patrick Mahomes
Q: Have you ever had a helmet that has cracked before?
MAHOMES: “I have not, I’m sure it had to do with it being really cold. I knew – I didn’t know what happened in the moment but I got in the huddle and everybody was telling me and I was like, ‘I got y’all but I’m not coming out of the game. We can figure it out on the sideline.’ I was hoping we scored, but obviously we didn’t get in the endzone. It was a first for me.”
Q: Whose helmet did they give you after? Was it a backup?
MAHOMES: “They have a backup that’s out there, we have to talk about where we store the backup because it was like frozen, so when I tried to put it on, it was completely frozen, I couldn’t get it on. I don’t know if anyone got a picture of it, it didn’t look great. We were able to adjust it on the sideline, get it kind of warmed up a bit and get rolling from there.”
Q: Do you feel like you guys handled the conditions as well as you reasonably could have?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, they (the Dolphins) brought a lot of pressure. I wish I would have been able to make some of those throws, we had some guys running free downfield, I missed a couple of them. But other than that, I thought the guys accepted the challenge. We were able to throw the ball, we were able to run the ball against some of those pressures, I thought the O-line did a great job. We had that mentality all week, if we’re going to go out there and play football, we know it’s cold but we’re going to go out there and play football and see what happens.”
Q: On Rashee Rice.
MAHOMES: “I mean he’s doing great; he’s getting better and better every single week. Some of those guys hit that rookie wall and it seems like he just kind of pushed right through it and continues to get better and better. He’s a great player, he has that right mentality, he comes to work every single day and he made a lot of great plays for us today that helped us win the football game.”
Q: It seemed like the defense was confusing Tua Tagovailoa, what did you see from the defense?
MAHOMES: “I talked about it I think in training camp, I really would not want to play our defense. We have great players, we have great players all around, every single level you have players, you have depth, guys rotate in, can do it all and then you have (Defensive Coordinator Steve) Spags in the scheme and all the guys are so well coached in the scheme that they use it to their advantage and you never know where they’re at. (L’Jarius) Sneed can play inside (and) outside, (Trent) McDuffie can play inside (and) outside, all the linebackers can guard and can make tackles. It’s hard to make a beat on what they’re doing and
that’s why I knew in training camp I was like, ‘Man I’m glad I don’t have to play those guys because that would be tough.’”
Q: With the Dolphins blitzing, what worked for you?
MAHOMES: “We knew that they might blitz a little bit, they did a little bit against Buffalo, against (Bills QB) Josh (Allen) a little bit so I would try to have answers for every single play. For the most part I thought I did, even if I didn’t hit it, I was going to the right spot and on time trying to give our guys chances to make plays. Obviously, it was more than we expected (the amount of blitzing), I think it had to do with our offensive line with blocking so well when they weren’t blitzing so they had to bring some pressure to kind of get some pressure on me and get the ball out of my hand. I felt like guys accepted the challenge well, obviously we have to continue to get better in the red zone, we’re getting down there but we have to get in the endzone, if that’s running , throwing, whatever that is but other than that, I thought we played a pretty good game offensively but we have to continue to get better and better as the playoffs go.”
Q: It’s been a while since you’ve had a game where you didn’t get sacked, how well did the offensive line play?
MAHOMES: “They did a great job, they did a tremendous job. When you have those extra guys and they’re able to block one to get a hand on another guy to give me time to throw the ball down the field, that takes that chemistry together that takes guys just being accountable to one another. The running backs did good stepping up making their blocks and protection as well, whatever there was, four-man rush, they did a good job of protecting against (Dolphins DT Christian) Wilkins and (Dolphins DT Zach Sieler) 92 in there. Then whenever they did bring the pressure, they did a good job giving me enough time to throw the ball down the field and we hit some, obviously I want to hit more but we were able to score some points.”
Q: Can you take us through that fourth down scramble play?
MAHOMES: “They did a good job, we were expecting pressure, we were expecting some type of man coverage, they played zone. They covered it really well, (the) offensive line blocked for a long time gave me that window, I was able to run, obviously I was going for the first down and then got down the sideline and got us into the redzone. I was just happy (Head) Coach (Andy) Reid – he was confident in us to do that after I made a not great read on the play before, I could have handed it off, I was trying to be like (University of Washington QB Michael) Penix. We stole that play from them and it worked for them, I pitched it and the corner was out there so he’s better than me at that, I have to make sure I ask him next time what the read is on that and how he’s able to read that.”
Q: They ran that play against Washington St. right?
MAHOMES: “Yeah, we saw the play and thought it was sweet but obviously the corner stayed a little bit further out against us and I still pitched it so it was not great but we made it work on fourth down and we were kind of continuing to get the drive going.”
Q: Besides your helmet, how did the weather affect you and the offense?
MAHOMES: “I mean it was windy. I think you saw on some of the throws down the field they carried more or didn’t carry enough. I thought the guys did a great job of getting themselves open. It was cold, I’m not going to lie, it was cold. I think at the end of the day you just have to be mentally tough enough to just say
it’s not going to affect how we play, it’s not going to affect my effort. If something doesn’t work, I’m going to come back next time and keep firing. It wasn’t going to be like we were just going to run the football, we ran the football well but at the same time you have to throw the football to have success in this league and I take that as a challenge to be able to go out there and throw whenever teams are playing that aggressive coverage.”
Q: What was the other potential read on that Washington play?
MAHOMES: “I was supposed to hand it off, you hand it off. They had guys in there but there’s a better chance than what we had. I’m kind of reading that corner/in-man on the line and I knew he was off but I was hoping because they brought the cover zero type pressure that maybe he would kind of squeeze a little bit tighter and he didn’t, he made a good play but we were able to get the first down the next time so it worked out. I was able to run and make up for my own mistake.”
Q: Do you change your approach based on how your defense is playing?
MAHOMES: “You have to, I learned that this year. When it’s not there you have to be able to throw it underneath and punt the ball, flip the field, and not be frustrated with it. I had that mentality where I want to score every single time, I played in the Big 12, I want to score every single time. When your defense is playing like that you have to find what’s the best way to win the football game and if that’s punting the ball, flipping the field, letting them get a stop for us and then score on the next drive that’s what you have to do.”
Q: Can you go through what you saw on the run where you cracked your helmet?
MAHOMES: “I was trying to get in there, I was trying to get in that endzone. The young Pat would have gotten in there, I’m getting a little old. It’s like in Tennessee, it was fun, got up in there but I got squared up (and) got my helmet cracked but I try not to do it too much but it’s playoff time, sometimes you have to put it on the line and try to get in the endzone to win football games.”