The Kansas City Chiefs are 2-0 after a Week 2 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. Before the team shifts its focus to the Indianapolis Colts, Andy Reid addressed the media on Monday. He addressed a few things that popped up during the Week 2 game on “Thursday Night Football” and also looked ahead to provide some key updates before the team travels to Indianapolis in Week 3.
Here are some quick takeaways from what Reid had to say:
We'll see on Harrison Butker for Week 3
Andy Reid was hesitant to say that Harrison Butker would be back in the lineup for Week 3. It’s a bit of a wait-and-see game as they assess the swelling in Butker’s ankle.
That said, Reid feels comfortable should the team need to use Matt Ammendola against the Colts this week. He spoke to reporters about his performance.
“When it was all said and done, I thought he did a really nice job,” Reid said. “That’s a tough situation to come into, especially you’re in arrowhead when it was as lively as it was. I mean, our crowd is loud and there was a lot of excitement. I was happy for him for that and I felt comfortable with him kicking, obviously. He did a nice job with the exception of the last kickoff where he kind of hit it wrong. He didn’t hit it the way he wanted to hit it. It was a little bit short, we did a good job covering it, but it was a little bit short. I thought he had a really nice day.”
Reid even said he reached out to Ammendola after the game to commend him for the job he did.
On Derwin James body-slamming Travis Kelce
One of the biggest discussions following the game is whether Chargers S Derwin James should have been called for unnecessary roughness for the WWE-like body slam of Chiefs TE Travis Kelce. Andy Reid was asked about the play on Monday and says it’s all up to the officials.
“I mean, it’s in the eye of the officials there,” Reid said. “I know they’ve called it against us before. So, I wasn’t sure exactly what way that would go, but I thought that maybe they would go in the direction for us. But it didn’t work out that way. It might have been a little bit because (it looked like) Kelce jumped. He wanted to get himself — he wanted to score there. So, it might have looked that the position the defender had on him wasn’t that he picked him up. Kelce kind of helped him there. You still had the slam, which probably didn’t have to take place like that. In the eyes of the official there, and what they deem it, but I do know we’ve been called for that.”
The play that Reid is likely referencing is the penalty called on Bashaud Breeland in the 2020 AFC Championship Game.
Which one was worse?
Derwin James or Bashaud Breeland? pic.twitter.com/bQKS6TIG31— Scott Loring (@ChiefsChannel) September 16, 2022
Perhaps this is the NFL’s best argument for a sky judge — the official with the best angle to determine whether Kelce actually tried to jump over James was 40 yards away from the play. Thankfully, Kelce wasn’t hurt on the play. As Reid mentioned, the slam was entirely unnecessary. Expect the league to assess the play for a fine this week.
Here is how Andy Reid will address third down
The Chiefs weren’t particularly good on third down in Week 2, converting on that down at just a 33% clip. They struggled with third-and-short in particular against Los Angeles, converting just one of five third-and-short plays.
Reid knows it’s an area the team must improve on heading into their Week 3 game against the Colts.
“You try to see what went wrong first of all,” Reid said. “Whether it’s the call or I sent in the wrong thing at the wrong time or whether there was a mistake that was made. We had a couple of mistakes in there. Then, one of them, we still had a mistake, but the defense still had pretty good leverage on it. Although, we’ve had a lot of success with the one play. We’ve got to tighten that part up, we’ve got to tighten up the mental errors on it. Every once and a while the defense is going to have an overload somewhere that you didn’t think they would and you’ve got to sort that out and make better with it. But a couple of those we just didn’t handle right and that’s normally not the case. We can do better there.”
So, really it’s a combination of things they need to improve on. Execution needs to be better from the players, but Reid also feels he can put them in a better position to succeed with better play-calling in those situations.
