Spags Explains Chiefs’ Plan to Battle Exceptional Dallas Wideouts

Opening statement:

“I got a lot in my head right now. It's been a long whatever, 48 hours. But really proud of the way the guys played last week, and now it's on the next one. We got to turn the page pretty quickly, so I'll just open it up.”

On how he’d describe Chris Jones ability to influence the Colts game:

“Yeah, I think he's kind of done that the past two weeks. And I told him, it might have been after the game, that I've noticed that he's been practicing at a high level. Just looked, just appeared to be different to me in the last two weeks. And I think it's showing up on the field. And, you guys know, you see it, you study the tape enough to know that even though it might not show up in a stat line, he's making a difference.

“With the things he had, we had one pressure where he won real quick. And I think he made the ball get thrown quicker than they really wanted to, and that helped.”

On the play of George Karlaftis:

“Yeah, I mean, George is fighting. He has the brace on his hand right now. I've been talking about it a lot, but I think he's kind of grown. And Chris (Jones) and George have a really close relationship. I think that helps -- he has with all the guys – but I think they're always talking football, at least; I always see them talking football.

“Yeah, he came here as a young one. Was he 20 yet? When we drafted him, how young he was, and he’d just turned 20 or 21, but he's grown into a fine young man. Great character, and loves football, so he does anything and everything to get really good at football.”

On what concerns him most about playing on a short week:

“Yeah, probably the biggest concern is, when you get a full week, I think you can find, dig, try to find a weakness, put something different in. Now, did we put some wrinkles in? Yeah, we kind of prepared for this a little bit back a while ago. But I don't think you can get the full allotment of what you would like to have.

“Like, what’ll be interesting is after the game saying, ‘Oh, if we had time, we could have put this in, or…’. But I hope that doesn't happen. And really, I think the biggest challenge, and Coach Reid's probably talked about it, is just getting the guys fresh and ready to play physically.”

On the play of Bryan Cook:

“Yeah, I'm glad you brought Bryan up. I mean, I think sometimes he goes unnoticed. We talk about Trent (McDuffie), Nick (Bolton) and the corners, because they're really important in this league. But I think Bryan had a really good game last week, tackled well. I think he always tackles well. And he kind of runs the show back there. He's been doing that for a couple of years now, and I'm glad we got him, because the continuity is huge, having a guy like that.”

On how the Chiefs can neutralize George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb:

“Yeah, I'm not sure. Two big dudes, right? And they've been doing it really good for a long time, but we'll see. We have to mix it up a little bit. It's hard. I think the reason they're both so good now is because you can't take both of them away. Can't double both of them, so we'll find ways to try to mix it up.”

On defending Pickens and Lamb, who not only separate but also make tight-window catches:

“Yeah, they got that big-catch radius, right? Length. It's hard to find DBs that are as long as they are. And I tell you, the other thing that's been, that sticks out to me, both of them, when they catch the football, I mean, there's a lot of yards after catch. No. 9 (KaVontae Turpin), throw him in there. He does it, too. … So, they got a lot of weapons, a lot of things to worry about.”

On the momentum shift in the game after Kareem Hunt’s fumble and the defensive stop:

“Well, I think, certainly after that series and we got a stop, I thought there was a huge boost for us. But you get in that situation, it's a little bit of a downer, because you think you're gonna go ahead and score some points. But our job is to go out there.

“And when we always talk about backed up, it's one of the situations we do in a meeting, we do it on the field, we feel like, if we can get a three-and-out, it should be points for our guys. Because, how far can you punt and then Patrick (Mahomes) gets a few yards, maybe kick a field goal or get a touchdown. So, I thought that drive, and I thought the drive at the end of a half, I mean, at the end of half might have been in a four-minute, wherever it was, or maybe under two minutes, but we hadn't ended a half with a stop that we gave the ball back to the offense.

“I always talk about the four really important series of the game, I think I've said this before, the first and last of each half. And in this particular game, we played pretty good, I think, at all four of them.”

On the play of Chris Roland-Wallace:

“Yeah, now Christian has been playing inside there for us, in the nickel. He's done exceptionally well. He's just done this the whole time he's been here. He came in as a free agent. We didn't know if he was a corner or safety, but he's a good football player. Got really good instincts, really good ball skills and tackles well.

“And, we're always trying to find ways that we kind of, you can see, we've been tinkering back there a little bit, and we'll see … A lot of it depends on the matchup of the players that we're going against. But Chris Roland-Wallace is going to play for us.”

On his NFC East days and whether he’s coached on Thanksgiving:

“No, no, I think it's the first; I haven’t been involved in the Thanksgiving game.”

On a normal NFL Thanksgiving for him:

“Typically, if we had a Sunday game, I mean, you usually work the calendar around that. You make Thursday more like a Friday. We normally go earlier and then we can get the work done and usually catch part of one of those games. But if I'm home and, I mean, listen, we all want to go home and have some turkey on Thanksgiving, like if you can.

“But I turn the game on and watch them. Yeah, I enjoy it. I mean, John Madden and Terducken. I think that stuff's all really cool.”

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