(opening statement)
ANDY REID: As far as the injuries go, Pat (Patrick Mahomes) was in the concussion protocol. He cleared it and then I decided not to put him back in. And then Chris Jones strained his groin. Tyrann (Mathieu) just hurt his ribs a little bit. And then I think we were pretty good after that. For the most part, we came out pretty healthy. Mike (Vrabel) did a nice job with his football team. Listen, they made more plays than what we did, particularly the first few series there. And I've seen our guys do it and make the plays. We're just not doing it now. But I trust that those things will get taken care of, both sides of the ball, and special teams. I mean, we're close with the -- you know, with the interceptions, we're right there on the hip. Again, they made the great catch and catches. And we, you know, weren't doing it offensively. We weren't fishing it defensively. So, you know, there were some good individual things that were taking place with the young guys. There were some positives there. I thought the second half for the defense was, again, positive. How they held the run game down was a plus. But, again, we needed -- we really need to get both sides playing well. And so, we're going to go back and look at it again. We got to eliminate the turnovers and the penalties. Again, these are things that we haven't -- haven't been common to us. I'm seeing things that I haven't seen before. And we just got to fix it. And the players, they know that. And I got a good locker room. And, again, they'll continue on with it and the coaches will continue to do it. It starts with me. Completely my responsibility and fault for how we played today. And, you know, the coaches feel the same way about it. So we all got to piece it together. The time is yours.
Q. You just said you seen some things you haven't seen before. Can you elaborate on that?
ANDY REID: Well, it's with the guys. Yeah, so just different guys. The guys that I have seen perform and not do certain things, you know, we're right there to do the right thing and make something happen. And it's bouncing the other way. So we got to fix it.
Q. And then the quarterback, Patrick, it seemed like he forced a couple of things.
ANDY REID: Listen, so he's trying to make things happen. And -- (inaudible). We're all part of this. So I got to dial up better things and then we'll go from there.
Q. Do you feel like you got to a point where the offense is trying to do things because of the situation that it finds itself in with the defense?
ANDY REID: No, I don't think so. I think here we sit with -- you know, an average record and you -- you've been up and down on both sides of the ball. And, you know, you have -- you try to go above and beyond what you're doing. Sometimes it throws things out of wack. And this is both sides of the ball, this isn't just one side I'm talking about. So, you know, that's what -- like I said, it's with guys that I have seen do the things. But as playcallers, we all got to go back and look at what we're giving our guys to work with. I mean, it's a -- that's where we all got a piece in this.
Q. What was the biggest issue defensively in the first half?
ANDY REID: Yeah, I thought we were close. I mean, we were close. And it was just a fingertip away from taking care of a big play or a penalty, you know, happening. You know, they had a nice screen on third-and-long. You know, we were getting them into those good situations. And they were able to work their way out of it. We got to take care of that. We got to fix that.
Q. What do you have to do to get your pass rush going?
ANDY REID: Yeah, so I think having them in there collectively was a good thing. I think having Chris (Jones) back was good. We'll see how banged up he was. I think getting him back in the mix, I think, is a positive thing. Working him back in the game was an important thing for him. But keeping guys out there and working together, you know?
Q. I know this is the first game where the offensive line appeared to struggle. Was there anything different that Tennessee did or they just beat you upfront today?
ANDY REID: We came in knowing it was a good defensive front. And you want to stay out of third-and-long. And, you know, penalties kill you. I mean, you guys saw that. You saw it early. And we're looking at long-yardage situations. You get -- we got to take care of that. You know, whether right or wrong -- you know, whether we think it's the right or wrong call, that's not -- that's not how it rolls. I mean, we got to make sure that we're not in those situations and against good defensive fronts.
Q. (No microphone.) What is your level of concern with morale with players and coaches?
ANDY REID: Listen, I trust the locker room. I trust the players and the coaches. You know, we got to make sure we hang together and fix the problem. You know, the easy way out is not doing that. So we got to hang together and get it fixed.
Q. Related to the injuries, can you give us a sense for what the mood's like in there?
ANDY REID: Yeah, well, they're down. They just got beat, you know? So that's not a real good feeling. And, I mean, these are proud guys. And, you know, they want to do well and it's not working out. So we got to make sure we get it right.
Q. Coach, do you understand why you normally elect to defer? From time to time, do you ever think about receiving the kick so that the Chiefs' offense can set the tone versus the other way around?
ANDY REID: That's not where I'm at now.
Q. Andy, you talked about Pat right off the start and your decision not to put him in. Just to clarify: Do you expect him to be available --
ANDY REID: Yeah, he was out of the protocol. Yeah, he cleared the protocol or whatever the term is there.
