Chiefs head coach Andy Reid knows something we don’t, doesn’t he? - Arrowhead Pride

It’s our ~~Monday~~ column, The Re-Up. In this column, I’ll write about some deeper thought I had about the last game and finish with some fun stuff to ponder at the article’s end. Check out last week’s column here.

Head coach Andy Reid knows something we don’t quite know yet, and now you know that I know that he knows something we don’t quite know.

You’re good and confused, so allow me to explain.

I have been covering the Kansas City Chiefs for five seasons, and while I get that isn’t an eternity, that is a hell of a lot of time listening to the man who Eric Bieniemy endearingly refers to as the Big Man.

I’ve watched all of Reid’s post-game press conferences after losses since 2014, including ones in primetime on Monday night. Reid’s temperament after losses is often slight variations of the same—solemn, reflective with a whole lot of self-blame. Once the time is ours, any question digging deeper into the true feelings of Reid on the game is typically met with a stone wall of correction ahead, set to take place at practice the following week.

(*Gritting teeth* That never helps with the post-game story, ANDY, but I digress.)

Here is what I can tell you. Reid’s temperament Monday night after the Chiefs’ 54-51 loss to the Los Angeles Rams was unlike anything I have ever seen from Reid after a loss.

His quarterback had five turnovers and his team became the first in 217 tries to score 50 points and lose, yet Reid was chipper, first as he expressed pride for what Rams head coach Sean McVay is doing in Los Angeles—then playfully referring to himself as a (Los) Angelino.

Don’t believe me? I dropped the video in this article above and if you can’t see it you can find it here. Count how many times Reid smiled during the post-game presser. I started but then lost count.

So the million dollar question: Why the stark change from what I thought to be an unshakeable norm?

Maybe because it is a bye week, which means a much-needed break for Reid from the long nights of film. Maybe it is the Thanksgiving holiday ahead—though it sometimes is tough to tell between the months of August and January, family is very important to Reid, and this week he will get a chance to spend a little extra time with his own.

But my theory is his Chiefs proved something to Reid on Monday night—and that is that they can go toe to toe with another high-powered offense (the champions of this whole new NFL world) and with a few corrections or additional all-star referees on hand, they win this football game next time.

The Chiefs made many mistakes in this game—key drops on both sides of the ball, five quarterback turnovers, 13 penalties—and yet they only lost by three points.

Maybe Reid believes those mistakes are fixable. Maybe he knows those mistakes are fixable and he also knows the player the city calls “the heart and soul of the team” is finally, after more than 100 days away, on his way back when practice resumes.

Maybe Monday night proved to him that this is the year.

The key part of the aforementioned press conference, in my mind, came when Reid was asked if he learned anything about his team against the Rams.

“Yeah,” Reid said. “They’ll fight ya. They’ll fight ya right ‘til the end. I’m proud of them for that. And we do have—we have a lot of young guys. We’ll get better from this. We’ll be a better team. It’s hard to swallow right this minute, but we’ll be better when it’s all said and done.”

And that is something to smile about.

STAT OF THE GAME

The Chiefs and Rams combined for 14 touchdowns during the Monday Night Football thriller. The Buffalo Bills have scored 13 touchdowns all season (original tweet from Mike Rodak).

GIF OF THE GAME

Note that the following gif from NY Daily News Jets beat reporter Manish Meta was tweeted prior to the game:

He won.

TWEET(s) OF THE WEEK

*Chiefs make a good play*
Refs Brain:
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Don’t do it
Ref: pic.twitter.com/zqkRQ3JEkX
— Thomas Philpot (@ThomasTheTpot) November 20, 2018

Lol Ty Hill has been doing that gesture for two years
— Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) November 20, 2018

Asked Mahomes about Peters in that pile. He said Peters told him, " ‘Hey, man, I’ve got you; I’m going to pick you back up.' … He was helping me out.”
— Vahe Gregorian (@vgregorian) November 20, 2018

After being asked a previous question about explosive plays, Bill Belichick said he caught a little of Monday night’s Chiefs-Rams game. Asked his biggest takeaway from the game, he said, “The Jets.” Belichick, as always, is locked on the next opponent. pic.twitter.com/L5sh0L7xLm
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) November 20, 2018

FIVE QUOTES

1. Rams defensive lineman Dante Fowler Jr. on whether Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was ever rattled: “Yeah, I’d say towards the end like the last five minutes of the game I felt like he was a little rattled. When you’re in situations like that, him being, I’ll say a rookie, in his first year in situations like that it’s kind of hard. We put the pressure on him and we did a good job.”
2. Rams cornerback Marcus Peters on playing his old team: “I love it, man. The best thing about this is that I got to see my teammates and I got to see my old coaches and stuff. I miss those guys. Really, honestly, I miss those guys. When you’re a part of an organization like that and you go in and you’re a part of the locker room, you understand how it feels to be around some people, but you still have love for them. I wish those guys nothing but success.”
3. Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on whether he ever thought his team could outscore the Rams: “I mean I believe our offense is — can be the best in the league, I feel like we’ve kind of proved that for awhile this season, but I mean — there’s a lot of great offenses. I know the Saints, I know the Rams, also have really good offenses — and with the Chargers — and there’s a lot of teams that are playing well right now and so I always will take my team over everybody just because I know what we’re capable of.”
4. Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston on what he took from the game: “You keep fighting. You play the whole 60 minutes. That’s what you play the game of football for and that’s what we had to do tonight. We were in a lot of tough situations, but real champs don’t fold, I don’t think we folded tonight. This is the closest game we’re going get to a playoff atmosphere. It showed where we’re at and it showed what we need to work on. So we’re going to get in the film room and build from there.”
5. Wide receiver Chris Conley on Mahomes battling back after the turnovers: “Patrick (Mahomes) is a gamer. Regardless of what happened out there tonight, he was ready to go out there to make plays to win the game and we admire that about him. We are behind him and he is our quarterback and we know he will bounce back from this and he will be better.”

THE BIG THOUGHT

This week’s Big Thought is Thanksgiving-themed, because why not.

I love Thanksgiving. It’s one of my favorite holidays because of—and I know I’m going to be corny here—family, food and football.

My parents always made the turkey when I was growing up. My grandma would make her famous baked mac ‘n cheese, my cousins would peel the potatoes and my corky uncle would hopefully not forget the cranberry sauce. I’m leaving out a lot of the dishes, but you get the picture. It was a lot of really good, different pieces that made up the complete Thanksgiving meal.

I look at the Chiefs and while they are good—really good, in fact—they are still very much incomplete. This version of the Chiefs is wonderful to watch, but what happens if Mitch Morse can be added back into the mix and Laurent Duvernay-Tardif can return from IR? What if Sammy Watkins can get healthy again, and Eric Berry finally returns?

Thanksgiving without mac n’ cheese potatoes would be fine, and don’t get me wrong, I’d still be grateful. But it wouldn’t keep me from wondering what that complete Thanksgiving meal would be like.

Hopefully, we get to find out.