OPENING STATEMENT:"As far as the injuries go, Allen Bailey had a concussion. Jamaal Charles has a bruised knee. Dee Ford a quad contusion. JMJ (James-Michael Johnson) had lower back spasms. (Josh) Mauga had lower back spasms and then Mike McGlynn had a quad contusion. All in all, after looking at the tape, the three phases we didn't play up to what I think we are capable of playing. That's stating, I think, the obvious. I thought the effort was there, which is obvious when you look at the number of times that our defense was in the red zone and for them to only come out with one score, a touchdown. Normally, if you're going to measure effort you look at those kinds of situations. I felt like the guys were focused in and playing. Our execution was off in some areas. As coaches we always make sure we go back and make sure we are trying to put guys in the right position. I thought defensively the second half we were, obviously, better than what we were the first half. I thought we made some good adjustments there. We were able to get into a little bit of rhythm offensively and then kind of fell out of it with turnovers. There were some positives in that area. We've got to do a better job on third downs on both sides of the ball. We had them in nine third-down situations with nine-plus yards and they were able to convert on those. We've got to just hone in on a couple things there and I think we can fix these problems here. You've seen this with some of the good teams in the National Football League, where you run into a bump on the road and you work through it and work through it collectively as coaches and as players and you fix it. That's where we are at right now and we've got to take care of business there and get ourselves back on track. We have a good Arizona team that we have an opportunity to play this week. I know when our guys come back Wednesday that they will be ready to go. I'll meet with them here after I finish meeting with you guys. Then we will roll from there."
Q: How serious is Jamaal's (Charles) injury?
REID:"I think he'll be ok this week. I'm just kind of giving you an update off of what went on in the game."
Q: Did he hurt it on that touchdown run?
REID:"I'm not going to share exactly when he did it, he just had a little bit of swelling on that knee. He kept playing."
Q: It's December, is it a little disconcerting to be backing into December rather than charging into it?
REID:"We are starting the last quarter here, of the season. We didn't finish the third quarter the way that we wanted to. We've got to go back to it and get that part fixed. That's a part of this game; nobody's going to hand you anything in this game. As coaches we've got to make sure we are putting the guys in the right position and then the players, when we are in the right position, we have got to make things happen. That's all part of it. We've got some good character people on this team so you count on that at this time."
Q: After watching the tape of that game, do you feel like you matched their physicality up front on both sides of the ball?
REID: "Well, I'm always going to go back to the offensive and defensive line. I'm not going to say that we weren't physical, but we didn't do it as well as we needed to do it up front and on both sides. We've got to do a better job there. We're very capable of that. Some of it we can help with scheme."
Q: Part of it is scheme, but is it just as simple as making that an emphasis this week in practice?
REID: "We'll see how all that works. I mean, we look at everything."
Q: You got (Donald) Stephenson in there towards the end yesterday. Was that a lineup change or was that just to get him some work?
REID: "Yeah we just put him in really to get some work in there. We had a couple of changes in there just because guys were banged up a little bit. We'll be alright there."
Q: One of them was injury though.
REID: "Yeah."
Q: Are you going to stay with (Ryan) Harris?
REID: "Yeah we'll see. We're looking at everything. We haven't made any decisions on any of that right now."
Q: Was (Travis) Kelce justified in thinking that was a late hit on Alex (Smith)? The cheap shot.
REID: "The one that was a late hit you're saying?"
Q: Yeah.
REID: "That was called a late hit?"
Q: Yeah. He thought it was.
REID: "Well they called it a late hit. I'm not sure where you're coming from."
Q: Kelce called it a cheap shot. Would you agree with that?
REID: "I don't know about all that. They got called for a late hit. However you term that. It was a late hit."
Q: Did you talk to Kelce about the gesture?
REID: "Well, I just found out about it, literally just found out about it. Sounds like it was a bit of an immature act. I normally don't let those things go by. I'll address that. I've got to see it first and then make sure. It sounds like it was an immature act."
Q: I'm just curious, when you have a late hit on your quarterback, in football etiquette, do you respond to that in some way or do you just keep playing? How do you do that?
REID: "Well inevitably you keep playing. I mean, the games going to continue on. Is it an emotional game and things happen and guys get emotions involved in that when one of their guys gets hit? Yeah. You see that week in and week out. It is an emotional game. How you handle that is important. If it's throwing you out of your game or you're doing something that is going to cost you one way or the other then that's not the right thing to do."
Q: Like would you mind if someone tried to give him some business after?
REID: "I'm not going there."
Q: How did you think Phillip Gaines performed?
REID: "I thought Phillip had some good snaps. We look at that last third down with the back shoulder throw right there. That's tough. He had pretty decent coverage. He came right back is what I look at. He got beat on that one, but then he came right back with a couple nice plays. Had an opportunity for an interception. He'd like to have that one back. Right? But he was in position to make that and I thought he did well. He had a couple nice tackles in there and he'll keep getting better at that. I think for a young guy, you saw some positives. Can he get better? Yeah, absolutely, but I think he's made some strides here through his rookie year."
Q: What does Joe Mays have to do to figure into the mix?
REID: "I think that he's another one that now that he's getting back into the flow of things, he can work into the mix for sure. We need everybody obviously. To point to one guy, I don't think that's what this is right now. I think we've got to tighten up some areas from a staff and a player element together. We've got to make sure we sort through a few things there and get it right."
Q: Are you disappointed that your offensive line hasn't come together the way you had initially hoped?
REID:"Since the bye – what are we, 5-2? Somewhere in that area – and so the last couple games we probably haven't done as well as we need to do. That's probably an understatement. I am saying from a front standpoint that we can play better football than we have the last couple of games. And we need to get back to that, we need to get there. Up to that point, I thought we were doing a pretty good job but the last couple weeks here we haven't played very well. We need to get that going again."
Q: You mentioned after the game last night that the team struggled with their tackling. Is there anything you can do at this point of the season other than emphasize that you need to get better at that?
REID:"Listen, when things don't go right – whether it's during the game or you're sitting here like we are now after the game, I am more apt to going back to fundamentals and making sure we get those things right. That's where you start. And then you make sure schematically you've got guys in the right position to do these things. But there are some things we can clean up in both areas that we need to take care of. But I don't think you make it more complicated than that and then you add intensity into that and then you go play. So you can never take that 'want to' out of it. But we've got to clean up some fundamentals and we've got to make sure we are putting the guys in the right positions to do these things."
Q: Joe Mays was signed for his ability to play the run yet he hasn't played a lot. Is it a matter of him not being up to speed fitness-wise or being rusty?
REID:"Well we started working him in a little bit more last week in practice at the linebacker spot. Some of it was using the hand, that's the issue. He's got a wrist. Part of tackling, you've got to be able to grab and do all that. And so we want to make sure that he physically is there to do that and get it right and get caught up with the speed on special teams and work through that to make sure he is right to go. It has nothing to do with his conditioning, his conditioning is okay; he is alright there. It's just making sure that he is right to put in that position. And then we'll work him in. He'll get more work this week and as we go here."
Q: Any update on Eric Berry?
REID:"We don't have any updates for you right now. When we get them though, we'll get them to you right away."
Q: The stunts and late blitzes have been a late issue on the offensive line. How do you go about correcting that?
REID:"The blitz game we could have done a better job there for sure. We've got to keep working that. They got us on a couple new things and we made the adjustments and were able to work through those during the game. But there is still room to improve and we'll keep cranking on that. Some of that I can help the guys with different protections within the call. And so I've got to make sure I do that."
Q: And that is on everybody? REID:"Yeah, that's everybody. We've all got a piece of that."
