OPENING STATEMENT:"As far as the injuries go, Allen Bailey and Phillip Gaines are still going through the protocol. We will probably know something later, maybe today, we will see how all that works. Jaye Howard has a shoulder strain and Josh Mauga has an oblique strain. Really the rest of the guys are ok. Jamaal (Charles) came in today and did his work. They did some stuff with him after the game that he was able to take home with him to keep the swelling down in his knee and ankle. He felt pretty good today and really everybody else here, everything worked out ok. Again, we appreciated the crowd that was there yesterday and the noise that they were able to generate. That always helps when you're going against a good opponent, particularly the Raiders. I thought the Raiders had done a nice job with that program. Reggie (McKenzie) and Tony (Sparano), at the coaching position, they've got that team playing at a high level. I thought from our standpoint it was good to kind of get back on track in all three phases. Took the offense a little bit longer to get there than the other two phases but once it kicked in and we eliminated some of those penalties, things worked out better for us. We were able to sustain drives; it was good to get 10 different guys the football, throwing the football. I thought Alex played well. The offensive line picked up their game a notch and played well. Defensively, I thought, really for four quarters we played good football and executed Bob's (Sutton) plan to a T and then added good emotional aggressive football within that. The guys showed great pride there. Dave (Toub) and the schemes that he has, in particular in the return games, they've showed up. It was good to get De'Anthony (Thomas) loose there. You can see offensively and on special teams when you get him in the open space what he can do. I thought he did a nice job. Tribute to John Dorsey, we are sitting here later in the year and all of a sudden you are seeing these guys, the Albert Wilsons of the team, produce. (Zach) Fulton has continued to mature. Dee Ford, you saw him get out there, the last two weeks he's had a lot of snaps and yesterday he came up with a sack. De'Anthony and (Cairo) Santos, even though he was off a tad yesterday. We've got to get that snap, hold, kick, that whole thing working a little smoother than what it is right now. He's done well this year and he had a couple good kickoffs too yesterday. Then you just spice that up with Bobby Bell graduating from college, 74 years old, dogonit. Len Dawson banging the drum, it was a good day. Times yours."
Q: Any thoughts on your run defense yesterday?
REID:"Yeah. We did a better job, I thought, of staying square upfront, kind of constricting the lanes and linebackers playing downhill. The safeties got involved in that too. Actually, a few of the snaps the corners got involved. I thought we tackled better. Fundamentally, it just seemed like we were a little bit better in that area yesterday than what we had been."
Q: On the injury front you mentioned Tamba (Hali), but he took some snaps yesterday.
REID:"Yeah, Tamba actually is pretty good. He had some swelling on his knee last week; it's not in there right now which is a plus. He did, he took the majority of the snaps yesterday although Dee spotted him. We had some guys rotate in there but he was able to get a couple snaps off during the game."
Q: You mentioned the snap-hold-kick thing. Has there been an issue with the whole process?
REID:"Yeah, there was a bit of that. We were off just a tad and we have to get that thing back on track. That was yesterday, that's not necessarily the way it's been every kick, no."
Q: Is that a pretty delicate thing to keep it on the track?
REID:"Well you've got three factors there. You've got the snapper, who you've got to stay accurate with that and you've got to be consistent with it. You've got the holding phase of it. That's who you're asking to place it and do that accurately and then you've got the kicker that's got to work through a certain rhythm. As the snapper and the holder you want to make sure you keep the kicker in rhythm and not allow that to be altered at all and then that kicker knows that not everyone is going to be perfect and he's got to still strike the ball if it gets off rhythm a bit."
Q: What were your impressions on the way Jamell Fleming handled himself?
REID: "I thought he did good. Probably a few I'd like to have back. Towards the end of the game, he had a couple that they got him. I thought he played strong. He attacked the ball. He was aggressive with the ball in the air. Looked like he was transitioning out of his brakes pretty good. He had a couple of nice tackles, had a physical one right there in the end where he picked the guy up and put him down and disallowed a couple of first downs on third down tackles which was good."
Q: Was the biggest change with the cornerbacks as far as being able to stick with receivers?
REID: "Every week is different. Right? You know that too. Yesterday, I thought the pressure that we were able to generate up front gave the quarterback a lot of time to set his feet and then with that the routes kept getting shorter and shorter and shorter. So, he wasn't able to hang on to it long. They were dialing it more three step and five, plant and throw routes. They tightened it up a bit on the outside. It all kind of works together. That was yesterday. Every week's a little different though."
Q: I know you've mentioned a lot about the young guys that stood out to you. I think another guy that's been playing pretty well the last month is Jaye Howard. Before he got hurt, what was your impression of him?
REID: "Jaye has continued to improve. He's kind of been in an area where he hasn't been in this league. He's been asked to play a lot. There's a point where you've got to kind of push through that with the young guys. The one I didn't mention was (Phillip) Gaines. He's also one of the rookies who's played really well. Wanted to mention that there, but Jaye has really pushed through kind of that wall that presents itself this time of the year and played good football. He's strong and very athletic."
Q: He seems to be competitive too. I've kind of noticed that if he is battling through one play he has a knack of coming back the next play and doing something. Is that common or is that just kind of part of being a pro?
REID: "Yeah listen. Coach (Tommy) Brasher preaches that all the time. You forget the last play. You forget it, learn from it, move on and he does that. He follows that and normally does. If he does get beat up a little bit then he comes right back with something good. You want to stay consistent and that was one of the things that he worked hard on this year and I'm proud of him for getting that straightened out where he didn't have the highs and the lows. He took his game and smoothed it out a little bit."
Q: What's it going to take for this team to fire in all three phases where it's all flawless execution?
REID: "Yesterday I thought we did a pretty good job of that. You're never going to come out of a game where it's flawless. We don't even use that. The term doesn't exist in football. You're going to have the ups and downs in the flow of the game and you've got to kind of work through those, but our challenge is we've got to, the positive here is we can be so much better than what we were yesterday. We took a positive step forward in particular from the three weeks before and now we can build off that. So we have a ton of things to work on and we just go back and start doing that on Wednesday."
Q: When Josh Mauga got hurt, was there someone that took over the headset?
REID: "Yeah, Joe Mays did that."
Q: What did you see from Dwayne Bowe yesterday and how much has he done for you this year?
REID:"Dwayne is one of my favorite guys that I've had a chance to coach. He keeps it real out there every day and brings energy every day. You don't have big ups and downs and personality or anything else. He enjoys doing what he does. He never complains that he doesn't get the ball enough or wants the ball or this – he just wants to win and I appreciate that. We go to him when we need a completion, he knows we are coming to him and he delivers. I think we all have a lot of trust in him as coaches and players around him and a lot of respect for him on how he goes about his job."
Q: Do you think you have a nice set of three-receivers there with Bowe, Jason Avant and Albert Wilson? What do you think of that trio?
REID:"As a coach, you try hard to play to the player's strength and then let him work on the things that they need to work on; that is one of the things that you try to do. We've tried to do that with all of the guys. When they have an opportunity to get in and play, the neat part is we've got a lot of them that can play right now that have strengths and enjoy playing the game. The three you mentioned got the majority of the time yesterday but you saw Frankie (Hammond Jr.) get a big catch yesterday for us on third down. It's nice to see Albert continue to improve. Some of that we saw in training camp and then he had the high ankle (sprain) and then he came back and got himself healthy again and now he's showing the same things he kind of showed during camp. Jason has been doing it for a lot of years – very good short to intermediate receiver there; he does a nice job with all of that."
Q: Can you talk about the professionalism with Jason Avant and what are some of the things he does that make him a good influence?
REID:"He's a good person, number one. And then he works his game like no other. He will tell you he's not the fastest guy in the world but he's got great balance and quickness and knows how to set routes up but he knows how to do that because he goes out and works and works and works. He is out there before practice, he's quizzing the coaches, talks to the defensive backs, stays after practice and works it. It is just practice, practice, practice, practice with him. You grow to appreciate how he does his job."
Q: Is it necessarily a bad thing if a player comes up to you and demands the ball?
REID:"Listen, I was lucky in Philly because I didn't have a lot of complaining going on."
Q: Not even with a guy like Terrell Owens?
REID:"Not about getting the ball. T.O. never complained about getting the ball. Not once did he complain about not getting the ball. He got it quite a bit actually, so there was never a time he complained about that. His was other things. But he's doing well now. He has got a reality show and he is getting all the balls he wants."
Q: But is it a bad thing for a receiver to come to the quarterback and demand the ball?
REID:"I don't know. Like I said, I have been fortunate. I've had a lot of good receivers and I've really never had that issue, I've never had to deal with that. I want them to want the ball, don't get me wrong. You want the guys – you want them all (to demand the ball). I want Jamaal (Charles) to want to carry the football. But you also want them to be team players and understand the big picture of things so I've been fortunate to have those kind of guys."
Q: So you like that Jamaal Charles was upset that he had to come out of the game yesterday?
REID:"No, I do. I enjoy the competitive nature of the guys. We're all competitive. You guys are amongst yourselves and we are amongst ourselves. We are all competitive, we're in this business. So you do want guys that are competitive but at the same time there has to be an understanding of the team and so all of us here have to understand that. Nothing is bigger than the team and you try to do – from my position or Dorsey's position or Mark (Donovan) and his position – what is best for the Kansas City Chiefs. And then if you can keep all of that intact, I think the players see that and they understand it and it kind of rolls from there."
Q: How do you feel about how your offensive line played yesterday, specifically Jeff Linkenbach? Are you inclined to stay that way next week? REID:"I thought Jeff did a good job. And then we'll see. And I mentioned this, this was just because Mike McGlynn was banged up a little bit and trying to get over that. We can't have enough of those guys and we'll see. But the offensive line I thought played better yesterday as a group, I thought they played better. We've got a big challenge this week with Pittsburgh and we need to keep improving at all spots."
