John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports`
Andy Reid won a ton of games as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles over the years, so it should come as no surprise that Kansas City’s new coach won his first outing as the leading man in Chiefs’ Kingdom.
Reid’s Chiefs beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 28-2, in what was overall a very impressive outing for Kansas City.
Quarterback Alex Smith went 21-of-34 for 173 yards and two touchdowns, in what was also his official outing with Kansas City. His numbers weren’t outstanding, but it was a great start, and Smith did what he had to do—get the ball to the playmakers around him.
Reid talked about Smith’s first game as signal-caller for the Chiefs. Here’s what he had to say, per a recent press release via Chiefs Communications:
"I thought offensively, we did some good things. It’s tough to score in the red zone in the National Football League and when we were in the red zone we took full advantage of that. I thought Alex (Smith) had a good day. His quarterback rating showed that he was somewhere 94-and-above. I thought he handled the situation of managing the offense very well. He made some nice throws, some nice check-downs."
Reid also discussed Kansas City’s offensive philosophy.
"“It’s two fold. We mix the tempo. There’s times when we huddle, there’s times when we go fast, there’s times when we go at a normal rate, and really it’s just a balance. You want to try to keep the defense as much out of balance as possible. Within that if they (the other team) get tired, we’re okay with that.”"
While Kansas City’s offense was effective, it was the defense that deserves most of the credit for the win. The Jaguars weren’t able to put up any points on the board via offense. Their only two points came off a safety, which was the result of a punt block.
Reid’s thoughts on the defense:
"We played a lot of players. Bob (Sutton) put different guys in different positions where they all had an opportunity to be in the box and rush, whether you’re playing outside corner, whether you’re playing the inside nickel positions or safety positions, everybody had that opportunity—linebackers (too). I think that’s important that you can give an offense different looks so they can’t key in on where people are coming from. I think the players enjoy that. That’s something that they’d buy into and enjoy doing. You give them that opportunity.”"
Speaking of opportunities, Kansas City’s defense came up with plenty of them. The Chiefs came away with six sacks on the day, including three from rising star Justin Houston. Kansas City’s defense also forced two interceptions, one from Brandon Flowers and the other from Tamba Hali, and Hali took his back to the end zone for six.
Overall, the Chiefs’ defense held Jacksonville to just 178 total yards.
Reid’s final thoughts on the game are as follows:
"“I thought for the most part it was pretty smoothly executed on both sides of the ball and on special teams. When I say the communication, we brought in seven new guys, so we’ve incorporated them into the special teams part of it, so they’re catching up on all the terminology and everything. That’s understandable and I’ve got it. I thought overall, I would tell you that things ran fairy smooth. Are there things we need to get better at? Absolutely. There are a ton of things that we need to work on and get better at, but these guys have the right mentality. When they come to work, they work. I’ve appreciated that from Day One, so I wouldn’t expect that to change.”"
The Chiefs must now prepare to play the Dallas Cowboys, who head to Arrowhead next Sunday.