Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid says he hopes his players use the extra time off after playing Thursday Night Football appropriately.
The downside of playing Thursday Night Football is having to play two 60-minute contests of a demanding physical sport within five days of each other. The upside is that, once the second game is over, the Kansas City Chiefs are in the middle of an 11-day stretch before playing another game—giving them a miniature bye week, so to speak.
The Chiefs played the Pittsburgh Steelers last Sunday in a normal sort of time in Week 6. Then a few days later, on Thursday, they opened Week 7 with another game on the road against the Oakland Raiders in primetime. Both games were losses for the previously undefeated Chiefs, and a team that’s already thin due to numerous injuries is now overly tired. Fortunately, the staff and players now have an extra weekend to relax, heal up and take a closer look at what has gone wrong over the last two games.
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For head coach Andy Reid and his staff, they will be able to spend more time looking at film for the Denver Broncos (their next game) in Week 8 and to look back at the last two weeks worth of film to see where they went wrong. However, Reid can only hope his players are also as responsible to do what is necessary to win. When asked about the benefits of time off by the media, Reid said he can only hope his players do the right thing.
"It’s good depending on how you handle it. When you have an opportunity to rest up a little bit you have to do that, which I think the guys will do. They understand and have been told that. Then coaches have a chance to go back and evaluate all of the things that the first fella there asked me. You go back and you look at everything. It’s a mini bye week, you go back and you evaluate things you can do better, put the guys in better positions. All of those things."
Only time will tell if the Chiefs look like they’ve gotten back on track after some extra rest and relaxation and if the coaching staff can right the ship. A third straight loss will have fans clamoring for answers and division leader looking more vulnerable than ever.