Tyrann Mathieu explained why he was “pissed off” after the Chiefs beat the Texans.
The majority of Chiefs Kingdom was all smiles after Kansas City dominated the Houston Texans in a 14-point win to mark their home opener. Not only were championship banners raised to commemorate the previous season but the Chiefs cemented their standing as favorites once again by whipping a fellow AFC contender.
Somehow that was not enough for Tyrann Mathieu.
After the game, Mathieu, the Chiefs star safety, said he was “pissed off“, a surprising response for a player coming off of such a convincing win. Then again, this isn’t a team content with winning. They have a statement to make and Mathieu saw enough flaws, especially late in the game defensively, to turn his mood negative.
“I’m pissed off,” Mathieu told reporters. “I feel like we played fairly decent up until probably that last couple stretches in the fourth quarter. We started giving up big plays, big chunks, things we weren’t necessarily doing throughout the game. So in my mind, we’ve got a lot more work to do.”
Mathieu himself forced a clinching turnover by hitting Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson who was attempting a pass. The ball floated near Chiefs rookie cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who not only caught the ball for his first career interception but ran it back 39 yards to give the Chiefs field position near the goal line.
Still that was not enough for Mathieu, who took exception primarily to the 13 points scored by the Texans in the fourth quarter.
“I felt like if we would have held those guys to seven points, it would have been a much better feeling,” he said. “Those guys scoring 20 kind of leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m looking forward to next week.”
The next challenge for the Chiefs comes in Week 2 with their first road game against the L.A. Chargers—their first divisional contest of 2020. The Chiefs offense receives the lion’s share of the spotlight from national pundits, but this is a prideful defense and Mathieu is focused on making sure they follow through on their potential.