Chiefs’ Andy Reid on defense at Super Bowl: Bob Sutton ‘has a piece of this, too’
When the 2018 Chiefs season ended, it was clear a change was needed.
The defense ranked 31st in total defense and passing defense, and the AFC Championship Game ended in a loss to the Patriots, who sliced through Chiefs in overtime.
Shortly after the season, defensive coordinator Bob Sutton was fired by the Chiefs, who then hired Steve Spagnuolo. Multiple new players were brought in on defense, including Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark.
With the Chiefs ready to play the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, coach Andy Reid took time to give credit to Sutton Thursday during his final news conference before Sunday’s game.
“In Bob Sutton’s own way, he has a piece of this, too,” Reid said when asked about the defensive changes. “He and those coaches built a nice foundation for us. And Spags came in with this new coaching staff that we have on the defensive side, and really upped it, along with (general manager) Brett Veach bringing and a handful of new players. That really fit into what Spags was trying to get down there.
“The guys have bought in with what Steve has asked them to do, even during the tough times. So they stuck together, knowing that ... if we just stay with the process, down the road we will be better. And they saw they saw ... tiny increments early of improvement and then it kind of took off, so where they’re playing good football right now.”
The statistics show the improvement the Chiefs made: the pass defense ranked eighth and the scoring defense was seventh-best in the NFL.
Here are more highlights from the final day of news conferences with the Chiefs:
On his time as an assistant coach at Missouri: “I loved my time in Columbia, the University of Missouri. It’s a great place. We weren’t as good as we wanted to be, but we were on the rise when I was there. I had a chance to play Eric Bieniemy, and the Colorado team. They cheated. It took them five downs to beat us, so I remind him of that often. What a great opportunity it was to work with Bob Stull there and getting to know the people of Columbia. It’s a great place.”
On the slow starts in the playoffs: “Yeah, it’s hard on the heart with too many of those. I’m working on that. That’s not the position we want to be in. But we’re there and we know how to take care of that. We’ve got good guys that stick together, a good locker room and coaches that stick together and fix those problems as they arise. That’s not our objective. We’re not trying to give points away, that’s not what we’re trying to do.”
On Mike Pennell: “He’s another Kansas City kid, we’ve got a couple of Kansas City kids ... He went to a smaller college, had an opportunity to get in the National Football League where we picked him up. He brings great energy, he’s got great personality and then he’s a big guy. So to be able to plug him in there in the middle has been a real plus for us, he helps us in the run game. His attitude is top notch.”
Tyrann Mathieu
On changing the culture in the locker room: “I think before I got here, it was a point of emphasis to kind of get guys with some attitude, a little chip on their shoulder. Obviously I think me and Frank (Clark) bring that in. But it’s not anything special we do. I think it is just our character, really how we practice, each and every day.”
On 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo: “First and foremost, they have a great system that they run over there. I feel like Garoppolo is doing a great job of finding guys that can really take advantage of certain coverages, certain situations. He likes to get the ball out quick, which kind of goes into the kind of guys they have on that side of the ball. So guys that can run after the catch. So it’ll be important for us to kind of disrupt the timing, slow those guys down. He does have a hard time of throwing in tight coverage. Most quarterbacks do, so I think ultimately that’ll be the goal for us to to disrupt these guys at the line of scrimmage, play tight coverage, and then try to make a play on the ball.”
On how his life experience could be an inspiration to others: “It’s all about falling forward. Just trying to live my life, taking one day at a time, right? Trying to be in the present and never really try to look forward to the future. I reflect on my past a lot. It gives me great strength and hope and encouragement, but you know I try to try to be where my feet are,and I think that has helped me out a lot and I will hope that a lot of kids out there, heard what I just said. Because I think we can get caught up in things that are behind us and things that are in front of us, we forget about the now, so that’ll be my message to the kids.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 8:29 AM.
