Colts’ Frank Reich explains why he thinks Patrick Mahomes is ‘great for the league’
In preparation for last Sunday’s game against Oakland, Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich watched film of the Raiders’ previous contests this season.
That included Oakland’s 28-10 loss to the Chiefs in the second week of the season. Reich was focused on what the Raiders do but admitted this week he couldn’t help noticing Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“He’s a unique talent,” Reich said at a news conference this week. “I mean, he’s fun to watch. ... I was watching a lot of Kansas City’s offense against them, and he made a couple throws that you just shake your head and you say, ‘How do you do that?’
“So you know, we respect that but, and like I’ve said before, I also respect who he is off the field. I think he’s just great for the league (because) you’ve got players that are that good, but also are really pros on and off the field.
“But make no mistake, everybody, everybody can be beat in this league. Everybody can be beat, I don’t care how good you are. And he’s great. But this is a team game, and it’s going to require our best team effort to beat these guys.”
The Colts (2-2) will be at Arrowhead Stadium for Sunday night’s prime-time game against the Chiefs (4-0).
It’s a rematch of sorts of last season’s AFC divisional playoff game, which the Chiefs won 31-13.
Indianapolis went three-and-out on its first three drives of that game, while the Chiefs’ first three drives results in two touchdowns and a field goal.
“I think they played good defense, we didn’t execute the way we normally did all year long on third down,” Reich said. “So, you know, when you only get nine attempts (drives), if it’s their good defense for a few plays, and then us not executing for a few, ... you’re running out of attempts. So it just puts an emphasis on making the most of every (drive).”
Here is what other Colts players and coaches were saying about the Chiefs in news conferences that were available on the Colts’ website.
Wide receiver T.Y. Hilton
On the Arrowhead crowd: “It is very loud. You know their fans always bring it. So we want to try and get them out of their game early and dictate the pace.”
Defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus
On the Chiefs’ offense: “It’s a very unique scheme to the NFL. And they’ve got a skillset that’s unmatched in the NFL. Their speed is on display and they use space to create for those players and get the ball in space to those players. So coach (Andy) Reid does a heck of a job building that offense and building it around the skill that they have, so it’s going to be a heck of a challenge for our defense.”
On the Chiefs’ presnap motions: “I think everybody copycats off of those guys. A lot of times you see the influence of that week to week, certain guys have certain plays, and it’s been a big part of the NFL now. The jet sweeps and the motions and orbit motions and they do a good job with that trying to create confusion for their opponents.”
Quarterback Jacoby Brissett
On trying to match the Chiefs offense score for score: “(We) just play our game, you can’t get into the game where you’re playing offense vs. offense or defense vs. defense, things like that. You just go out there and play football and you put your best foot forward.”
On playing at Arrowhead Stadium: “You know it’s gonna be loud, it’s a great place to play. It’s gonna be fun because it’s Sunday night football. They’re going to be juiced, which they should be. But as a quarterback, you go out there and you don’t try and overcomplicate it and overthink things ... that I can’t control.”
On Patrick Mahomes’ throws: “It’s kind of cool to see some of the stuff he does. Hopefully he doesn’t do it this week. But you know, the things that he can do with the ball is very impressive. You just watch and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I can’t do that,’ but it’s fun to see somebody else do that.”
Offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni
On what the plan is when playing a high-scoring Chiefs team: “That’s something that we talked about throughout the week. Our game has never been to try to hold the ball or ... try to be ultra aggressive. It’s to play the game that we think we need to play to win the football game as a team, obviously. And the way we think about that first as an offense is how we’re going to beat their defense. So, there’s always something that we think about, but we have to play our game, the way we know how to play our game on offense to beat their defense.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2019 at 10:00 AM.