Arrowhead Pride
Kansas City realizes that it has not been playing as well as it would like.
The Kansas City Chiefs secured a victory on the road against the Carolina Panthers, yet the mood following the game seemed far from celebratory. Despite their success, the Chiefs’ players and coaches openly expressed a sense of unfinished business, reflective of a season marked by narrow victories and high expectations.
Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy spoke about the duality of winning close games.
“It’s a phenomenal feeling to win, number one,” he said. “I think it’s been documented that we’ve been winning a lot of tight games and close games, [on] final plays, and we found ways [to win]... We always remind ourselves, that it’s the NFL, it’s hard and that you better enjoy it while you can.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t criticize yourself or want to be better, I think that’s a good thing but we’re all very, very excited when we win and that’s very important.”
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes said the team is motivated by the high expectations they’ve set for themselves.
“I think we just hold ourselves to an extremely high standard, and so unless we feel like we play our best, guys are itching to get back out there and go for more,” Mahomes said. “I felt like there [were] times we played some good football, and credit to the Panthers — they played great football, made a lot of big-time plays.”
Mahomes clarified that head coach Andy Reid’s comment about the team “hanging their heads” after Sunday’s game was more of a reflection on how the team expects to play.
“I think it’s not something that we were disappointed, as much as we expect greatness from each other and from ourselves,” explained Mahomes. “So unless we play like we expect, we’re going to try to be better every time we step on that football field.”
The Chiefs’ defense echoed this sentiment, with defensive lineman Chris Jones acknowledging the team's challenges while emphasizing gratitude for the win.
“First off, wins are hard to come by in this league,” he said. “I think overall as a team we feel like there’s still a lot of areas we can improve on — offensive, defense wise, but also we’re grateful that we won the game, most importantly.”
Following the win, defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo echoed Mahomes statements about the team’s high expectations. Spagnuolo said the pride felt among the defense played a part in the team’s emotions after the game.
“We just felt like we should have performed better,” he acknowledged. “We were happy we won, it’s hard to win in this league; we’re not giving it back, but there’s some pride, and we wanted to perform better.”
Spagnuolo sees the players’ high standards as a positive, saying, “When you don’t meet it, you should feel that, so I’m glad they feel that way,” referring to his defense.
Looking ahead, he added, “We’re on to the Raiders; I’m still burning a little bit from...
