Chiefs pick up the pieces after crushing loss to Broncos

When professional teams lose big games, they often speak about the need to turn the page and move on to the next game, which is the route several Chiefs took Thursday night following their crushing 31-24 loss to the Denver Broncos.

“You have to really get over it today,” running back Jamaal Charles said. “By (Friday), it’s going to be out of our mouths.”

But when asked if there’s an effective way to get over such a big disappointment, coach Andy Reid made it clear that sometimes, it’s OK to let the bad moments stoke your competitive fire.

“I think there’s a part that has to hurt,” Reid said. “You spend a lot of time preparing for any game — if they don’t hurt, here’s probably something wrong there.

“At the same time, you’ve got to look at it and understand that you’re a good football team and you’re playing a good football team and we made some mistakes that caused us to be put into a bad position and end up losing the game. That’s something that we can take care of, we’ll go right back to the drawing board and fix that.”

At the forefront of the Chiefs’ mistakes were five turnovers, their most in a game since Reid took over before the 2013 season, and nine penalties for 70 yards.

“Those are two things we can control and take care of — it’s not like you’ve got to go out there and bring somebody in or that type of thing — to do that,” Reid said. “That’s something that you can control.”

Same goes for the play calls. Charles’ fumble with 30 seconds left decided the game, but Reid took responsibility for calling the play instead of playing for overtime with the ball at their own 20 and the score tied at 24-24.

“When you have the best running back in the National Football League, I just want to give him opportunities — he’s made so many great plays and he will continue to make great plays,” Reid said of Charles. “Sometimes things don’t work, but listen, that kid is all heart and try-hard.

“It was a situation where, as I mentioned last night, my thinking on it was you pop one, if you have a shot for a field goal, and win the game. That’s one thing I’m always going to try to do, I’m going to try to win the game for you there.”

Reid also took responsibility for a disastrous trio of plays on the first series of the game, when the Chiefs marched to the Broncos’ 2 but were turned away after three unsuccessful passes, the last a swing pass to Charles that he fumbled.

Reid said he called a similar play that resulted in a score in the Chiefs’ 22-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers last October.

“You’ve seen that play before and you saw one very similar to that in the San Francisco (game for for a) score,” Reid said. “You dial up plays that you think you have a chance down there to work.

“It’s all hindsight now, so I mean, again, I got it. We didn’t get in the end zone, you’re right, so that’s the bottom line. I’ve got to take responsibility for that.”

Reid was also asked how many times he typically second-guesses himself after games.

“You know how I roll — I’m going to go back, I’m going to look at everything, I’m going to analyze everything,” Reid said. “I’m going to try to find an answer for the (plays) that don’t work, whether it’s me, whether it’s some other area. I’m going to try to fix it.

“Inevitably, I’m the one calling the play. So when they don’t work, I take a personal responsibility for that. And I do that in wins and losses, that’s not something that I just save for the losses.”

Outside linebacker Justin Houston said the message Reid gave the team after the game was simple: don’t let the Denver loss beat them twice. Meaning, don’t let it carry over to their next game, a primetime Monday night showdown on Sept. 28 against the Packers in Green Bay.

Reid said the players, who reported to the team’s practice facility on Friday, will have the weekend off to get over the sting off the loss.

After that — and plenty of self-reflection — though, it’s time to get back on the horse.

“We’ll be fine, man,” said tight end Travis Kelce. “Like I said, we’ve got a lot of great character in this room. Learn from it, of course, let it hurt man, this thing hurts. We gave that one to them and we’ll come back next week and the rest of the season and play our tails off for the guys in this room.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Chiefs pick up the pieces after crushing loss to Broncos."