Thursday, October 26, 2000

Q- Are you ready to go after vacation?

KC- Yeah, I’m fresh, ready to go. I think the off week was just at a good time, especially for the offense. We’ve been struggling, it’s no secret. I’ve seen really good focus this week, better focus than it has been at any other point during the last three or four weeks. Hopefully it will translate into good play on Sunday but like I said I think our focus has been better than it has been.

 
Q-Amani look like he is back looking frisky again?

KC- Yeah, he’s running a lot better. Making some plays that we’re accustomed to him making even though it is practice. He really looks a lot better. I think the off week is just kind of good for everybody.

 
Q- Has it helped going back to the first Eagles game to see a time when you guys were really clicking and bring that back to mind?

KC- Well we definitely have watched it and we’ve talked about it all week about how specific parts of what we were doing were very good at that time. The third downs were excellent, I thought the first time around we ran the ball very well. I think I probably played as well as I have at any point since I’ve been here in that game. There was a lot of good thing to look back on that game. Realize that you can’t live in the past too much; you got to look forward to what is coming up. I think we’ve had a good week of practice so far.

 
Q- Is that normal to go back and look at the game you played earlier in the year? It wasn’t something special you did to see what the offense was doing?

KC- Yeas. No not at all. Let’s face it you play a team one time and at least you think you have a pretty good idea of what they’re going to do. What they did to you the first time.

 
Q- It was probably a good reinforcement just to see the way things can work?

KC- Sure, definitely. There was a lot of good stuff that we did in that game and I think we’re basically doing the same stuff and it’s not like we’ve changed a whole lot. It was a complete game for us. Probably the most complete game we’ve played all year. For certain we would like to get back to playing that way.

 
Q- Does it seem like a long time ago?

KC- It does and it doesn’t. I think the season has gone real fast so far, eight weeks through it. I think from our standpoint playing that well it seems like it has been a few weeks since we played well. To answer your question in that way yeah it does seem like a while.

 
Q- Was that like the most fun you’ve had since that time?

KC- Probably but I think we surprised ourselves a little bit. The first game we played well but it’s the first game and you don’t do everything real well. Then we came out the second game and I can’t remember us playing any better consistently throughout a whole game like we did that day. We definitely a pretty good effort and probably our best effort since we’ve been here.

 
Q- When you go back to Carolina, how are you received there?

KC- Pretty good, not bad. A lot of support actually. You know, I really supported you when you were here and I’m glad to see you have things straightened out, things are going well for you and that sort of thing. Yeah definitely, very positive, a lot of support. It’s funny you hear things that people say and you hear boos and all that stuff but your interaction one on one with people are always generally pretty positive. I haven’t come across anyone that’s been rude or anything like that.

 
Q- When things are going good how easy football can seem it’s never an easy game as opposed to when things aren’t…

KC- I think for most teams I think those times are few and far between. You like at the 49ers back in the day or maybe the Cowboys, teams that seem to have it going two three four years in a row. They seem like every game they’re just clicking on all cylinders like the Rams have been doing. For us those games haven’t been around too much so it feels great when it’s happening and you spent every other moment of your football life trying to get back to that point.

 
Q-How long can a team maintain the ugly winning the way this team has done?

KC- I really don’t like to look at it as winning ugly so much as we’re finding ways to win. Their not going to be everything perfect and not every game is going to go the way you want it too. We found a way to win games so far and can it continue consistently playing the way we’ve played offensively, I don’t know. I know that whatever we’ve done to this point as a team collectively we’ve found a way to win.

 
Q- Maybe the better term to winning ugly is fighting off the ropes, …How important is it to get back to that Philadelphia game where things did go easily?

KC- It seems like we have a tendency to make things hard on ourselves, keep teams in the game. I think we have a habit of doing that a little bit too and probably should be scoring more points or doing something like that. We won’t kind of deliver that knockout punch to go along with your boxing metaphor. Whatever we’ve done to win these games has been good enough to do it. Week in and week out are you going to be able to struggle offensively and not put up as many points as you probably should on the board and the defense can get five interceptions and that sort of thing. I don’t think you can count on that every week so in that respect I think we all realize that not a lot of games are going to go that way. When you play games like that it just allows the scales to tip your way and make it such a fine line between winning and losing.

 
Q- Since you scored all those points on the Eagles they haven’t allowed anything close to that since then, this team has struggled to score points, how much more difficult does it make it?

KC- I think they are definitely playing better now than they did back then even though I thought they were playing pretty good. I’m sure they’re going to come up here salty. We were able to get some quick scores on them by halftime and we were able to put some points on the board. They’re a good defense, make no mistake about it, Hugh Douglass is probably playing as well as anybody in the league right now at defensive end. They’ve got all the tools and weapons and for whatever reason it was just our day that day. It’s going to be a big time dog fight this weekend.

 
Q- How much more is running the football in this game?

KC- It is very true. A premium gets put on running the ball and they’ve got two very good corners and two good safeties. Dawkins probably being one of the best in the league, so it’s a big challenge for us. They do a real good job on third down; they do a good job with their blitz packages on third down. And keeping teams from sustaining drives so in that respect it’s going to be a big challenge because we struggled in that area lately.  

Q- Do you worry about your numbers or do you feel they’ll take care of themselves as long as your winning?

KC- To say that I don’t think about them I think would be a half-truth. Certainly you are aware of it but certainly we all know that there is one statistic that is most important and that is winning and losing. You have goals and you think about things and you’d like to be somewhere and you talk about interceptions and touchdowns and that sort of thing and I’m not where I would like to be at this point but regardless of all that we’re still 5-2 and whatever we’ve done this far to win five ballgames has been the formula to do it. I don’t dwell on it but to say that I’m not aware of it would be the half-truth.

 
Q- Do you feel fortunate to be in a situation right with this opportunity or did you feel like if you kept working you would find a spot in the NFL where you would be comfortable and really establish yourself?

KC- You know I’ll say this, I’m really thankful for the opportunity that I’ve been given and I realize it’s a great opportunity regardless of what has happened in the past. I’m doing everything I can now to take full advantage of it. To say deserve or not deserve I think for me is irrelevant and I realize the opportunity I’ve been given is tremendous and I’m busting my butt to do whatever I can with it.