Just wanted to check in with one last blog this year just to say thank you.
I really appreciate all the fan support and dedication. Whether it was reading the blog or cheering on this team, it’s you all that makes it fun. You guys are what make game day experiences so great. Through the thick and thin, you’re always with us, and it’s a blessing to have such great people support you.
So thank you. And we’ll be back.
There’s playoff football on television, and I’ll be like most of you these next couple days — I’m going to watch it all. It’s gonna be nice to enjoy the weekend and just be at home, watching football. It’s kind of like you wait for the playoffs and it’s a fun time of the year. It’s the tournament. It’s one-and-done. I’ll be at home enjoying the games, being on my iPad studying, figuring out who we’re going to play and getting ready.
As far as us not playing this week, I’m very glad we earned the bye week. The hard work we put in all year, it paid off. We haven’t lost focus at all. We put in some good work this week and we’re excited about the break, just to get mentally and physically rested to get ready for next week.
Enjoy the games. I’ll catch up with you next week when we’ll know who we’re playing.
It’s Week 17, and I think there are a lot of things to stay focused on this week. There’s just the fact that we control our own destiny. It’s a division game. The last one at home. We’ve got to take care of business in order to set ourselves up where we want to be in the playoffs.
We’ve got the Chiefs Sunday, and they have a really tough defense. We know that. We were in a lot of third-and-longs last time against them, and I think that’s our focus, to make sure that we’re successful on first and second downs. Because when you play a good team or good defense, you’re going to hurt yourself by playing behind the chains. That’s the thing, make sure we execute, get better at what we do and score touchdowns. Again, that’s something we’ve been focusing on for a while. When we get to the red area, instead of kicking field goals, score touchdowns.
We know where we are record-wise and understand our opportunity at hand. I think naturally as a human you’re curious, so if they show scores of other games I might look, but I’m not going to go out of my way. But again, that will take care of itself if we take care of what we need to on Sunday. That’s all that needs to be said. Go to work and make sure we play well.
Well, we’ve won nine straight now, and I think every week offensively as a whole we’ve gotten a lot better. Peyton does a great job of finding the open guy, and every week it becomes someone different. Our mentality as a receiver room as a skill set is just to work hard every day, stay focused and know that when the opportunity comes, to take full advantage of it. That’s kind of how we all prepare every week.
Throughout this streak, it’s really about us together showing what kind of football team we are. Setting an identity of tough-minded, hard-working guys that are very unselfish. The way we’ve been getting better every week just shows the character of every guy, how much they want it, how hard they work. It’s never good enough. You can always get better. You can always make progress. That’s a tribute to a championship-type team.
It’s still one game at a time, and it’s really one day at a time for us right now. Our focus is on getting better, period. Whether it’s little details in a pass play, in a run play, if it’s finishing every play in practice and carrying that over to a game, that’s our focus right now. Really when it comes to Sunday, that stuff will take care of itself.
We know where we are in the standings, but you won’t hear us talking about it in the locker room. Our ultimate goal is to win one week at a time. Tampa Bay is a very tough team. They’ve got a good back in Doug Martin and an explosive offense. We’ve got to be able to play with them and make sure we don’t turn the ball over, because their defense is very good at creating turnovers. Right now our goal is to win this one, move forward and win the next, and hopefully position ourselves in a good spot where we want to be come playoff time.
In the Bucs secondary, Ronde Barber covers their youth. He’s a very smart player. He’s around the ball a lot and making plays. That’s something that’s going to be a challenge for us as receivers. We’ve got to make sure that we’re sound with our technique and we’re getting to the right spots for Peyton.
Like I said, turnovers determine games. We always talk about giving it away versus taking turnovers — if you’re always in the positive, you’ll have success. You’ll see more wins. That’s why our goal is to eliminate them on offense and make sure we get a few defensively.
One thing is it’s always nice to be home. I know we’ve got a stretch here, I think three of the last five are at home. So it’s nice to have that home field advantage, especially at this time of year when it’s so crucial to set yourself up for a playoff run.
Talk to you next week.
Looking around the locker room after last week’s win against the Chargers, you could tell there was still some disappointment. That’s just a testament to this team — we win, but we’re still frustrated with some of our performances. We just want to make sure that we’re running more consistently.
I think that even though it wasn’t our best game, this is the ultimate team sport. That’s why we play. Every week there are going to be mistakes, you’ve just got to correct them and get better. I think offensively we didn’t play good situational football, and that’s something that we’re going to focus on this week. Meanwhile, the defense played unbelievable. The beauty of it is you get another opportunity this week to get better. That’s really our focus.
Like they say, throw the records out when you play a division team. You have to. In this division, anyone can win. In this league, anyone can win. We talked this morning that Arrowhead’s a really tough place to play. The fan support there, the noise and just the whole atmosphere that Kansas City brings, it’s something that we’ve got to stay focused on and make sure that it doesn’t affect us as we’re executing our job on Sunday. One play at a time, one drive at a time.
From the front end to the back end, the Chiefs have got a lot of playmakers. Just watching film, they get after it in the run game, they put pressure on the quarterback in the passing game. Eric Berry, he fills for the run and Brandon Flowers is a Pro Bowl cornerback. So we’ve got some challenges ahead of us. We’ve got to, again, stay focused on our job and the task at hand.
Coach Fox has a saying, what’s better than five-in-a-row? Six-in-a-row. That’s the goal. I wrote earlier this year that great teams string wins together. That’s something that at the beginning of the year we struggled with, just finding that consistency overall as a team. But we’re finding who we want to be and creating an identity. It’s fun to win ballgames. It’s fun to win with these guys on this team. It’s a very unselfish team and everybody’s doing their part to win the ballgame. We’re starting to groove.
Well, it’s rematch week for the first time this season. San Diego heads to our place this time around. I think as far as the game goes, we’ve both seen schematically kind of what we do, but there are always adjustments that need to be made. A division game is always a game that’s important. I think our focus is one game at a time. This is our focus. This is our one game that we’ve got to go out and win.
Looking back at the last time we played San Diego, we got beat 24-0 in the first half and scored 35 in the second half to win. Going into this week, I’m thinking more about the second half, for sure. I think just what we did right and how we made plays when they were there and how we were consistent with our jobs individually to collectively be successful.
At the same time, I think it’s important that you learn from history so you don’t repeat it. That’s kind of a slogan where the mistakes you make, you’ve got to call yourself out. If you made a mistake, admit to do it and don’t do it again. Every game you’re going to have mistakes. You’ve just got to find a way to not repeat that mistake.
This week is important because San Diego, they’ve had our number at home. We haven’t for a long time swept them in division play. This is definitely an important game. Division games always place you at a point where you’re able to make the playoffs or not. It’s about winning your division.
We’re definitely looking for all the support we can get at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. I think every week when we come back home off a road trip, it’s nice to have that support. That noise and comfort level of being in front of your hometown fans is definitely welcome.
Catch you next week.
So we’ve got three in a row, and like Coach Fox says, 4-0 is better than 3-0. This week we’re in Carolina.
I think you see offensively we’re just cutting down on mistakes that we made at the beginning of the year, the turnovers. We’re more efficient on third down and in the red area. That’s something that’s really keeping us on the field and creating positive drives with touchdowns. That’s just hard work and little details we’ve been putting in since April — it’s starting to pay off. We’re starting to find that groove, find that rhythm.
The Panthers are a team that on the defensive side of the ball has improved from the beginning of the year. They pose a lot of challenge for us because their front seven is very active. They’ve got more than 20 sacks on the year, so you know they get to the quarterback. That’s something that we’ve got to really pay attention to this week. Then we’ve just got to take care of ourselves as far as technique work and getting open, because it’s going to be a challenge.
We know Coach Fox spent a lot of time there. I think he was very well appreciated in Carolina. But it’s definitely good to always win against the team you just left. But we’re focused on what we can do. Obviously Coach Fox understands what it means to go home, but it’s us versus Carolina, so we’ve got to make sure we do everything possible to win.
We head to the airport in a few hours, so talk to you next week.
You guys might have heard about a plan Demaryius and I had last week. We had this idea to throw an alley-oop after his touchdown. Salt and Pepper, one guy throws to another guy, just to have some fun. I don’t think we realized the repercussions or the consequences of something like that. We joke and laugh about calling Brandon Stokley “Daddy” in the locker room, but to have a guy that kind of in the heat of battle has that understanding to stop us and say it’s not good right now, I’m very thankful obviously that we saved a penalty in a big situation and probably a fine, too.
He grabbed the ball from me and goes, “What are you doing? You’re going to get fined and you’re going to get a penalty.” At that point I knew, OK, that was dumb.
But rest assured the lob would have been right on target. I’ve had some experience in high school lobbing it up to a couple teammates.
Over the bye week I got away. Like I said last week, I wanted to get some R&R. I got some massage work, went to the beach one day, just kind of enjoyed that time off with friends and family.
I definitely feel re-energized, feel mentally ready to get after it for the second half of the season and finish strong.
We’ve got New Orleans this Sunday, and their record doesn’t tell how good a team they are. They’re very explosive offensively. It’s something where we’ve got to match their intensity coming in. Obviously they want to make the playoffs and this is a big game for them. It’s a big game for us, too. We know what’s at stake. We know what we’ve got to do to give ourselves a chance to win.
As far as their record and all the stats, it doesn’t mean much, because on Sunday you’ve got to show up. It depends on how you play. We know we control how we play. Our focus is to kind of set the tempo, start the game fast and get better in some of the areas we’ve been struggling through the first six weeks.
With the bye week behind us, we’ve got 10 straight games left in the regular season. But our mentality has always been one game at a time. So our focus is on New Orleans, then on to the next and so on. We just know that we’ve got to give ourselves a chance to win every game if we want to make this year special. That’s our goal. Do the little things right in practice, have fun on game day and let things take care of themselves.
Catch up with you next week.