Nagy expects physical Texans defense, sees growth in Mahomes’ decision-making
All right, go ahead. Well, uh, while Josh was on his leave, uh, Jalen filled in, I thought admirably *** left half. I guess what’s the thought process with him maybe being right and one day left this week. Yeah, just, um, you know, as we go through that process with these players and where they’re at, um, for us, uh, there’s *** little bit of *** process between Coach Reed, Coach Heck, uh, where the guys are so, um, we all talked through that and. Uh, we end up making ***, *** decision on how that goes and with, with the guys, um, and then we leave it at that wherever it is we want those guys to go out and, um, do everything they can to trust their fundamentals and technique. Obviously we’re seeing *** *** great pass rush, uh, that’s not telling anybody anything we don’t know so we gotta find ways to um to to be able to in any way possible, uh, give our guys the best advantage, you know, and and and when they play. Prioritizing position where they’re playing No, I wouldn’t say it’s, it’s who you’re playing against as much as just the, the discussion of, you know, what’s best for those guys where, where they’re comfortable, um, and then in the end whatever decision is made, uh, you got to go with it and you can’t can’t look back on it. Looked like John Hussey said something on the sideline of OPI. What need to tell you guys. Yeah, that was, um, it was on that 3rd and 6th play, uh. And it’s ***, that’s ***, that’s what we talked about it uh this week it’s *** difficult one, you know what what’s hard is that we as coaches. You coach the players to trust the process. You coach the players to trust the play, um, and then, and they executed it. Uh, I would say you know that Xavier did everything that he was supposed to do on that route, uh, what they were in coverage wise was set up for for the play, and unfortunately it didn’t go our way so it’s um it’s *** tough one because Monday through Friday we put in some time and trying to tell the guys why we wanna run *** play and how to do it and then when you do it. There’s *** little bit of, uh, you know, trust equity that you build up that maybe gets dinged *** little bit as *** coach when that happens so I think that’s what’s real and so there can be frustration by no means did that affect the win or loss, you know, of what happened in the game but um those guys did what we asked them to do on that play. It was *** penalty they called *** penalty, um, and you have to recover from it, but there was just *** little discussion as to why what happened so we can have clarification and. Sometimes those ones are hard to, you know, especially coming out start the 3rd quarter when we know it’s important to get points and score touchdowns and it didn’t happen, so, um, you know that that one was, that was tough. Is that one of those where you get clarification later in the week in the league? Yeah, that would be 11 of those that you get that and, and again, um, those the referees have *** tough job. It’s not easy, uh, and you know it’s everything happens quickly and there’s *** lot that goes on. Again, when you can go back and look at it, you know, we talked to the guys in this week and I would tell them to do nothing. I mean, he’s literally running his route and the defender initiated the contact and ran into him. I mean he’s, you know, so if we call that 10 more times I would tell Xavier do it 10 more times run the play the way you did because you did it the right way you were running your route, uh, so but unfortunately it was called and we have to be able to understand that that had nothing to do with anything with the outcome, but we now just gotta go back and when you teach plays Monday through Friday when you talk to the guys. You gotta, you gotta be able to explain to them like this is why we’re gonna do it this way. This is what should happen. And if it doesn’t, OK, how do we recover and handle adversity of *** 10 yard penalty to make it 3rd and 16. And the guys have been great with that. So that’s what, that’s what we gotta do and that’s what we will do. When he was asked about this Texans game, Pat said, you know, he emphasized running the football, getting the ball out fast, I guess just considering some menacing players along the protection this game plan, I guess without, you know, saying too much. Sure, yeah, uh, again, the very first thing that you notice when you watch this Texans defense, you see them on TV or you watch them like we do, uh, in the, in the, in the cut-ups that we have is they’re, they’re super relentless, the edge pressure that they have. They don’t have to bring much pressure. Um, they can get *** lot of pressure one on one. They’re really, really good on the edge. They’re really, really good on their whole defense. So when you have the guys on the inside, the linebackers, the DBs, everything, it presents *** challenge. I think in this game for us we create our game plan offensively. What do we want to do? Make that loud and clear to the offense in the beginning of the week and then we got to execute it and know what kind of game this is gonna be. It’s probably not going to be *** real pretty game and that’s OK. That’s this team. Doesn’t allow many points. So when you go into it, uh, the goal is to score as many as you can, but what’s real and how you’re gonna do it and I think the team messaging, the offensive messaging from us is. Just, just do what you’re supposed to do. Coach how we’re supposed to coach, and, uh, we have *** lot of trust in our guys, and I, and I think *** lot of confidence, but we have *** lot of respect because they’re *** good football team and they’re very well coached. Now going back to the process part of this, you obviously work really closely with Pat in the offseason to figure out what he needs to improve on. What can you just take me through what you, what you’ve seen from him this year from *** process standpoint how he’s handled all those things he wanted to improve on. Yeah, uh, we, we always talk about his feet mentally this year we talked *** little bit about more aggressiveness for all of us, so I think he’s done *** great job with that. Uh, I think the next step now is with the mental side of it, um, the process of, OK, it’s not there, check it down. He had 3 of those last week. That’s growth. When you have 3 plays where it’s OK, it’s not there, they didn’t give it to us. Check it down to the back, check it down to the tight end, make it 2nd and 3 instead of 2 and 10, that’s growth, um. You know, we’re still working on some things, uh, foot work wise which, which we always do, but I, I, I think like the play action stuff he’s done *** great job with being really good with play action, uh, so there, there’s *** lot I mean he has. He has really done an amazing job this year of, of, um, you know, really sticking true to what we wanna do progression wise within the concepts and then he’s always, he’s the most competitive competitive human being I’ve ever been around so like you get in *** game like last week, you just, you know, you want, we get that touchdown at the end of the game and he was ready to to roll and go down there and win the game and that’s just who he is. So I, I like where he’s at and um again I think mindset wise for us as *** team and an offense I know internally is. Uh, looking forward to this weekend, and he’s *** leader that’s gonna lead us, and that’s one of his greatest strengths. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, talked about the center runs and everything. Just how would you evaluate using more of those maybe throughout the game you see the success that you might have. Yeah, it’s been under center runs have been good for us, um, so making sure that we don’t get away from that, uh, match some things up with it to protect us schematically. Um, and then, and you’re getting now to what everybody says, right? You get in the cold weather games, *** little bit of the elements, the run game tends to jump up *** little bit, so I don’t think that’s *** hidden fact, but whatever we do now, um, the downhill, there’s *** million different schemes you can do from dot runs or under center runs. It’s doing what we do well, pairing it up, but then also too not taking away what we do um in the RPO world as well. So just kind of balancing both of that in the run game. Last one. There were *** few times when you guys got backed up because the penalties. I mean the Xavier played the Josh Simmons penalty. And he had mentioned something Monday about there’s only so many plays. What what’s the, the balance of trying to go for it there versus maybe burning something that you need later in the game knowing that you’re that far backed up. Right, um. There is *** balance and what you know whatever coach ends up deciding to do, we roll with uh for for us you keep hearing that we’re so close, we’re so close, and I know that becomes insanity after *** while it’s like, OK, so close can happen so many times it’s got to be fixed. It’s gotta be changed and so, um, in, in whatever it is, if it’s decision making with where we’re at, if there’s *** penalty that we get, for some reason it just feels like we’re getting like past the 50 yard line into that big red zone area and then there’s *** penalty whether it’s *** hole, *** false start. Um, something that’s unfortunate, so you as *** coach, you, you really try to dig in and say, you know, why is that? What are we doing? It keeps happening. So we touch on it, we make sure we’re the guys understand it and then. You know, decision making on what you do within the place you go for it, not go for it, for it down. Um, coming away with points is, is huge. So, um, I don’t know, I, I would just say the biggest thing is just Everything we can’t like if you go back, I don’t know the exact numbers, but if you’re, you don’t have penalties when we don’t have penalties on offense, we’re pretty good. We’re pretty good. So whatever it is like we stop with the penalties and, and again the ones that you can do, you know, uh, that are, um, I guess controllable, stop them if they’re not controllable, keep doing what you do and we’ll, we’ll deal with that.
Nagy expects physical Texans defense, sees growth in Mahomes’ decision-making
Updated: 8:19 PM CST Dec 4, 2025
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said Thursday Kansas City is preparing for a tough and physical challenge Sunday night against the Houston Texans, a unit he described as “super relentless.”Nagy praised Houston’s ability to pressure quarterbacks without blitzing and said protecting Patrick Mahomes will be critical in a game that, he warned, “probably is not going to be a real pretty game.”He also pointed to growth in Mahomes’ decision-making this year, including his willingness to check down rather than force throws.“That’s growth,” Nagy said, adding that turning a second-and-10 into second-and-3 keeps the offense moving. “He’s the most competitive human being I’ve been around.”Kansas City could lean more on the run game as temperatures drop at Arrowhead Stadium and late-season conditions arrive.“We have a lot of trust in our guys and a lot of confidence,” Nagy said, “but we have a lot of respect because they’re a good football team.”Watch Nagy’s full comments in the video above or portions below.Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy: Run game important in cold Arrowhead weather – Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy on Patrick Mahomes’ growth – Matt Nagy: Texans defense is “super relentless” –
KANSAS CITY, Kan. —
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said Thursday Kansas City is preparing for a tough and physical challenge Sunday night against the Houston Texans, a unit he described as “super relentless.”
Nagy praised Houston’s ability to pressure quarterbacks without blitzing and said protecting Patrick Mahomes will be critical in a game that, he warned, “probably is not going to be a real pretty game.”
He also pointed to growth in Mahomes’ decision-making this year, including his willingness to check down rather than force throws.
“That’s growth,” Nagy said, adding that turning a second-and-10 into second-and-3 keeps the offense moving. “He’s the most competitive human being I’ve been around.”
Kansas City could lean more on the run game as temperatures drop at Arrowhead Stadium and late-season conditions arrive.
“We have a lot of trust in our guys and a lot of confidence,” Nagy said, “but we have a lot of respect because they’re a good football team.”
Watch Nagy’s full comments in the video above or portions below.
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy: Run game important in cold Arrowhead weather –
Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy on Patrick Mahomes’ growth –
Matt Nagy: Texans defense is “super relentless” –