‘You want a scouting report on Kansas City, it’s speed’ and more of what players and coaches are saying ahead of Raiders, Chiefs in week two

The Raiders opened up the 2019 season with an impressive win on Monday night football against the Denver Broncos. They will look to keep things rolling this week against another division rival in the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs will be without speedster wideout, Tyreek Hill who suffered a shoulder injury in week one that will sideline him the next four to six weeks. Even without Hill, the Chiefs still have plenty of speed and weapons at the disposal of 2018 NFL MVP, Patrick Mahomes.

On the defensive side of the ball for the Chiefs, they have a new coordinator in Steve Spagnulo and new faces such as Frank Clark, Emmanuel Ogbah, Tyrann Mathieu, and Bashaud Breeland.

Even with all the new faces it looked like the same old Chiefs on defense last week versus Jacksonville. With both teams having question marks on defense, Sunday’s game has the potential to be a shootout.

Now let’s see what players and coaches from both teams are saying ahead of their week two matchup.

Raiders coach Jon Gruden, on what makes the Chiefs offense so tough to deal with.

“They’re great. You want a scouting report on Kansas City, it’s speed and thats all you need to say. Speed on special teams, speed on defense, and speed on offense. They have tremendous speed and they make you defend every inch of grass. Laterally with the jet sweeps, you got to defend them sideline to sideline. They can outrun you, outflank you, and vertically they can run by you over the top. And Mahomes can make any throw, he’s proven that right or left handed, looking or not looking, so you understand the problem that everyone has dealing with them. And Andy Reid is pulling the strings and he is a hard guy to deal with also.”

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, on facing a team with a new defensive coordinator and many new faces on defense.

“Yeah, it’s kind of like getting ready for the Broncos last week. They have new safeties. They have new corners. They have new defensive lineman. You do your best. Coach has a good plan for the way he does things and they way we prepare for that, but we just have to prepare for everything. You have to be ready for things they’ve shown. You take a mental snapshot of what they’ve shown and then say, ok what can they do off this that would hurt us. Then you prepare as much as you can that way and be ready for everything.”

Chiefs coach Andy Reid, on replacing Tyreek Hill.

“Listen, I’m big on next guy up. We’ve done that over the years so I expect the next guys up to step up and play. Nobody is alike, but most of the guys at this level have strengths and so you play to their strengths and then you keep coaching them to make their things that maybe they’re not as strong better. But when you are putting your game plan together, you play to your strengths.”

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnulo, on playing against Derek Carr.

“Yeah, one of the keys is you look at tighter coverage. Talk all the time about these quarterbacks that get it out quick and complete it, and he looked really good the other night. If you can’t effect him then you try to effect his targets. So somehow, someway we gotta do that early in the down or at the line of scrimmage and 83 he’s a good tight end, he presents a problem, 16’s a good wideout. I mean they got some weapons. I thought they played real efficient, real well, the way coach Gruden wants to play. I was really impressed.”

Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, on playing the Raiders.

“I feel like you got a revamped Raider team over there in Oakland. They played some excellent ball last week against Denver, with that great defense lead by Von Miller. Derek Carr did some great things out there, they got a great rookie running back running the ball pretty tough, I think he ran for over 140, 150 yards something like that. They got some good talent over there, got big Trent Brown they brought in the offseason on the offensive line to help anchor that right side for Derek and they just playing good ball right now at the beginning of the season.”