Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: the Chiefs QB is somewhere over Dwayne Bowe, so to speak.
Matt Cassel joined WHB in Kansas City with Soren Petro to discuss his confidence level right now, what has gotten into Dwayne Bowe, why teams are still trying to cover him one-on-one, the Chargers nipping at their heels, squaring off with former college coach Pete Carroll and why he's thrown so many fewer interceptions this year.
On playing with confidence:
"We've been playing with a lot of confidence, we really have, on our side of the ball and I think the team's been playing with a lot of confidence. In terms of executing the playbook, I think we're getting more consistent with what we're doing. Obviously, Dwayne had another big day … and obviously my confidence has grown in Dwayne and the rest of our passing game. We're just going to continue to grow and this when you want to play your best football, come December."
On Dwayne Bowe having a hot hand:
"A lot of times, in what we do from a passing standpoint, it's dictated by coverage and we had a lot of great matchups with Dwayne all day with one-on-one matchups on the outside and, again, the more that we can go to him, the better, just because, like you just mentioned, he's got a hot hand right now. … Hopefully that continues."
On whether he's surprised teams are still trying to cover Bowe one-on-one:
"We're kind of putting defenses into a bind right now just considering the fact that we are running the ball so well. They have to make a choice. Do they load up the box and try to lock us down on the outside with one-on-one coverage or do they play more zone coverage and try to put somebody over the top and maybe not load the box as much? It's just one of those situations where, because of the running game being so effective and so efficient right now for us, it kind of puts the defense in a bind."
On the Chargers breathing down their necks in the AFC West:
"I think, for us, we can't worry about anybody else right now. We've just got to continue taking care of our business and we've got to go one game at a time and just continue to win our games at every opportunity that we have. … San Diego's playing great football, but that's the team they are. They always come on strong in the second half of the year and that's what they're doing right now. … But we can't worry about anybody but ourselves."
On squaring off with his former coach at USC, Pete Carroll, in Sunday's victory:
"It was so long ago and, at the time, when I was going through the whole situation [of not playing at USC] was it tough? Absolutely, because as a competitor, you want to play. But I have no ill-will toward Coach Carroll and I enjoyed my time playing under him there at SC. I thought he was a great coach and we did a lot of fantastic things there at USC. But, in terms of yesterday, it was about the Kansas City Chiefs and the Seattle Seahawks."
On why his interception numbers are down so much from a year ago:
"I just think we're playing good offensive football. I think we have a balanced attack and I think I'm being smart with the ball. I'm not trying to force things that don't need to be forced. It's just so far, so good, I guess. It's just playing better football."
This post, written by Eric Schmoldt, appears courtesy of Sports Radio Interviews. For the complete highlights of the interview, as well as audio, click here.
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