ChiefsPlanet - Chiefs Q&A with TYLER THIGPEN

Q&A with TYLER THIGPEN - 11/26
Nov 26, 2008, 3:32:38 PM

Q: Did Bills QB Trent Edwards kind of give you a blueprint to follow on how to play coming off a bad game?

TYLER THIGPEN: “He had struggled a little bit and he came in and, I think the biggest thing for him was he didn’t turn the ball over. For any quarterback, you can’t do that. You can’t put your defense in a bad position by giving the other team good field position.”

Q: Is that the hardest thing to do – walking the line between making plays and turning the ball over?

THIGPEN: “It can be a fine line, but you also have to be smart with the ball. That’s the main thing in any situation as a quarterback, you need to protect the ball and give your receivers a chance to catch the ball rather than their DBs. Put the ball in places where only your guy can get it or nobody can get it.”

Q: How are you feeling this week?

THIGPEN: “It’s one game and clear. You can’t dwell on the past. You learn from your mistakes on Monday, you move on, and you get prepared to play the Raiders this week.”

Q: What did you learn in the Buffalo game that can specifically help you in games down the road?

THIGPEN: “Anybody who watched the game, you can’t turn it over. It just puts your defense in a bad situation when we give them a short field to work with. They did a good job of not turning the ball over and punting the ball. They gave us a long field to work with a couple times. (Head coach) Herm (Edwards) put a stat up, I think they had a 52-yard field to work with and we had a 75-yard field to work with. That’s a big difference when it comes down to it.”

Q: Do you feel like you can throw with more confidence to TE Tony Gonzalez as opposed to someone else?

THIGPEN: “You’ve just got to know you receivers. You know Tony, obviously like you said. You’ve got to know that your other guys are capable of doing it. That’s a huge factor. When you know what your receivers are capable of, you know what type of ball you can throw to them.”

Q: Tony is different isn’t he? You can throw it anywhere and he will catch it.

THIGPEN: “He’s a future hall of famer. That speaks for itself.”

Q: What do you think of the Raiders defense?

THIGPEN: “They’re really good. Anybody that’s watched any games on them, you know they do a really good job. They run man coverage and obviously on passing downs they like to run cover-two. They have a really good secondary, their linebackers like to run around, and their front four will get push up the middle and their ends will rush up, come flying up the field at you.”

Q: This is a historically great rivalry, but when the teams have a combined four wins, can you even call it that?

THIGPEN: “Yeah. It’s still going to be a rivalry. It’s going to be a battle. We’re going in there, the Black Hole, and it’s going to be a good game. We feel confident, the offense. We have a good gameplan this week. We went over it today, had a good practice. We feel confident going in there against their defense. Our defense feels good going against their offense.”

Q: What is your impression of the Black Hole for the young guys who haven’t experienced it?

THIGPEN: “It’s a crazy atmosphere. They pretty much have any dirt that they need to know about you and they’re going to give you any kind of ammunition with the fans. They’re kind of close to us, on our sideline, but I remember last year they were talking to us the whole time, trying to rattle us and get in our heads. Even when you come out of the tunnel, you have to come out right in front of their stands, where they come out as well.”

Q: Has anyone said anything that shocked you?

THIGPEN: “Not really. They never said anything to me.”

Q: This year they will.

THIGPEN: “They might say something this year, they might. As a young guy, you can’t let anything like that get to you. In one ear and out the other.”

Q: What was the funniest thing they said last year?

THIGPEN: “I think they were talking to JP Darche. That was the funniest thing I heard.”

Q: Was it in French?

THIGPEN: “No comment.”

Q: Is it hard to believe that that was your last road win, back there?

THIGPEN: “Is it really? What a good win we had there last year. Hopefully we can go out there and do it again.”

Q: Is Thanksgiving a holiday you can enjoy? Do guys find a way to find time to eat?

THIGPEN: “You’ve always got to find time to eat. It’s a great holiday. For guys who don’t have families, I think the guys on the team do a really good job of extending that welcome to say come over to the veteran guys’ that have their families that are here. They do a really good job of making sure the young guys feel welcome.”

Q: Where you’re from, what was usually on the menu?

THIGPEN: “Anything and everything. Stuffing, turkey, ham, corn bread. I think my favorite is stuffing, by far. With a little giblet gravy on top.”