AFC Notes: Patrick Mahomes, Brandon Staley, Chargers, Chiefs, Raiders

Chargers

Chargers HC Brandon Staley said he isn’t feeling any added pressure this week after his tense press conference following a loss to the Packers on Sunday.

“I feel the same every time I’ve ever coached a game in the NFL,” Staley said, via Pro Football Talk. “I feel that this is the biggest game of my life, which is how I’ve approached every game I’ve competed in my whole life. That’s the approach that I’ve brought my whole life. That’s the approach I’ve brought here. I expect for us to come and compete at a high level this week.”

Chiefs

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and HC Andy Reid are not the type to place blame, with Mahomes refusing to throw WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling under the bus after he dropped a go-ahead touchdown as the game neared it’s conclusion on Monday nigh.

Instead Mahomes said he could have thrown the pass a little shorter and is going to focus on doing better offensively and in the second half after their loss to the Eagles.

“Simple as we just have to get better at the second half,” Mahomes said, via NFL.com. “I mean all season long we haven’t played great football in the second half so we have to continue to work. Obviously (we) had a pretty good first half running the football but (we’ve) got to find a way to finish games offensively.”

“Offensively, we’re just not where I want to be at his point in the season,” Mahomes added. “It starts with me. I have to make better throws at certain times. We have to continue to move the ball downfield and just be more consistent throughout the game.”

“We’re kind of shooting ourselves in the foot,” Reid noted after the game. “I’ve got to do a better job helping out with that and then my guys have got to do the same thing. So, we’ve all got to pick it up a notch there in the second half. (We’re) just not as sharp there. We’ll work on that. We probably didn’t sustain our control of their defensive line that second half. We didn’t have as good of run production. It wasn’t really anything that they did necessarily other than us just executing better.”

Raiders

Raiders interim HC Antonio Pierce admitted fifth-round QB Aidan O’Connell would’ve liked to have some of his passes back but said the team didn’t lose the game because of him.

“First half, executing, getting the ball where we wanted to — maybe a throw or two here we wish we could have and complete,” Pierce said, via PFT. “Then the second half, as we know, no need to press there. There were some situations where we were probably pressing. We’ve talked about it — it’s going to be, obviously, a great learning lesson not just for Aidan, but for myself in what positions we put him in, and how we allow the flow of the game to go, and not to have that kind of stress on the young quarterback. So, it’s a team effort. It’s a team disappointment as well. It’s not on Aidan — we didn’t lose the game because of Aidan, let’s get that straight. But Aidan does know he needs to take care of the ball. That’s the quarterback’s No. 1 job and we’ll get better at that.”

Pierce added that he’d like to see the team rally around O’Connell after a tough game and said the growing pains will come with a young quarterback.

“Look around the National Football League — a lot of young quarterbacks are playing. A lot of guys are struggling with young quarterbacks,” Pierce said. “Some guys are doing really well. And for two games we did well. And we had one half that didn’t go the Raiders’ way. And, again, as we talk about it, our leaders up front from Kolton Miller to ‘Dre [Andre James], Josh Jacobs, to ‘Tae [Davante Adams], they’ve got to put their arm around the young guy. Listen, we’ve all had rough days like that at the office, and not to point fingers at anybody, you can’t do that. It’s a team effort when we win and a team effort when we lose.”

• Jeremy Fowler reports the Raiders believe S Marcus Epps suffered a neck stinger on Sunday against the Dolphins.