KC Chiefs: Bad Clock Management Decides Game

The KC Chiefs lost to the New England Patriots 27-20 in the second round of the NFL playoffs after awful clock management at the end of the game by the offense.

The KC Chiefs played a pretty good game against one of the best teams in the NFL and as a dynasty, one of the best of all time. That being said, the game was in reach at the end, but head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Alex Smith didn’t seem to know that they game only had four quarters.

Down 14, the KC Chiefs were driving down the field with less than four minutes in the fourth quarter needing to score as quickly as possible. At least one would think. Instead, the Chiefs decided to take their time getting plays off and let the clock tick off way too many seconds that turned into minutes. In fact, with under two minutes left and STILL down 14, Smith decided to have the offense huddle inside the Patriots’ ten yard line.

While Kansas City may not have won the game because they would have still had to stop Tom Brady’s offense to get the ball back relatively quickly, but Alex didn’t even give the defense a chance. They ended up scoring well under two minutes and Brady only needed to get one first down to end the game. And he got it.

How can this happen during a playoff game?

Reid tried to explain the late game situation, saying: “I’m not sure exactly what you’re talking about. We wanted to get a play off  and there was 2:20 on the clock. We wanted to make sure we got our best personnel on the field for that play, and we didn’t get that done” (quote via B/R).

Alex Smith was a little more realistic than Reid: “It’s a fine line of getting into the best play and just keep going at the line of scrimmage,” Smith said. “It would’ve been nice to get a score before the two-minute warning. It would’ve helped tremendously with three timeouts. It probably hurt us there.”

Andy Reid has a history of bad clock management at the end of games. Back in Super Bowl XXXIX, he was with the Eagles and Donovan McNabb was his quarterback. They showed awful clock management at the end of the game that many put on McNabb, including Patriots ex-star receiver Troy Brown.

Brown changed his stance after watching the Chiefs V. Patriots on Saturday (via csnne.com):

"“This one is on the coach because we’ve now seen the same thing twice, two different quarterbacks, two different teams,” said Brown. “We were killing Donovan McNabb for allegedly dry heaving in the huddle in the two-minute mode, hurrying up. This is Andy Reid again and that dang old play sheet up to his face sitting there calling plays. You just can’t play the game that way.”"

Andy Reid is a great coach don’t get me wrong, but he needs to figure out how to manage the clock late in games or he (and the Chiefs) won’t find much playoff success down the road.

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Let me know what you think! Did the clock management at the end of the game ultimately cost the Chiefs the win? Do you blame Andy Reid or Alex Smith more? Leave me your comments and feedback in the comments section below!