KC Chiefs: Five keys to victory vs Titans in AFC Championship Game

Number 3 – Andy Reid must win the coaching battle

Mike Vrabel is not Bill O’Brien. He’s not going to call a fake punt on his own 31 yard-line while up three scores.

While most of Andy Reid’s facial expressions look like a deer in headlights, Vrabel has been a cool customer combined with the passion of a player. The ex-Patriots linebacker seems destined to be a great coach in this league and he could continue the trend of Patriots beating up on Reid in the playoffs.

In just his second season as a head coach, Vrabel has turned Derrick Henry into a faster Marshawn Lynch and sat former second-overall pick Marcus Mariota in favor of journeyman Ryan Tannehill. His boldness led to beating his former coach at his own game in the Wild Card match-up by taking two different penalties to give his all-pro punter more room to work with, much to Bill Belichick’s disliking.

Reid, on the opposite side of his career, has a chance to redefine his own history with a Super Bowl win this season.

One of the best coaches to do it, Reid has watched his coordinator win a Super Bowl trophy before him in Doug Pederson. There’s a reason Chiefs’ offensive coordinators are consistently sought out as head coaches around this time each year with Eric Bieniemy becoming the latest. His system works and his career regular season record of 130-93-1 speaks for itself.

With that said, Reid is just 10-9 in the postseason, which exploits his weakness of not getting it done when it matters. That will be the way he is remembered if history repeats itself on Sunday – choking in situations where great coaches separate themselves and panicking his way to another good, but not great, season.

Andy Reid has a great opportunity to put that to bed and that starts with putting a franchise in the Super Bowl that hasn’t been there in 50 years.