Andy Reid's game mismanagement continues to give amateur comedians fodder.
The Chiefs' epically-slow drive in their playoff loss to the New England Patriots must have left many Kansas City fans bald. And hearing former offensive coordinator Doug Pederson inexplicably defend the molasses performance, reasoning that he didn't want to give Tom Brady too much time on the clock, only twisted the knife of shame.
Perhaps the worst part of this for Chiefs fans is that Reid and his staff insist they executed the situation perfectly. The coach doubled down in an interview with KCSP-AM on Thursday.
"I think clock management's very important," Reid said, via Pro Football Talk. "Every situation's different. It's a fluid situation on the spot and you've got to go off of feel ... This situation, I think, was handled right."
Trailing by 14 points with all three timeouts remaining, Reid believed they would have been in good shape if they had recovered the onside kick.
"I thought we handled it right," Reid said. "You give us a minute on the clock and three timeouts, we feel like we can move the ball pretty good."
The lack of perspective here is maddening. Sure, if the Chiefs happened to recover on onside kick -- one of the most low-odd plays in football -- they might have had a chance to tie the game. If they had scored well before the two-minute warning, however, the Pats couldn't have ended the game with a first down, which is what happened.
Reid's reasoning for moving slowly and huddling was to ensure the Chiefs ran the proper plays.Â
"At that point it really didn't matter to me. I wanted to make sure we were calling the best plays," Reid said.
Sure, K.C. did score, but by doing so at a historically-slow pace, they gave themselves zero room for error. Had it been a one-score game, it's a completely different scenario. It was not.
The biggest frustration for Chiefs fans is not being completely sure whether Reid is just attempting to save face or if he actually believes the methodical plan was correct. Given his track record, the latter seems likely. (Deep, sad sigh.)
