Andy Reid’s clock management, uh, *creativity* strikes again in Chiefs’ loss to the Patriots

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is a strong leader. He’s a constant sideline presence for playoff teams; a players’ coach who commands good teams and typically helms great offenses.

But he’s never been great when it comes to managing the clock — and that weakness reared its ugly head again on Sunday night in the Chiefs’ first loss of the season.

Reid burned a pair of timeouts with more than three minutes to play in tight game against the Patriots, a move that came back to snuff out his team’s last-ditch comeback efforts. New England led, 37-33, and had the ball at the Chiefs’ 37-yard line when Sony Michel turned a carry off the left tackle for a yard.

There was 3:30 left in the game. And Reid burned his first timeout.

On the next play, a 4-yard receiver screen to Josh Gordon drew Kansas City’s second stoppage, bringing the game clock down to 3:25. Only an incomplete pass on third down prevented the Chiefs from burning their final TO.

It was a curious decision. The Chiefs have one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL, and while the Patriots could have run the clock down to the two-minute warning without Reid’s timeouts (and a stop), that still would have left second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes plenty of time — and three opportunities to stop the clock — to find the end zone while leaving little time left for a New England rebuttal. And, if Kansas City scored too soon, it could leave Reid’s team almost powerless to stop the clock and ensure Mahomes would get the ball back for a potential game-winning drive.

The Patriots kicked a 50-yard field goal with 3:15 to take a 40-33 lead, giving the Chiefs the ball with 75 yards to go and one timeout. They needed just one play to get there: a deep ball to an uncovered Tyreek Hill tied the game at 40-all:

This wasn’t entirely unexpected. The Patriots had been unable to contain Hill all evening; the explosive wideout had 67 yards and a pair of second-half touchdowns to his credit at that point. New England also struggled to contain Kareem Hunt, who took a 67-yard pass to the promised land early in the third quarter.

All three of the Chiefs’ second-half drives to that point took fewer than two minutes — though two of those came deep in Patriots’ territory. Kansas City’s ability to strike like a viper was understood by all parties.

But Reid wasn’t banking on a quick touchdown, and Hill’s 75-yard grab-and-dash gave the greatest quarterback of all time 3:03 to find three points and a win. With three timeouts, the Chiefs could have conserved enough time, even after a Brady touchdown drive, to possibly get the ball back and run a last-ditch two-minute drill — something at which an offense with Hill, Hunt, Sammy Watkins, and Travis Kelce has excelled.

New England was briefly in trouble before converting a third-and-1 situation into a first down following the two minute warning, but calmly drove deep into Kansas City territory to seal its biggest win of 2018. Reid even allowed the clock to tick down from 44 seconds to 17 before taking his final timeout following a long completion to Rob Gronkowski. It didn’t matter — with three timeouts and a fresh set of downs, New England could do whatever it wanted — but it was still bad optics for a coach who isn’t exactly known for his clock management skills. From there, New England had Brady take a snap, move to the center of the field, drop to a knee, and call time out with three seconds left to set up Stephen Gostkowski’s perfect season-ruining, chip-shot 28-yard field goal.

Preserving Kansas City’s timeouts wouldn’t have flipped this to a win for the Chiefs, but it would have given Mahomes a chance to test himself in the waning seconds of a playoff-style game in a hostile environment.

Instead, Reid was forced to watch the Patriots stomp into his territory and wind down the clock until it suited them best. Reid didn’t lose this game for Kansas City, which proved itself as a dynamic playoff threat even while giving up 43 points in defeat — but he didn’t give his team its best opportunity to win, either.