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Come Fan with UsSaturday, June 20, 2026

Chiefs mismanage clock at end of first half, settle for field goal

The Chiefs bungled their last possession of the first half Monday night, but still came away looking good against the Patriots.

Dilip Vishwanat

The Kansas City Chiefs did just about everything right in the first half of Monday night's beatdown of the New England Patriots. Even when they screwed up their last possession of the half, they still came out looking pretty good.

First, here are the Chiefs blowing a ton of time deep in the red zone. With 31 seconds left, Alex Smith completed a pass to Travis Kelce down to the Patriots' 9-yard line. Then, inexplicably, Kansas City waited until there were eight seconds left to take their third timeout.

It was a baffling sequence, and one wonders just what coach Andy Reid was thinking about as the clock was winding down and the Chiefs were wasting precious seconds.

Then, on their 3rd-and-5 play, Smith completed a pass to Dwayne Bowe to New England's 1-yard line. Bowe came up just short of the endzone.

The clock would have run out and Kansas City would have come away with no points on the drive, but the Chiefs received a bit of good fortune. New England was called for a questionable penalty which put one second back on the clock.

It was a completely mismanaged series for Kansas City, especially with the way the Chiefs' offense was imposing its will on the Patriots. But hey, they still got points out of it and are crushing the Patriots so all is well ... for now.

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