Andy Reid has a prolific history of game-management gaffes

Game and clock management in the NFL is an epidemic, but Andy Reid redefines the pestilence. He is the Spanish flu of game managers, and the Kansas City Chiefs’ Monday night loss to the Denver Broncos showed he hasn’t found a cure yet.

Reid failed to recognize that the Broncos were out of timeouts at the end of the first half and that, up 14-7 with 2:30 remaining, he probably should run some clock and try to go into the half with a lead. Two straight passes were called — the first was incomplete, and the second was picked. The Broncos scored easily three plays later and eliminated any momentum the Chiefs had gained up 14-0.

It was déjà vu at the end of the game, knotted at 24-all. Except Reid hedged badly with 35 seconds remaining. Either go for it or take a knee and play for overtime at home. Instead, Reid called two run plays starting at his own 20, the second of which was fumble-sixed by the Broncos. Game, set, match. Reid outsmarted himself again.

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Something happens to Reid in the final five minutes of halves. It’s like his brain freezes, or maybe it subconsciously defaults to doing whatever might be considered the worse course of action at that moment.

Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. Ask Philadelphia Eagles fans about it. Half of them were left bald — THANKS ANDY! — even though Reid has won nearly 60 percent of his career games, despite two complete rebuilding seasons at both jobs, and has a better career win percentage than Pete Carroll, Bill Parcells and Chuck Noll.

On 349 days a year, Reid is an excellent coach. Truly. He’s an offensive savant and a quarterback cultivator who has always made the most of his talent. But game days have proven numerous times to be his greatest weakness.

Here are a few moments over the years when Reid’s game-management skills shut down cold like a Foxboro headset:

Super Bowl XXXIX

Reid’s Eagles found themselves down 10 with just under six minutes remaining to the New England Patriots. And yet the offense chugged along with all the urgency of a three-toed sloth. Reid already had burned a golden timeout after a clock stoppage (!) late in the third quarter, so he had two left.

Passes from Donovan McNabb netting 4, 4, 5 and 2 yards took a full two minutes off the clock. It was at this point at Alltell Stadium that I turned to the man sitting next to me (former NFL quarterback and current ESPN college football analyst Jesse Palmer) and in stereo we both said: “What is Andy doing?”

The Eagles chugged down the field, saving their two timeouts for defense, and took the clock under two minutes before scoring a touchdown on the one deep pass of the drive, despite the Patriots being down their starting corner and safety with injuries. The ensuing onsides kick was recovered by the Patriots, who went on to win.

Asked about the drive in question years later, Bill Belichick famously told NFL Network that he and his assistants were looking at each other saying, “We’re up 10 right? We’re not missing something here?” Even he couldn’t hold back from calling out Reid’s mismanagement.

The “I goofed” game

In McNabb’s return-to-Philadelphia game after being traded to the Washington Redskins, the Eagles seemed to lack urgency and energy early on as the inferior Redskins took a 14-0 lead in the first 10 minutes. But the Eagles rallied and had a chance to cut the lead in half before going into the locker room.

With 1:45 remaining, the Eagles had a first and goal from the 4-yard line. Somehow, miraculously, they found themselves challenged for time and unable to score, undone by an unseemly delay-of-game call where Reid looked like he had just been told about the play clock and its tendency to click down after the ball is spotted.

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The Eagles settled for a field goal but never recovered and lost 17-12. Had they scored a touchdown there … who knows? But McNabb was terrible, Reid knew it, his defense played well that day (despite dropping two would-be picks) and they still couldn’t win.

Reid, as if setting up a future career as a Propecia pitch man, offered up this postgame explanation: “I goofed.” 

That game really was the beginning of the end of Reid in Philadelphia, if you trace it back. Three weeks earlier, the Eagles lost to the Packers, 27-20, as Reid nuked his three second-half timeouts down seven with 5:25, 5:17 and 5:11 left to play.

“I wanted the points”

More madness from the 2010 season: The Eagles, favored against the Chicago Bears, outscored the Bears 13-0 in the fourth quarter and lost. That’s because two of those field goals should have been reconsidered.

Down two scores twice, Reid opted to kick field goals … and remain down two scores. The second one was far more egregious. The Eagles faced a fourth and goal from the Chicago 18, with two timeouts. Though the distance to the end zone was daunting, Reid had to go for it. Instead, he opted for the field goal, cutting a 15-point lead to 12 with 4:53 left.

What did that do? The Eagles still needed to score twice to win. The field goal was completely useless.

“I wanted the points there,” Reid said. “It came down to one possession. When you’re down in the red zone, you have to score. That’s what it comes down to, and we have a short period of time to get it right.”

The Bears almost bailed the Eagles out by their own mismanagement, running off only 21 seconds on their next possession, but even with an Eagles TD drive after that, they ran out of time.

The following season, Reid’s Eagles faced a similar spot, down 20-13 with 4:53 left against the Dallas Cowboys, and he once more opted for the field goal. Only one problem: Reid had burned two timeouts needlessly on bad second-half challenges — another Achilles heel of his — and was unable to stop the Cowboys on seven straight clock-milking plays. Game over.

Notice a trend?

Twice with the Chiefs

In Reid’s first season in Kansas City, the plucky Chiefs rebounded from a 2-14 season to make the playoffs — a masterful turnaround. But the Chiefs could have gone 12-4 and made a stronger run at the Broncos for the division crown had Reid not helped cough up a win at home against the San Diego Chargers.

The Chiefs had first and 10 from the San Diego 16-yard line, and the Chargers already had burned one timeout. Reid felt bad and used one of his own with 1:28 left. Why? Who on earth knows? His explanation:

“No,” Reid said, “I was just calming the storm there and making sure that — we needed a touchdown at that point — make sure that we had the right things in and we were ready to go.” 

They had the right things in and scored on the next play, taking a 38-34 lead, but handing the ball back to Philip Rivers, who drove down the field — those two timeouts came in quite handy! — and scored in 46 tidy seconds, which ultimately would be the game-winner.

Sigh.

Then last season, in perhaps the Chiefs’ finest hour, crushing the New England Patriots 41-14 in Week 4, Reid’s first-half blunder was covered up by his own team’s pure dominance in the rout.

Up 14-0 with a chance to step on the Patriots’ necks at the end of the first half. On second and 10 from the New England 10 with 31 seconds left, Alex Smith hit Travis Kelce for a 5-yard gain to the 9. Inexplicably, Reid let more than 15 seconds run off before calling the Chiefs’ final timeout, putting them in a tricky spot.

On third and 5 with eight seconds left, Smith hit Dwayne Bowe — inbounds — for an 8-yard gain that would have run the clock out had the Patriots not bailed them out with a penalty.

The end-of-half field goal ended up saving face, and not mattering at all in a 27-point blowout, but what if the eventual champions rallied early in the second half? Reid once more would have been ripped for letting a game slip away.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm