Another ‘F’ for Andy Reid in clock management class

Andy Reid reminded football fans on Saturday night that his time management skills are still a work in progress. Hey, he’s only had 17 years as an NFL head coach to work on it.

In an AFC divisional playoff game against the New England Patriots, a contest that was in New England’s hands from nearly start to finish, the Kansas City Chiefs had a chance to make things interesting late in the fourth quarter.

“Time was of the essence,” Reid said of his team’s hurry-up offense during its last drive of the game, down 27-13.

Wait, what? The Chiefs didn’t act that way for most of their final drive, especially when they got down to New England’s 1-yard line after Alex Smith completed a 19-yard pass to Albert Wilson. With three timeouts in his pocket and 2:33 remaining, Reid passed on using one of them, letting the clock run down (even huddling) to the two-minute warning after a Charcandrick West run lost a yard. The Chiefs still had to punch it in after the two-minute warning. And after a penalty, a pass to Jason Avant was short of the end zone. And the Chiefs huddled up again. Seriously.

“We wanted to get that play off,” Reid said, indicating that he didn’t understand why he was being asked about his clock (mis-)management. “We had 20 seconds. It was 2:20 on the clock. We wanted to make sure we got our best personnel in for that play and we didn’t get it done.”

You can hear Chiefs fans’ collective sigh. They just “didn’t get it done” in a critical moment, not sure what direction to go in when every second mattered. In a playoff game.

The Chiefs eventually ended their 16-play drive on a touchdown with 1:18 left. Somehow, with time being of the essence, the Chiefs bled 5:16 off the clock on that drive and lessened their chances of getting the ball back. Kansas City eventually lost, 27-20, after Rob Gronkowski recovered the onside kick and the Patriots later got a first down.

It was another chapter to add to Reid’s history of questionable clock management.