Kansas City Chiefs

Andy Reid's clock-management issues come under fire yet again

Published Jan. 16, 2016 7:48 p.m. ET

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Ross Jones

The Kansas City Chiefs were looking to get within one score in the final few minutes of Saturday's AFC Divisional Round playoff game against the New England Patriots.

Then, Andy Reid's mismanagement of the clock came into play.

With three timeouts remaining and down 14 points, the Chiefs allowed precious seconds to tick away.

The play call that will get criticized the most was a Charcandrick West run up the gut on the goal line that was stopped with more than 2:30 left on the clock. The lack of urgency allowed the two-minute warning to hit. Following the break, quarterback Alex Smith completed a pass to Jason Avant on second-and-goal, but the receiver fell short of the goal line.

Smith looked to the sideline and, amazingly, ordered the offense to huddle up. They didn't snap the third-down play until there was 1:26 left. A pass-interference penalty on the Patriots reset the downs and another Smith incompletion later, running back Charcandrick West finally got into the end zone with 1:18 remaining.   

The Chiefs had all three timeouts remaining, but after a failed onside kick, the Patriots converted one first down to seal the game. 

The backlash on Twitter was quite harsh: 

Certainly, not anywhere near as harsh as watching the Patriots line up in victory formation. 

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