Kansas City Chiefs

We now know who's to blame for the Chiefs' terrible clock management

Published Jan. 19, 2016 11:46 p.m. ET

foxsports

If not for a sluggish fourth-quarter pace, the Kansas City Chiefs might still be playing.

The culprit? None other than former offensive coordinator Doug Pederson, who outed himself at his introductory press conference as Eagles head coach.

Via ESPN's Adam Teicher:

"It took us time because, No. 1, we did not want to give Tom Brady the ball back. We knew we were going to score. We knew we had timeouts and time. We were also limited with the number of receivers. Jeremy Maclin was out of the game at the time. We were down numbers. We felt like at that point (it would have been a mistake) to give the ball back to Tom Brady. (But) we still had timeouts and time even with the onside kick to put ourselves in a position to win the football game."

Pederson revealed he called the Chiefs' second-half plays since Week 7 -- the first game of the team's eventual 11-game winning streak. They won that game over the Pittsburgh Steelers, 23-13.

He saw K.C.'s streak out to an uneventful end, though. Quarterback Alex Smith unnecessarily drained a fourth quarter clock that put his team in dire straights -- and its offensive coordinator minutes closer to Philadelphia.