Andy Reid cost his team the game on Sunday, and there can be no excuse made for his decision making. Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs were taking on the Tennessee Titans at home in the coldest game at Arrowhead Stadium since 1994. Late in the game, the Chiefs led 17-16 but the Titans had the ball, and as the clock wound down they moved to the Chiefs 35 yard line – close enough to try a “hail mary” 53 yard field goal attempt. With five seconds left the Titans spiked the ball and trotted the field goal unit onto the field. Titans kicker Ryan Succop, whose career long field goal is 54 yards, lined up for the try. Before the ball was snapped Reid called a time-out. The Titans ignored the whistle and went for the kick anyways, it fell well short. Given a second chance due to Reid’s careless decision, the Titans nailed their second attempt and won the game.
Reid is taking some heat for his decision, but the level of outrage does not match the level of mistake that was made. The time-out decision was not even featured as one of the ten takeaways from the game on the Chiefs own website. Reid’s decision to call time-out is a blunder for the ages, and not because the first attempt was missed. It’s a blunder because it shows Reid was not paying attention to the game that was being played, or to game management in general. Let’s break it down:
Andy Reid’s Blunder That Cost the Kansas City Chiefs
Reid Knew It Would Be A Tough Kick To Make
The weather conditions for the game were brutal. It was the coldest game in Arrowhead in over 20 years. This makes it extremely difficult to kick the ball long distances. As evidence, on the day there were eight kick-offs, only one of them landed in the end zone for a touch back (two additional kick-offs landed in play and rolled into the end zone resulting in a touch back). Either way, that is three out of eight or 37.5%. On the season, the Chiefs are kicking touch backs better than 58% of the time and the Titans better than 68%.
Further, Reid himself knew just how tough it would be to kick a 53 yard field goal. Why? Because he had the opportunity to do so in the second quarter of the game while going the same way on the field as the Titans later would for their game winning try. With time running out in the second quarter the Chiefs faced a fourth and one situation on the Tennessee 36 yard line and Reid passed up the chance for three points to go for it. There was little time remaining in the half, so the decision to go for it on fourth down was made almost exclusively to improve field position for the a later kick.
Reid Knew A Practice Try Would Help The Titans
How? Kansas City kicker Cairo Santos said the Chiefs are coached to take the practice kick even if they hear the referee’s whistle stopping play for the timeout. It makes sense. Who wouldn’t take a free practice try when attempting anything difficult? When that something difficult is accurately kicking a frozen football 53 yards that is only amplified.
Ryan Succop Was Grateful For The Practice
Let’s look at what Succop the Titans kicker had to say about the attempt:
“I felt like I hit the first one good, and when it came up short, there was a second in my mind where I wasn’t sure if I could even reach from there. So on the second one, I kind of just had to throw technique out the window a little bit and really go after it and hit it as hard as I could.” Succop even admitted he even re-tied his shoe during the timeout so that he could go at the kick extra hard on his second try!
In other words he only hit the second attempt because he was allowed to have a practice attempt, and to correct everything that went wrong.
Tough To Win
A common coaching refrain is how difficult it is to win a game in the NFL. Teams put in hours of practice each week and coaches themselves lament how they work nearly endless hours, all in the pursuit of victory. This only makes it worse that a coach would blow a victory with a single indefensible decision. It is even worse that decision is coming from Reid who himself is famous for late game clock management blunders. The saddest part of all is that this season Reid had seemed to move past the game management decision that had plagued his earlier career.
This was not a questionable decision, this was just plain wrong. There can be no debate. The Titans were attempting to do something very difficult and all Reid did was allow them to practice it once first. The decision to pass twice when the Chiefs faced first and goal from the Tennessee ten yard line up 17-7 in the third quarter was questionable. The decision to run the quarterback option on third and one at the end of the game when a first down would mean victory was questionable. The decision to call time out to interject himself into a game his players had nearly won at the very end simply cost his team the game.
