Chiefs mismanage clock during comeback attempt
foxborough, mass.» The Kansas City Chiefs’ comeback attempt came up short — and took way too long.
Trailing the New England Patriots by two touchdowns, Alex Smith and the offense burned more than five minutes off the clock to score, a mismanaged try that left the Chiefs with a 27-20 loss on Saturday that ended their 11-game winning streak.
“It’s a fine line of getting into the best play and just keep going at the line of scrimmage,” Smith said. “It would’ve been nice to get a score before the two-minute warning. It would’ve helped tremendously with three timeouts. It probably hurt us there.”
The Chiefs (12-6) were at the Patriots’ 20 with three minutes left when Smith completed a 19-yard pass to Albert Wilson. Coach Andy Reid called for a run, and Charcandrick West lost a yard. Then came the twominute warning.
“We wanted to get a play off right there. We had 20 seconds,” Reid said. “It was 2:20 on the clock. We wanted to make sure that we got our best personnel in for that play, and we didn’t get that done.”
A false-start penalty on left tackle Eric Fisher followed. Jason Avant caught a 4-yard pass to put the ball at the 3, and a defensive pass interference penalty on Logan Ryan put the Chiefs back at the 1.
After an incomplete pass, West ran it in for a touchdown — but there was only 1:13 left in the game.
“We went hurry-up offense,” Reid said. “You normally do that when you’re down by two scores. Time was of the essence. We got down to the 1-yard line and ended up going backward.”
A desperation onside kick by the Chiefs was recovered by Rob Gronkowski, and Kansas City never got another chance.
“It gives us a great example of where we need to be,” Reid said.
The Chiefs were trying to get to the AFC championship game for the first time since the 1993 season, but there were simply too many mistakes — the type Kansas City rarely made during its franchise-record streak. And, the Patriots capitalized.
“There were probably a lot of opportunities that we left out on the field,” safety Eric Berry said.
In Kansas City’s first five trips into New England territory, the Chiefs managed just two field goals by Cairo Santos.
There was also the 19yard punt return by Frankie Hammond Jr. that gave the Chiefs the ball at the Patriots 36. They lost a yard and were forced to punt on the three-and-out.
“You’ve got to be able to take advantage of that when it comes,” Smith said. “You don’t know when you’re going to get opportunities like that with that kind of field position, right on the fringe of field-goal range. I mean, if you get any yards there, you’ve probably got points, and we weren’t able to do anything.”
Smith finished 29-of-50 for 246 yards with a touchdown, but clearly missed a healthy Jeremy Maclin, who was in and out of the lineup after being questionable with a sprained ankle. Maclin was limited to two catches for 23 yards.
“I appreciate him for going out there and trying to go,” Smith said of Maclin. “No one expected it. It was pretty gutty.”
Maclin said he pushed his ankle as far as he could, considering the season was on the line.
“I tried to play, and I did,” he said. “And then it came to a point where the pain kind of took over and it was time for me to come out of the game.”
Travis Kelce led the Chiefs with six catches for just 23 yards.