Andy Reid: Chiefs wanted to tie game without leaving time on clock

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Coach Andy Reid said the Kansas City Chiefs' deliberate pace toward the end of Saturday's playoff loss to the New England Patriots was part of their plan and that the Chiefs executed it well.

Reid said the Chiefs, who trailed 27-13 but had the ball at the New England 1 with 2:33 and all their timeouts remaining, wanted to score the touchdown, recover an onside kick and score another touchdown, all while not giving the ball back to Tom Brady and the Patriots.

"We work those situations all the time," Reid said Sunday after the Chiefs returned home and had time to digest their27-20 loss. "We wanted to maintain our timeouts as best we could. We didn't want to give the ball back at any point back to New England after we go ahead and score that next touchdown. We had a penalty involved there. It wasn't a perfect world, not quite the way we wanted it. So we took a couple of shots to get it in, and we still had a 1:15 or 1:13, right around there."

The Chiefs scored a touchdown with 1:13 remaining to draw within one score. New England recovered the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.

"We potentially would have had three timeouts and an opportunity to drive the field, which I thought was huge," Reid said. "It would have put us in a perfect situation to do that. We work on that every week. So I thought that part was handled right.

"When it was all said and done, we had plenty of clock to take care of business."

From the New England 1, the Chiefs tried a running play, but Charcandrick West was stopped for a loss of a yard. Rather than try another play or call a timeout to preserve precious seconds, the Chiefs went to the two-minute warning without taking another snap.

Reid indicated the Chiefs wanted to save timeouts and run a play they believed had a good chance of getting a touchdown rather than hurry and run a play that didn't have much of a chance.

"When you're down there at the 5, you want to score," Reid said. "It's easy to say, 'Why not have another play called?' We had another play, absolutely. But you want to give it your best shot, [use] your best plays down in there. Not necessarily a two-minute play but your best play you've got in your game plan. You've got to get that one score."

Reid defended the play call on West's run, even though an incomplete pass would have stopped the clock.

"We had an opportunity to get a play in, run a play, and we thought it was a good play, an opportunity to possibly score," Reid said. "Now you're sitting there at the two-minute warning with a touchdown and an opportunity to kick an onside kick."

The Chiefs ultimately took four plays to score after the two-minute warning.

"It's a fine line between getting in the best play versus keep going at the line of scrimmage," quarterback Alex Smith said Saturday. "Certainly, it would have been nice to get a score before the two-minute warning. It would have helped tremendously with three timeouts [remaining].

"We probably could have just kicked off and gone for the stop, and we would have had decent field position."