Andy Reid offers little explanation for Chiefs' clock woes vs. Patriots

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Andy Reid offered little explanation for the poor time management that cost the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth quarter of their 27-20 loss to the New England Patriots in Saturday's divisional round game.

The Chiefs trailed 27-13 and had a first-and-goal at the New England 1-yard line with 2:33 left. They had all of their timeouts remaining. Instead of throwing a pass that would stop the clock if it went incomplete, the Chiefs were stopped for a 1-yard loss on a running play.

With the clock moving, the Chiefs huddled and didn't get off another snap before the two-minute warning.

"I'm not sure exactly what you're talking about,'' Reid said when asked about the clock management late in the game.

Then Reid said, "We wanted to get a play off. There was 2:20 on the clock. We wanted to make sure we got our best personnel on the field for that play, and we didn't get that done.''

Tackle Eric Fisher was penalized for a false start coming out of the two-minute warning. The Chiefs eventually scored a touchdown, but it took four snaps and 42 seconds.

By then, they had little choice but to try an onside kick, which the Patriots recovered.

"It's a fine line between getting in the best play versus keep going at the line of scrimmage,'' quarterback Alex Smith said. "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.''

Asked about the choice of play calls immediately before the two-minute warning, Smith said, "You're right there at the doorstep. You're at the 1-yard line. It's a fine line, and you're trying to punch it in. Obviously, if you get stopped the clock is running. Throwing it has the benefit of stopping the clock on an incomplete pass.''