Let's hope Doug Pederson didn't learn his time management habits from Andy Reid.
Reid's Kansas City Chiefs fell to the New England Patriots in an AFC Divisional Playoff game Saturday that must have seemed like deja vu to Eagles fans.
Sixteen years after Big Red's Eagles seemed to take an eternity to drive the length of the field against the Pats in the Super Bowl, the Chiefs offered a carbon copy of clock mismanagement.
It's almost beyond belief that this could happen to Reid again. To the Patriots. And Bill Belichick, who famously wondered back in that Super Bowl if he was reading the score right as he watched Reid's Eagles methodically plod down the field, scoring but in the process using way too much time.
Then there was Reid's Chiefs on Saturday, again down by two scores, and again doing their best tortoise act, slowly but surely making their way down the field. Philly fans have seen this act before. And this time Donovan McNabb won't get any of the blame.
This time it was Alex Smith directing Reid's offense. Again the Chiefs failed to punch the ball in before the two-minute warning, and again they ran the clock out on themselves.
After the game, Reid didn't seem to grasp what had just happened, and the comparison to what that Eagles team did in the Super Bowl all those years ago.
His team was down by two touchdowns, yet the Chiefs managed to burn more than five minutes off the clock as they moved the length of the field to get within one score of the Patriots. That would include a run that lost a yard just before the clock ticked down to the two-minute warning.
"We wanted to get a play off right there," Reid explained after the game. "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."
When the Chiefs finally cashed in for a TD, there was only 1:13 left in the game. The onside kick failed, and the Patriots were able to run out the clock.
Game, set and match.
Of course, it didn't help that in the first half the Chiefs consistently drove the ball into Patriots' territory, but came away with just a couple of field goals.
This week Pederson, Reid's offensive coordinator, is expected to be introduced as the Eagles' new head coach.
Let's just hope he leaves that style of clock management in Kansas City.
We've seen that act before.
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