KC Chiefs Fans: What are your feelings on Andy Reid?

[BobArrgh]

@Chisquirrel

The rest of your post is fantastic, but I have a comment on this one. That is how Le’Veon Bell runs. It’s how he has run since he was drafted. Everyone knows that is how he runs. And he’s still topped 1200 yards on the ground and another 500 receiving every year but his rookie season and an injury-shortened campaign in 2015.

You are exactly right. It apparently is well known to just about everybody that Bell does that stutter-step. That is, except to Bob Sutton and the defense.

[Jackmannii]

@FoieGrasIsEvil

The team comes out on offense on a script in the first half, builds a significant lead, then lets it get frittered away in the second while wearing a deer in headlights look the entire time, wondering how it could have happened. I HATE that style of football. Go for the jugular, score as many points as you can.

Playing not to lose happens all too often in multiple other sports (hockey, soccer, basketball etc.).

I’m not sure how much conservative play can be blamed on the coaching staff, as opposed to players letting up (although you could argue that part of a coach’s job is to be a motivator in these situations).

[asahi]

@asahi

Just figured I’d post this again because Bill Belichick’s understudy, Nick Saban, proved this true on Monday night. Granted, it was the college football championship and not the Super Bowl, but I think it still applies. Saban saw what Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs were doing. He recognized that his star QB was not capable of playing well when contained in the pocket. He knew his only chance was to spread the field and that to do that he needed a credible passing attack, and that his only chance was an untested freshman. It worked, just like Belichick was able to come back against the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. That’s what winning coaches do. They figure out what’s working and what’s not, and they change during the game in real time.

When you have two teams that are evenly-matched, then coaching is what separates those who win and those who sit at home. As I mentioned before, among many things, coaching involves pre-game preparation, and I think Andy Reid is excellent in this area. Reid’s teams will usually (not always but, say, 75% of the time or more) defeat teams with less experienced coaching and less talented players. But in the playoffs, you’re going to play teams with experienced coaches, and you’re going to face better talent. It’s up to the players to execute, and it’s up to coaches to recognize what the opposition is doing in the 1st half and adjust to it. And it’s up to coaches to adjust to the adjustments that the opposition makes. From what I’ve seen, this is where Andy Reid gets beaten again and again. He doesn’t make in-game adjustments. Once teams figure out how to beat his game plan, he’s pretty much fucked.

Just figured I’d bump this thread yet again…because Doug Pederson, once and for all, proved why Andy Reid is a good coach, but not a championship-winning coach. The coaching change that Lurie made back in 2012/13 is the reason that the Eagles have a Vince Lombardi trophy now. Obviously, Chip Kelly wasn’t the final solution but it started the process that eventually led to the hiring of Pederson.

Does anyone think Andy Reid would have had the sack to go for it on fourth down the way Pederson did? Of course not. Reid’s Eagles would have been competitive but stuck to a predictable script. I admit: as much as I couldn’t stand Terrell Owens, I’m beginning to have a little more sympathy for his complaints in the months following their Super Bowl loss to New England. I think he felt that the Eagles were too conservative on offense and he also felt - probably correctly - that Donovan McNabb was not the best passer in the world. I didn’t care for TO’s divisive antics but he was frustrated. And now Eagles and Chiefs fans have some perspective.

I think what Pederson and other coaches realize that Reid doesn’t is that you have to show opposing teams things they haven’t yet seen on film. You can’t just hope that your bread and butter offense and defense are better than theirs. The margin for winning and losing against competitive teams is razor thin. It requires mixing in the occasional off-speed pitch with your diet of fast balls. Reid’s coaching works fine against teams that are inferior in terms of talent or coaching, but against evenly-matched opposition, it’s a different story.