Andy Reid has caused recent Chiefs playoff heartbreaks, but is capable of fixing it

The Chiefs have had a lot of success in the regular season under Andy Reid’s guidance. However, that success does not carry over to the postseason.

Ever since Chiefs head coach Andy Reid arrived in Kansas City, the football culture has changed and fans have seen a lot more wins. With a 54-31 record, the Chiefs have the fifth best regular season record since 2013, Reid’s first year with the Chiefs. New England, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Denver own the top four spots on this list.

Under Reid, the Chiefs have finished over .500 each of the five years he has been in Kansas City. The Chiefs have also been in the playoffs four of those five seasons.

The Chiefs have even come up big against some of the best teams in the NFL, defeating six of the last eight eventual Super Bowl participants within the season in each of the last four years. The two most notable wins came against the Patriots in a Monday Night Football blowout in 2014 and in the 2017 NFL opener when the Chiefs stunned the Patriots after they raised their fifth Super Bowl banner.

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In 2014, the Chiefs defeated both the Patriots and the Panthers, who played in the Super Bowl that season. In 2015, the Chiefs defeated the Broncos once, but did not play the Panthers that year before both teams met in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs did face and defeat the Panthers the following year. Similar from 2015, the Chiefs defeated the Falcons in 2016, but did not play the Patriots. And last season, the Chiefs faced and defeated both the Patriots and the Eagles in the first two weeks of the season as both teams played in the most recent Super Bowl.

After the Chiefs defeated the Patriots in Week 1 of the 2017 season, the team’s social media account published a graphic listing that the Chiefs defeated four recent Super Bowl participants in their last nine games.

Despite all of the regular season success, this has not translated to a Super Bowl appearance. In fact, it has brought only one playoff win in five games.

In three of those five playoff games, the Chiefs blew a 28-point lead, an 18-point lead and became the first team in NFL history to score two more touchdowns than the opposition and still lose. There is a strong case to be made that if the Chiefs prevent these heartbreaking losses from happening, perhaps they could have played in a Super Bowl by now.

One of the glaring holes with the Chiefs in their playoff losses is consistency, not being able to hold on to big leads and close games against the Colts and Titans. Many might make a case that Reid’s play-calling, and not handing it off to an offensive coordinator, has been a cause for these losses.

While Reid should take a lot of the blame for these postseason losses, he has proven that he can take a team far. While coaching the Eagles for 14 years, Reid led them to the playoffs nine times and took the Eagles to five conference titles. He also has the second most wins among active coaches and 10^th all time in NFL history.

Kansas City’s offense is coming off a year where it had a rookie running back lead the league in rushing yards, plus a tight end and wide receiver who ammassed 1,000-yard receiving yards each. The Chiefs added speedy wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who should be another viable weapon for quarterback Pat Mahomes.

While there is still some work to be done defensively, the Chiefs added two underrated cornerbacks in Kendall Fuller and David Amerson and a good run-stopping inside linebacker in Anthony Hitchens. Eric Berry will also be back after he went out with a ruptured Achilles tendon in Week 1 last year.

With this talent, especially on offense, the Chiefs are expected to return to the playoffs once again. The Chiefs have a lot of potential in 2018 and are capable of a making a run in the playoffs. It is up to Reid to make sure the team does not suffer another hapless loss in January.

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