The Kansas City Chiefs were given a tremendous gift in the fourth quarter of their contest against the visiting Buffalo Bills in the form of a Tyreek Hill punt return. Unfortunately, the team did very little with it and now Andy Reid can only hope it doesn’t come back to bite them in the end.
During the fourth quarter, the Chiefs forced the Bills offense to punt the ball, and penalties made them retry it. Hill got a chance to return the ball again and took it all the way back to the opponent’s 15-yard line where he was tackled by the punter.
On the ensuing offensive series, the Chiefs decided to somehow avoid using Patrick Mahomes at all despite his heroics all game long—oh, and the fact that he is the best player on the field for either team—when he called for a Jerick McKinnon run up the middle on first down. From there, McKinnon took another short run up the middle again, before finally dialing up a weird trick play on third down that will live in infamy if the Chiefs somehow lose this game.
Blake Bell lined up under center and ran an option where he pitched the ball right to McKinnon. The Bills had it played perfectly on this third-and-1 and the Chiefs lost three yards.
Rate this playcall on a scale of 1-10
— PFF (@PFF) January 24, 2022
https://t.co/8OyPiDR8MR
Just like that, the team was forced to go for a field goal instead of a touchdown and given the two-point lead they had before the drive, the Chiefs now give the Bills a chance to take the lead with their next touchdown instead of putting them away.
If you were throwing things at your television or asking “Why, oh god, why?” to the heavens above, just know you weren’t the only one. Here’s a sampling of what was happening on Twitter.
Ugh, you’re gifted that return by Tyreek Hill and those are the resulting play calls in the red zone?
— Arrowhead Addict (@ArrowheadAddict) January 24, 2022
Took the ball out of 15’s hands up two in the red zone on three-straight plays. I don’t get it.
— BJ Kissel (@BJ_KCSN) January 24, 2022
Andy Reid will never, ever live that call down if the Chiefs lose
— Matt Verderame (@MattVerderame) January 24, 2022
The missed kicks and taking the ball out of Mahomes hands in the RedZone have me really stressed and frustrated when I shouldn't need to be.
— Lyle Graversen (@LyleGraversen) January 24, 2022
I hate that play call so much. You’ve been kicking their ass up the gut all night. You have Patrick Mahomes playing at the peak of his powers. You just don’t need to get that cute.
— Brandon Kiley (@BKSportsTalk) January 24, 2022
That was Andy’s worst play call in Kansas City.
— Patrick Allen (@RPatrickAllen) January 24, 2022
There's your once-a-game Andy-Reid-gets-too-cute moment
— Lindsay Jones (@bylindsayhjones) January 24, 2022
Even former players were wondering what was up on this call.
I don’t have words for what I just saw. None. That was beyond awful https://t.co/7sN1EaldgS
— Marc Boerigter (@mboerigter) January 24, 2022
Not with a TE. Brutal drive. https://t.co/8Xg3EMXqjF
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) January 24, 2022