Chiefs’ Reid is up to the challenge when it’s time to throw the red flag

When San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick scrambled to the sidelines and was ruled to have picked up a first down last Sunday, Chiefs coach Andy Reid quickly consulted with his coaches in the press box high above Levi’s Stadium.

Challenge the spot, they told Reid after Kaepernick was chased out of bounds by linebacker Josh Mauga near the San Francisco 17, the spot of the first down.

So Reid, who had an up-close look at the third-down play, tossed the red flag onto the field and challenged the call. Reid and his assistants weren’t the only ones doubting the call on the field.

“He’s going to be a yard shy,” said CBS play-by-play man Jim Nantz.

Kaepernick, who extended his arm and held the ball out near the marker, was “behind the line,” said analyst Phil Simms. Former referee Mike Carey, now CBS’ studio expert for officiating situations, agreed by saying Kaepernick “came up short.”

But when referee Walt Coleman went under the hood and looked at the replay, he upheld the call on the field, and the 49ers retained possession. They went on and scored a touchdown late in the first half in their 22-17 win over the Chiefs.

It was a rare instance of Reid losing a challenge since he’s been with the Chiefs.

A year ago, in Reid’s first season with the Chiefs, he was successful on seven of eight challenges, a percentage that trailed only Indianapolis’ Chuck Pagano, who was six for six.

This year, Reid is one for three, having won and lost challenges in the 24-17 loss at Denver in week two. In his career, Reid is 44 of 92 (47.8 percent) dating to 1999, his first year in Philadelphia.

Reid’s percentage entering this season ranked fourth among NFL coaches with at least 25 challenges.

Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin’s 24 of 44 gave him the best percentage (54.5) of any active coach with at least 40 career challenges through 2013, the last season league-wide data is available. John Fox, with a whopping 110 challenges as coach at Carolina and Denver, was successful just 40 times (36.3 percent).

Chiefs assistant Brad Childress, who was successful in 20 of 47 challenges in his five years as head coach at Minnesota, is Reid’s primary eye in the sky on plays deemed challengeable. The decision to challenge has to be made quickly, before the opponent snaps the ball on the next play, or before the 25- or 40-second play clock expires on the Chiefs offense.

“The timing of that … what you have to go through when you see something … you wait as long as you can and get it down to Andy, ‘Hey, throw the flag,’ or ‘Don’t throw the flag …’” said tight-ends coach Tom Melvin, who was Reid’s conduit in the press box last season.

“Home and road is different. At a home game, they show it more (on the video boards) than they will on the road.”

Other factors go into the decision to challenge. A failed challenge costs a timeout, so that has to be taken into consideration. And a team gets a maximum of two challenges if unsuccessful on one of them. So if it’s early in the game, does a team want to save a precious challenge for a more critical time?

“Timeouts are a big part of it, what part of the game it is, how you’re doing offensively and defensively,” Melvin said. “Do you want to use your time out now or save it? Is it really worth a time out if you don’t get it? … There are a lot of factors involved.”

Reid’s success rate has varied through the years. In 2004, when the Eagles went to the Super Bowl, he was seven for 10. The next year, he was one for eight, and in 2008, he was zero for five. In 2011, Reid set personal highs for challenges, with 14, and for successes with 10.

In the loss at Denver this year, Reid’s first challenge was on a pass to running back Knile Davis, who bobbled the ball after the catch. The ruling on the field was incomplete, and the Chiefs contended Davis caught the pass and fumbled out of bounds.

Sure enough, the call was reversed. Davis was credited with a 6-yard reception and first down to the Denver 3 with a fumble out of bounds. Davis scored a touchdown two plays later.

Later in the quarter, Denver receiver Emmanuel Sanders failed to latch onto a screen pass, and Chiefs cornerback Sean Smith grabbed the ball off the turf and set sail for a touchdown return.

However, the ruling on the field was an incomplete pass, and despite the Chiefs’ challenge, the call was upheld. Instead of the Chiefs taking a 17-14 lead, Denver scored a touchdown at the end of the half and led 21-10 at halftime.

Of the seven successful challenges last year, Melvin said one of the most gratifying was at Denver, when a 10-yard pass from Alex Smith to tight end Anthony Fasano was ruled incomplete, but the Chiefs challenged the ruling, and the call was reversed, giving Fasano the touchdown.

“He was pretty happy,” Melvin said of Fasano, not to mention Reid.

While there must be indisputable visual evidence that warrants a reversal of a call, sometimes coaches will take a chance if they have timeouts, and the play could be pivotal in the game’s outcome.

“There are times,” Melvin said, “you say ‘I don’t think (they’ll reverse the call), but let’s roll the dice because you never know what’s going to happen when they go under the hood and what they’re going to see.’ ”

This story was originally published October 10, 2014 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ Reid is up to the challenge when it’s time to throw the red flag."