What Andy Reid took away from Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss — and what uplifted him as well
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid has had two weeks to digest his team’s blowout loss against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.
So, looking back now, what was his biggest takeaway from the 40-22 defeat?
“It was a bad day to have a bad day, for sure,” Reid said Tuesday at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. “Like all games, you can learn some things from it.”
That process, Reid said, was delayed a bit inside the Chiefs’ football offices.
On purpose.
Reid said he kicked all his assistant coaches out of the office shortly after the Super Bowl, wanting them to get away a bit for a refresh. He asked each of his guys to make a list of things they wanted to talk about when they reconvened in KC later this offseason; the group will go over those thoughts in the days and weeks to come.
The pain of the defeat, however, remained intense for a time.
“It hurts for a few days, and then you move on quickly,” Reid said. “So you get about three days into it and mope around a little bit, and then all of a sudden you’re on to free agency and you’re doing your thing.”
As far as autopsies go ... what is it that Reid thinks ailed the Chiefs as they fell behind 34-0 to the Eagles at the Superdome in New Orleans?
The first thing, Reid said, was the Chiefs never could get themselves into a rhythm.
“That’s vague, but there’s a lot of things that go into that,” Reid said. “But sometimes, it happens. It’s a crazy business that way.”
Looking back, Reid said his team had a good week of practice in preparation. Guys, he said, worked hard during that time.
When the game started Sunday, however, Reid said the Chiefs suffered from some uncharacteristic errors.
“It’s sometimes hard to explain. Just, it happens,” Reid said. “And listen, (the Eagles) are a good football team. I don’t want to take anything away from them.”
In reflection, Reid remained critical of himself. He admitted Tuesday the team “didn’t really coach very well, and that starts with me.”
“I’m trying to give the guys an opportunity to be put in the best position. I didn’t get that accomplished,” Reid said. “And so you go back and you figure out the whys of that, and then you try to straighten that out and make sure that you can get the guys in the right position to do their thing.”
There were positives in the aftermath, and Reid made sure to point that out when looking ahead.
For one, KC has a nucleus of good players — like quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and defensive tackle Chris Jones — coming back next season. That puts the Chiefs ahead of most other teams out there.
Reid also liked the attitude he saw from his players in postgame interviews after the Super Bowl.
“You heard all our guys sit up there and they go, ‘I could have done this. I could have done that. I should have been here. It’s my fault.’ All right, if everybody’s willing to do that, that’s a great thing,” Reid said. “Then you can recover.”
Mahomes was a notable example of Reid’s words. He spoke to reporters for 12 minutes after the game while saying he took “ownership of this loss probably more than any loss of my entire career.”
Similarly, linebacker Leo Chenal answered questions with red eyes in the locker room, regretting that he’d let teammate Nick Bolton down when he failed to execute his assignment correctly on an Eagles second-quarter touchdown pass.
Those were just two instances of Chiefs players looking inward when trying to explain what went wrong.
“Like I said, if you’re pointing fingers, then you’ve got a problem,” Reid said. “I felt like our guys stood up and manned up and admitted that, ‘Listen, I could’ve done better.’”
Reid said the coaches will continue to look for ways to improve.
He said that after some consideration, he chose not to make any changes to his offensive staff. And though the end didn’t go as planned, the big picture still needs to be considered; the Chiefs won 17 of the 18 games they played their starters before the letdown in Super Bowl LIX.
“Just the fact that you had an opportunity — a privilege — to play in that game was quite an honor and a lot of hard work for our players to get to that point,” Reid said. “And maybe that’s why nobody’s won three in a row. It’s a tremendous challenge.”
Now, attention turns to next season, when the Chiefs will aim for their sixth Super Bowl appearance in seven seasons.
With visions of a better ending this time.
“Every game you lose bothers you. But there (at the Super Bowl), you’re at the end,” Reid said. “But how are you going to handle that? So that’s the part we’re in now.”
