NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico has theory for Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s success after bye week
There is still a lot of football to be played in the NFL playoffs, but we may have already seen the biggest play of the postseason.
With the Ravens seemingly about to go up by a touchdown Sunday night in Cincinnati, things turned in the Bengals’ favor in a matter of seconds.
Baltimore quarterback Tyler Huntley tried to score on a sneak but the ball was knocked free and the Bengals Sam Hubbard scooped it up and ran 98 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
Not only was it a great play by Hubbard, but it was an equally great call by NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico.
“Sometimes those work out for you and you see the whole play,” Tirico said in a phone interview this week. “Doing the whole season of football helped, and they came out of the huddle quickly so I was really focused not on the monitor but I was focused on the play and what formation they were going to run, and then when I saw the players crowding around the quarterback, my interest was piqued even more. ... I knew around the goal line, it was dealer’s choice. I mean anything could come up.
“A bonus for me was having the Bengals playoff game last year and knowing Sam Hubbard’s story so well in the lead up to that game. So the two pieces kind of came together and it worked out OK I guess for posterity purposes.”
Tirico’s final game of this season with NBC will come Saturday when the Chiefs play host to the Jaguars in the AFC Divisional game at Arrowhead Stadium.
The history of Jaguars coach Doug Pederson and Chiefs coach Andy Reid will be a big story line for Tirico.
Pederson was Reid’s first offensive coordinator with the Chiefs, and when Reid started in Philadelphia, the Eagles’ quarterback in the very first game was Pederson.
“Andy’s always been great for young quarterbacks, if you think about over the years, even from his time as an assistant in Green Bay,” Tirico said. “And what’s Doug done? He’s been great for young quarterbacks over his years as well. So the parallels are great.”
One of the ways in which Reid and Pederson aren’t similar are records after a bye week. That’s not a knock on Pederson; Reid’s record is just that good following a week off.
Pederson has a 3-4 record after a bye week. Reid’s record is 27-4, including the postseason.
Tirico believes one reason for Reid’s success after a week off is he gives the players time off.
“They do their work, they get out of there and they get a break, they come back refreshed. I think that’s really important,” Tirico said. “But then it’s just they do things at a higher level from a playbook and a creativity perspective. It gives the most creative minds in the game another week to think about how to do things and how to approach it. That’s why it works.
“So yes, Andy’s always dangerous off a bye because they’ll come up with stuff that you haven’t seen before and you spend the whole week looking at the stuff they do and preparing for that. It feels like on a regular basis week to week, Andy’s one chess move ahead of everyone. With a bye week in between it gives him a chance to be two or three chess moves ahead of the other guy.”
The Chiefs certainly hope that’ll be the case Saturday.
