Andy Reid doesn’t want to talk about the elephant in the room.

“The further you go in the playoffs, the more you [have to] minimize those mistakes, whether that’s scheme or penalties or whatever it might be,” Reid said when asked why his teams haven’t been better in the playoffs. “You create your own deal and you go play. We don’t worry about all that stuff. … It’s what happens on that field [that matters]. It’s man against man, and you play the game.”

– ESPN

His regular-season win percentage of .611 and ranks 8th on the NFL’s all-time wins list. But Reid has reached the Super Bowl only once, losing 24-21 to the New England Patriots following the 2004 season. Even more problematic, Reid is 11-13 in the playoffs, posting a win percentage of .458. That’s 83rd among the 166 coaches who have coached a postseason game/ This week’s adversary, Bill Belichick is sitting at .718.

So where does the problem lie? One particular problem has become pretty apparent to most.

Clock management.

During his 14 year tenure with the Eagles, Andy reached the Championship game 5 times, but only gone on to the Big Dance once. Falling victim to the Patriots in that lone Super Bowl, while behind by 10 points, the Eagles mounted a 4-minute drive for a touchdown. Problem is, Reid didn’t leave enough time to get the ball back and kick a field goal. A classic Andy long possession. The Eagles would lose to New England, 24-21.

Out of Time(outs)

This year we saw another classic Andy-ism. Bad use of his timeouts. During the Week Six game against the Patriots, Andy used up 2 timeouts with more than 3 minutes remaining in the game, seriously hampering the Chiefs chances of pulling out the win.

New England Controls the lead (37-33) and the ball, with 3:30 in the fourth. The Patriots gained a yard on a handoff to Sony Michel. Timeout Chiefs. Brady throws a 4-yard screen. Timeout Chiefs. 3:25 on the clock. A 3rd down incompletion saves the Chiefs final time out.

The Chiefs could have used those timeouts after the 2-minute warning (save they still hold the offense to 3 points or less), and run enough off the clock to stop the Patriots from charging back down the field and retaking the lead. But score too fast, without the timeouts, the Chiefs would be at the Patriots clock burning whims.

The Patriots kick a 50-yard field goal, 40-33 with 3:15 left. Then Patrick Mahomes throws a 75-yard bomb for a TD to Tyrek Hill. The Pats then drain the clock to three seconds and kick a field goal. 43-40, Pats.

Moving Foward

Now, this is better than old school Andy, who would burn timeouts with the Eagles because they didn’t have a play call ready. And not as bad as Andy and Alex Smith, and their conservative, nonchalant moseys down the field, with some long bombs thrown in.

That said, in regards to his matchup with Belichick, Reid doesn’t hold the advantage. Belichick is 6-2 against Reid in the regular season and 2-0 in the -layoffs. However, out of Belichick’s 342 career games including post-season, only 7 games have seen his teams allow 40 points or more. Reid is the cause of 3 of such games.

I think its safe to say, we are probably going to see a high scoring showdown, with high possibility of questionable time management.