Sunday night’s loss to the Green Bay Packers stings more than other defeats for the Kansas City Chiefs because of the missed opportunities, injuries, and no calls on penalties. The home team took full advantage of the Lambeau Field atmosphere, with the offense efficiently moving the ball during critical moments in the game.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid focused on another essential part of the game that may have tilted the Packers’ favor, contributing to the victory. The franchise’s wins leader pointed at Green Bay’s ability to control the game’s pace by winning the time of possession battle. He detailed this thought during the post-game press conference with reporters.
“Yeah, listen, they made plays over there. They [used] the clock,” Reid explained. They were letting it run down to that five seconds and below, and they’re getting first downs. So that becomes part of it; you gotta get off the field on defense, stay on the field on offense, and not shoot ourselves.
“Listen, that’s my responsibility. I mean, for that, we got to be better prepared to take care of that stuff right there, and if you do that, you can win a game. In this league, there’s too much parity; they’re well coached, they have good players, you come out and self-destruct like that in certain areas, then you have a problem.”
The time of possession battle was 30:32 – 29:28, barely in favor of Green Bay, but it was still enough for Reid to emphasize it strongly during his press conference. The Packers’ offense chewed essential minutes on their final drive as the Chiefs attempted a comeback under two minutes and no timeouts.