Reid's return to town.
Reid proved to the world you can indeed teach an old dog a few new tricks,
leading his Kansas City Chiefs to a relatively easy 26-16 win over the club he
spent the previous 14 seasons coaching.
"Big Red" played down his return trip to Philadelphia like only he can. Armed
with his trusty book of cliches, Reid tried to make the Chiefs' visit to the
City of Brotherly Love nothing more than your average Week 3 NFL game.
"In this business you're focused in on getting your team ready to play, and so
that's where my energy is going to go," Reid said earlier in the week. "I
haven't really thought about that other part at all. I don't necessarily plan
on thinking about that. I want to make sure I concentrate on the game at hand
and anything else becomes a distraction and I'm not going to let that happen."
"Anything else" was what this game was about, though, and to his credit Reid
took his team on the road in the midst of all the hoopla during a short week
and had them far better prepared than his flavor of the month counterpart,
Chip Kelly.
After the notorious Philadelphia fans, who have a well-chronicled love-hate
relationship with Reid, showed him some Brotherly Love with a standing ovation
pre-game, Kansas City went to work and surpassed its entire 2012 win total as
it forced five turnovers in the triumph over the Eagles.
Jamaal Charles carried the ball 20 times for 92 yards and a touchdown and
added seven receptions for 80 yards, Donnie Avery punished the Birds with
short drag routes, hauling in seven receptions for 141 yards and Alex Smith
completed 22-of-35 passes for 273 yards in the victory.
Defensively, Justin Houston did his best Lawrence Taylor impression, totaling
3 1/2 sacks, four tackles for losses, four quarterback hits, three passes
defensed and a forced fumble.
"We wanted to win the game for coach Reid," Houston said, "but we also really
wanted to win one for ourselves as well. We want to keep up the great
motivation and keep winning games we play. This was a nice team win."
Michel Vick, who regards Reid as a father figure and the man who gave him not
only a second chance in football but also in life, was in a giving mood,
completing just 13-of-30 passed for 201 yards with two interceptions and a
fumble.
"I wasn't amped at all. I wasn't caught up in the hype and what was going on,"
Vick said. "It was just another football game. I tried to approach it that
way, and I didn't look at it any different. They were just the better team
tonight. We didn't execute at all on offense. We didn't do the things that
we're capable of, and it hurt our football team."
After the final seconds ticked off Reid, the winningest coach in Eagles
history, received a much-deserved Gatorade bath and showed uncharacteristic
emotion.
"I appreciate the fans and the support that they gave," Reid said. "I
appreciated it when I was here, I appreciated it from them again today, that
was very kind of them, and I appreciated the Chiefs fans that were here.
"It's a good win."
And a satisfying one.
Remember this is a guy who piloted the Eagles to 140 wins, notching six NFC
East division titles along the way with five NFC Championship Game
appearances, and a Super Bowl berth before family problems kicked in and
familiarity began to breed contempt.
He gave his heart, his soul and perhaps even his oldest son, who succumbed to
a drug overdose at training camp in 2012, to the Philadelphia Eagles.
And you can talk about shelf life all you want but at the end of the day Reid
was fired by the franchise he built and that stings.
"I know he has a lot of love for his Eagles, he worked there a lot of years
and he probably wishes he was still coaching there," Charles admitted.
I'm not so sure about that. After all, Kansas City is the city with the great
BBQ and Pro Bowl-caliber talent at every level on defense. And perhaps more
importantly, the Chiefs wanted Reid and his every move isn't followed by a
series of snarky Tweets criticizing his clock management skills, mocking his
weight or ripping his now almost legendary disdain for the running game.
Success breeds selfishness and a distinct lack of perspective.
Before Andy, the Eagles weren't exactly a franchise steeped in a winning
tradition. Sure Dick Vermeil and Buddy Ryan had small spurts of success but
the city was far more familiar with the coaching inadequacies of people like
Joe Kuharich, Jerry Williams, Ed Khayat, Mike McCormack, Marion Campbell and
Rick Kotite.
As badly as things ended for Reid in Philadelphia, time will eventually
heal all the wounds and he will be recognized for what he was with the Eagles
-- a great football coach.
That doesn't mean the fans and the organization aren't hoping Kelly doesn't
end up being a little bit better, though.
Reid, a witty, even cantankerous fellow behind the scenes, was a curmudgeon in
public, often coming off as arrogant and aloof to a fan base that lived and
died with his teams.
He started all his press conferences by running down his team's injuries
before clearing his throat and saying "Time's yours" to the assembled media.
No matter how many questions were asked or how you asked them, the most you
ever get out of Andy was "I have to do a better job."
He was just protecting his organization and its players but his manner turned
off many in Philadelphia who circled this game as a de facto Super Bowl in a
rebuilding year.
Then a funny thing happened. Kelly unveiled his offense in the Eagles'
opener at Washington and heads spun as rebuild quickly morphed in to "hey,
maybe we can contend in a watered down NFC East."
Games against San Diego and the Chiefs were now afterthoughts, chalked up as
wins before an even funnier thing occurred -- College Chip's honeymoon lasted
all of six days and probably should have spanned just two quarters.
The Redskins turned a sure blowout into a game late before San Diego seized on
Kelly's own clock management deficiencies as well as his porous secondary for
an upset win.
Kansas City and Reid then followed that up Thursday with a dominating
performance marred even further by Kelly's goofy swinging gate conversion
attempt after a first-quarter TD.
Reid punctuated things by taking over the play-calling from offensive
coordinator Doug Pederson just in time for the game-deciding drive in the
fourth quarter, a marathon 15-play march which lasted over eight minutes.
It was Andy's way of giving the middle finger to his detractors, tweaking them
even further by leaning on Charles.
"Well it was big," Reid said of the last crucial drive. "Our runner
(Charles), who is a Pro Bowl player, I mean he played like a Pro Bowl player
-- he ran the ball well, he caught the ball well when we needed it down the
stretch, he really pushed it hard."
To the bipolar in Philly, Kelly went from Vince Lombardi to Kotite in the span
of 11 days.
History will eventually record -- like most coaches -- he is somewhere in
between.
One thing is for certain, though, he's no Andy Reid -- at least not yet.
"Fourteen years, is 14 years," Reid surmised. "That's a long time especially
for a chubby, old guy. I enjoyed every minute here; I'm enjoying my time in
Kansas City. I don't know -- it's all kind of settling in right now, not sure
exactly how I feel other than I'm glad we won the game."
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