Kansas City Chiefs

Travis Kelce calls out Andy Reid after Chiefs loss to Titans

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:37 p.m. ET

Fansided, Josh Hill/Fansided

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce didn’t mince words when he called out his head coach following a shocking loss to the Titans.

If you pegged the Tennessee Titans to come into subzero Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday and beat the Chiefs, you were the only one. The odds were stacked against Marcus Mariota and company, but they used a lot of big breaks an bad mistakes to corral a win.

Tennessee won the game on a field goal as time expired, one that came after Andy Reid called a timeout to give Ryan Succop a second chance. As always happens when a coach freezing a kicker backfires, Reid was the subject of a lot of frustration from fans who disagreed with the decision. But that wasn’t the only thing that people disagreed with, from fans to players in the locker room.m

After the game, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce called out Reid’s play-calling, noting that he felt things got too conservative.

Travis Kelce on why #Chiefs O fell flat after the 1st quarter, "Other than play-calling, I couldn't tell you. Felt like we got conservative"

— Mike Welch (@RealMikeWelch) December 18, 2016

Kelce isn’t totally wrong, but he’s not completely right either. Reid’s play-calling and decision making has long drawn the ire of fans in Kansas City, but it’s not the reason the Chiefs lost on Sunday.

While Reid is part of the problem, it’s Alex Smith’s ineptitude that is sinking the Chiefs Super Bowl dreams. Aside from the timeout and a few other calls, Reid’s gameplan was pretty solid. It was Smith’s execution of the that gameplan that lead to a second half collapse — something that has happened before.

The Chiefs haven’t made luck as popular as the Raiders or Lions have, but they’ve benefited nonetheless from big breaks in big moments of games they should have lost. They needed a break like that this week — which they received in the form of an inexplicable failed two-point conversion — but it wasn’t enough.

Smith has instilled zero confidence in fans who are thirsty for a Super Bowl. You can kill Reid all you want for calling that timeout, but the anger Kelce feels needs to be placed where it belongs.