Andy Reid Fuels Super Bowl Comeback, Dives Into Bag Of Tricks

Embed from Getty Images
There is no doubt that the players are the ones who win or lose games on the field. It is their job to execute the plan that the coaching staff has set out for them. At the same time, a head coach can boost or hamper their team’s chances, depending on what position they put their players in. In Super Bowl LVII, Andy Reid went deep into his bag of tricks, helping spur a second half comeback and another Lombardi Trophy for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Coach Reid has now become the 14th head coach in NFL history to win multiple Super Bowls. Meanwhile, he is now tied with Hank Stram for most wins in Chiefs history, just 10 years into his Kansas City tenure. Andy Reid is also still perfect as Chiefs head coach when facing his old team, the Philadelphia Eagles. He is now 4-0 all-time against Philly.

How did Andy Reid keep the Chiefs passing game and running game on schedule? Plus, what wrinkles did he possibly take from a former assistant coach entering the Super Bowl against this specific opponent? Let’s kick it off.

Neutralizing Eagles Pass Rush

Let’s start with the Chiefs passing game. Everyone was saying that Kansas City was in for a long day upfront, due to the Eagles’ dominant pass rush. Philadelphia was able to amass 78 total sacks in the regular season and their two playoff games entering the Super Bowl. What made them so fascinating, was the speed and size at which they offered on the defensive line. The Eagles were also able to get much of their sacks without bringing extra pressure from the second level, to boot.

Andy Reid was able to neutralize this daunting pass rush by designing quick passes. In fact, 56 percent of Patrick Mahomes‘ passes were released in under 2.5 seconds after the snap. Mahomes certainly escaped pressure and extended plays with his legs, as well. But, the play design of Reid allowed Mahomes to get in rhythm from the jump. Additionally, it set up Kansas City’s pass catchers with opportunities to add yards after the catch.

Finally, the play action pass game and misdirection hindered the Eagles’ foot and eye discipline. Some of the Chiefs pass catchers got lost in coverage. As a result, Mahomes was able to pick his poison without much pressure, thanks to the play design of Andy Reid.

Throwback Calls Result In Chunk Gains

After barely making a dent in the AFC Championship Game, the Kansas City rushing attack came through in a major way in Super Bowl LVII. Isiah Pacheco likely did not receive enough credit from the national media for his rookie campaign as a seventh-round pick. In this game, his hard running style and improving feel for blocks left the Eagles battered and bruised. Pacheco finished Super Bowl LVII with 76 rushing yards on 15 carries (5.07 yards per carry) with a rushing touchdown.

It is already an advantage to have the blend of quickness, power and contact balance that Pacheco provides. Yet, the run play calls by Andy Reid and his staff resulted in plenty of chunk gains. Reid was able to put Philadelphia in a bind with inside traps/counters. This not only allowed the running backs to get free with misdirection. It also allowed the Chiefs offensive line to get out into space with some pulling and kick out action from the offensive line.

Elsewhere, Andy Reid was showing that he could pull out some old time run play calls, just like Philadelphia. He brought out a split back look late in the fourth quarter. Pacheco nearly would have scored around the left end, if not for an impressive tackle by CJ Gardner-Johnson. Some occasional power run play calls also freed Pacheco and Kansas City to exude their own dominance on the ground.

Stealing From A Friend

We know that the NFL is notorious for being a copycat league. Furthermore, there are many examples of coaches that came from the same coaching tree feeding off of each other for ideas, so to speak. It appears that Andy Reid actually took a play design from former protege and current Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson.

This occurred on basically the last two touchdown passes for Kansas City down low in the red zone. Mahomes tossed one to Kadarius Toney and one to Skyy Moore. Each play was essentially the same task for those wide receivers. Simply put, Toney and Moore acted like they were running a jet motion action, only to stop, change directions and peel back to the outside perimeter.

If you go back to Week 4, where the Jaguars played against the Eagles in Philadelphia, Pederson ran the exact same thing. Jamal Agnew acted like he was motioning across the formation, only to peel back to the outside and score a touchdown. As broken down by Brian Baldinger of NFL Network, Philadelphia bit hard on the motion and rotated immediately into the middle of the field. Of course, the same thing would happen in Super Bowl LVII when the Chiefs ran it, resulting in a couple of easy touchdown passes.

.@Chiefs v @Eagles used this play from @Jaguars in WK 4 to set up their final TD of the day. #gameplanning #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/LeaV9mg7Tk

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) February 13, 2023

Motion Keeps Philadelphia Honest

It is not anything new to see Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs emphasize pre-snap motion. Many other great offensive head coaches do the exact same thing. Possibly, no one is more successful with it than San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. It was interesting to see after Super Bowl LVII that Reid and the Chiefs actually ran more motion than they averaged during the season.

Kansas City ran motion on a staggering 77.8 percent of their plays against Philadelphia, according to Arjun Menon of Pro Football Focus. Menon mentioned that it was up from their season average of running motion on 64.5 percent of their plays.

Outside of the aforementioned two touchdowns to Toney and Moore, Kansas City used plenty of jet sweep motion in other instances. You saw Travis Kelce and JuJu Smith-Schuster act confused on one play, only for Jerick McKinnon to motion to the other side and make a short catch. Kelce also motioned inside-out or outside-in on multiple plays, on top of that. Kelce would sometimes stop his route or motion on some catches, forcing the Eagles to tackle in space. This bread and butter by Andy Reid simply got the Chiefs into a zone in the second half of this Super Bowl winning comeback.

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs articles and analysis throughout this week. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.

– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.