KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Chiefs coach Andy Reid doesn’t believe the holding penalty on left tackle Eric Fisher that cost Kansas City a tying 2-point conversion against Pittsburgh on Sunday night should have been called.
After watching film of the decisive play in the Steelers’ 18-16 playoff victory, Reid said Monday that “I don’t want to be fined any money, but I’d lean a different way.”
“Little things add up. I gotta make sure I take care of that. We gotta eliminate some of the penalties. Things early in the game that affected us down the stretch. I still felt like after watching the tape we had an opportunity there to win the game. I know Fish is going to have a lot of eyes on him for that call. I’m not sure I completely agree with what took place but it did. The call was made and we live with that,” Reid said.
“There’s certain things you agree with and don’t agree with during games…it really doesn’t matter…., I don’t want to be fined any money but I tell you I was probably leaning the other way.”
Fisher appeared to hook Steelers pass rusher James Harrison on the conversion attempt with less than 3 minutes left in the game.
But the play was not cut-and-dried: Harrison dipped especially low and may have been losing his balance, and he likely would not have gotten to the quarterback anyway.
Still, the flag negated the successful 2-point conversion. And when the Chiefs tried again from the 12-yard line, Alex Smith’s throw fell incomplete and the Steelers were able to run out the clock.
“Do I still think we can win with Alex and do it? Well yeah. We were right there. We were right there to do that. He made a phenomenal throw on the two-point play to put us in a position to take care of business. This isn’t all about Alex. This wasn’t what this was; and his performance and that. That’s not what this came down to,” Reid said.
