Coin flips

Andy Reid might look like Tennessee Tuxedo's sidekick Chumley, or the smalltown sheriff's deputy who stumbles on the serial killer's first victim in an episode of "Criminal Minds." But he's a regular freaking Jason Bourne on a football sideline.

And so down there at the end Sunday in Arrowhead Stadium it came to fourth-and-inches for Reid's Kansas City Chiefs, and once again you could hear the man's cojones clanking. With  Patrick Mahomes concussed and a backup (Chad Henne) who'd barely played since the Johnson administration -- the Andrew Johnson administration -- Reid said "Meh." He dialed up a Henne throw to Tyreek Hill anyway.

It worked to perfection, of course. Henne threw, Hill caught, the surging Cleveland Browns were completely bumfuzzled, and the Chiefs got the first down and the 22-17 victory.

"What a gutsy call by Andy Reid!" everyone said.

And it was.

It was also an unnecessary call, and thus a really dumb call that wasn't dumb only because it worked.

And, yeah, sure, it showed how much faith Andy Reid has in his players, and how much faith they have in him, and yada-yada-yada. But on fourth-and-inches, the play is a quarterback sneak, because on fourth-and-inches a quarterback sneak is as close to a guarantee as you're gonna find on a football field.

Look. The Blob will never fault a coach for rolling the dice. The Blob, in fact, has nothing but contempt for the fainthearts who always play the percentages. They might look and talk like the kind of guys who kill and eat their own food with a side of testosterone, but when it's guts-up time they fold like laundry. 

And yet it bears mentioning there's a flip side to every coin, and the flip is sometimes a very near thing. And so, second-guessers that we all are, if Henne throws a souvenir into the stands on that play, no one is saying "What a gutsy call!" We're saying "What the hell was he thinking?"

You know how I know this?

Because that's what I was saying on the play where Mahomes was concussed.

Again it was fourth-and-inches; again the smart play was a quarterback sneak. But Reid dialed up a horizontal play instead of a vertical one -- i.e., some sort of triple option keeper that not only failed to get the first down but also got Mahomes whacked in the head. He wobbled to his feet barely conscious, and never came back again.

So you tell me. Was that a gutsy call, or a really, really dumb one?

I know which door I choose.