It can obviously be an either/or situation. I am old enough to remember all of those seasons where Marty had the better team but became ultra conservative and choked those games off.
You will never convince me that some of those Chiefs teams that choked in the playoffs were not the better team.
They were in some instances, yes. That will happen at times.
But a lot of the losses, you could argue they weren't conservative enough.
13-3 loss against the Colts - They were running well, but threw more, with 3 ints, and 3 missed FGs when it was super cold. Being conservative didn't lose that game.
13-3 loss to Denver (who won the SB) - They threw it way more than they ran (and were actually more efficient than Denver/Elway when passing). But, when they did run, it was awful. That wasn't too conservative.
9-7 Loss at Miami (probably not the better team here) - They threw it 37 times for over 300 yds, and ran it only 21 times. Again, not conservative.
11-5 loss at Buffalo (buffalo was just better, and Montana got knocked out early) - Threw it 52 times to 20 rushes. Not conservative.
10-6 Loss at SD (SD was the better team) - 34 passes to 19 runs - none of which worked. Not conservative.
10-6 loss at Buffalo (Again Buffalo was the better team) - 29 passes to 24 - they were completely outmatched. Nothing to do with conservatism.
10-6 loss at Miami (Yet again, Miami was the better team) - 30 passes to 24 - almost pulled this one out, but failed in the 4th qtr - defense gave up 2 TDs, and they missed a last second FG.
So, really, only 2 of the KC losses in the playoffs could be considered against lesser teams (and calling Denver lesser is REALLY iffy), and it wasn't too much conservative play that was the issue..It was the same for the one other playoff game I looked at for SD - Brees had over 300 yards, and they threw it a lot.
Not really a lot of choking.