I’ve got the red zone numbers in front of me. You count up the number of drives for each team, then examine which teams were the best at converting those drive into touchdowns and field goals.
Carolina and New England were the best in this part of the field. They both averaged about 5.5 points per red zone series. (If you were to score a touchdown on every possession and follow it with an extra point, that would put you at 7.0.)
Browns were the worst, down at 4.1 points per possession. There might not seem to be much difference between 5.5 and 4.1, but once you’re in the red zone, you kind of have 3 points in the bag. To lose the 3, you’ve got to either turn it over, get sacked for a big loss or miss a field goal under 40 yards.
| OFFENSES IN RED ZONE | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Poss | TD | TD Pct | FG | Score | Pct | Pts |
| Carolina | 63 | 43 | 68.3% | 16 | 59 | 93.7% | 5.49 |
| New England | 61 | 40 | 65.6% | 18 | 58 | 95.1% | 5.48 |
| NY Jets | 53 | 35 | 66.0% | 14 | 49 | 92.5% | 5.38 |
| Pittsburgh | 56 | 34 | 60.7% | 19 | 53 | 94.6% | 5.38 |
| Detroit | 49 | 34 | 69.4% | 10 | 44 | 89.8% | 5.35 |
| Washington | 49 | 30 | 61.2% | 15 | 45 | 91.8% | 5.22 |
| Cincinnati | 58 | 38 | 65.5% | 12 | 50 | 86.2% | 5.21 |
| Arizona | 63 | 38 | 60.3% | 22 | 60 | 95.2% | 5.19 |
| San Diego | 44 | 28 | 63.6% | 11 | 39 | 88.6% | 5.18 |
| Oakland | 41 | 25 | 61.0% | 12 | 37 | 90.2% | 5.10 |
| Tennessee | 40 | 26 | 65.0% | 6 | 32 | 80.0% | 4.98 |
| Seattle | 49 | 27 | 55.1% | 19 | 46 | 93.9% | 4.96 |
| Kansas City | 54 | 31 | 57.4% | 17 | 48 | 88.9% | 4.91 |
| Minnesota | 44 | 22 | 50.0% | 20 | 42 | 95.5% | 4.84 |
| Houston | 45 | 26 | 57.8% | 12 | 38 | 84.4% | 4.80 |
| New Orleans | 58 | 35 | 60.3% | 12 | 47 | 81.0% | 4.78 |
| Philadelphia | 43 | 24 | 55.8% | 12 | 36 | 83.7% | 4.72 |
| Atlanta | 53 | 29 | 54.7% | 15 | 44 | 83.0% | 4.66 |
| Tampa Bay | 51 | 27 | 52.9% | 17 | 44 | 86.3% | 4.65 |
| Green Bay | 52 | 28 | 53.8% | 15 | 43 | 82.7% | 4.63 |
| Baltimore | 47 | 23 | 48.9% | 19 | 42 | 89.4% | 4.62 |
| Denver | 44 | 21 | 47.7% | 19 | 40 | 90.9% | 4.59 |
| St. Louis | 36 | 19 | 52.8% | 11 | 30 | 83.3% | 4.58 |
| Jacksonville | 54 | 29 | 53.7% | 17 | 46 | 85.2% | 4.56 |
| Indianapolis | 49 | 26 | 53.1% | 13 | 39 | 79.6% | 4.47 |
| Dallas | 45 | 20 | 44.4% | 20 | 40 | 88.9% | 4.47 |
| Miami | 43 | 23 | 53.5% | 10 | 33 | 76.7% | 4.42 |
| Chicago | 50 | 24 | 48.0% | 18 | 42 | 84.0% | 4.40 |
| San Francisco | 39 | 17 | 43.6% | 17 | 34 | 87.2% | 4.36 |
| Buffalo | 38 | 19 | 50.0% | 12 | 31 | 81.6% | 4.29 |
| NY Giants | 54 | 24 | 44.4% | 21 | 45 | 83.3% | 4.28 |
| Cleveland | 47 | 18 | 38.3% | 23 | 41 | 87.2% | 4.11 |
Skimming over the numbers, a few teams come to mind.
NY Jets: They were the number No. 3. Right now they’ve got the stalemate with Ryan Fitzpatrick. They want him to play for $7 million. That’s got to be very tough for him. Sam Bradford is getting $18 million this year, and Fitzpatrick can very logically outline that he’s a much better quarterback. You look at the kind of money going to other quarterbacks this year – Kaepernick, Osweiler, RG3, Daniel, Cousins, I can totally understand Fitzpatrick’s frustration.
NY Giants: Eli Manning is considered to be one of the big-time quarterbacks, but the Giants are down there at next-to-last, ahead of only Cleveland.
Buffalo: I like Tyrod Taylor. I like the speed, I like the accuracy on deep balls, and I like his ability run around and make plays. But the Bills were down near the bottom in red zone efficiency.
Chicago: Adam Gase left the Bears with the quarterback whisperer tag. He’s the guy who’s supposed to save Ryan Tannehill. But Chicago in the red zone was actually worse than Miami last year. Hmm.
Dallas: Cowboys finished down at 26th, and I actually thought they would be lower, given the injuries to Tony Romo and Dez Bryant. Dallas was the No. 2 red zone team the previous year. They should rebound this season.
—Ian Allan