Why is offense/scoring down in the league the past few years?

[O.city]

So I'm trying to figure out what's happening here, anyone have any ideas?

Is it just that defenses have caught up to the offenses or?

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by MarkDavis'Haircut

Teams don't mind being gashed by a thousand cuts because one holding penalty kills most offenses.

This. One Hold, one false start, one sack, one stop on 3rd down.

[scho63]

I really don't want to see scores each week of 47-42, 51-38, 39-35 or the like.

The old days of boring defensive games of 9-6, 14-3, 12-9 are mostly gone due to the better protection and safety of players.

I'm fine with the current level.of scoring and as a previous poster commented, defenses have made adjustments and figured certain things out.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

Originally Posted by Mecca

I can't embed it because it's a video with NFL content, but this pretty much nails it.

https://youtu.be/3sbnHgwCErs?si=FKikftCDZxTzsbQC

It's funny. Mahomes was the first one exposed to the defense thats commonplace today. Now he's the one most adept at dealing with it. He's become the dink and dunk YAC master, while still making unreal throws from time to time. Everyone else has yet to catch up.

[chiefzilla1501]

I saw that average passing yards was something like 185 yards? Yeesh.

I think a lot of it has to do with preparation too. I don't know why teams have decided to just not play their QB in the preseason. And lots and lots and lots of offense holdouts. An offense will take way longer to get into rhythm than a defense.

[DRM08]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I think it's mainly defensive coordinators not being so stubborn and more coverage LBs and safeties. Against elite QBs you WANT the other team to run. You don't focus on simply stopping the run anymore. It's more of an afterthought.

It’s the same strategy Belichick’s Giants defense used against the Jim Kelly Buffalo offense. The Giants were totally cool with letting HOFer Thurman Thomas run all over them, but they focused on slowing down Kelly’s receivers. And it worked. Buffalo’s offense averaged 47 points per game in 2 other Playoff games, but they scored only 19 points in the Giants Super Bowl.

[BlackHelicopters]

Originally Posted by O.city

So I'm trying to figure out what's happening here, anyone have any ideas?

Is it just that defenses have caught up to the offenses or?

Lousy QB play.

[pugsnotdrugs19]

The whole making teams do long drives is a huge part bc yeah, it's damn near impossible to sustain 10-plus play drives without a drive killing penalty or turnover.

Makes the elite QBs even more valuable than ever cause they constantly gotta bail you out.

[crispystl]

Originally Posted by Bl00dyBizkitz

Yeah it mostly started with Mahomes, but now everyone is getting the same treatment. They don't mind death by 1000 cuts or getting gashed for 4-5 ypc as long as they can limit the damage the QB can do.

Like others have said, OLineman aren't roadgraders anymore, they're primarily pass blockers. So when you want to run the ball to punish a light box, you can't do it nearly as effectively unless you design your whole offense around it.

Other ideas that come to mind
-Maybe a lack of RB talent in the NFL currently?
-QB's aren't experienced enough to check into a run play when they see cover 2?

And I think they've learned most of the current QBs in the league aren't the technicians needed to orchestrate these long drives putting the ball in tight windows over and over again without making a mistake. The majority of them do something bone-headed before they finish the drive. A lot of QBs have trouble taking what you give them and will eventually get impatient and force things. I think that has played out MUCH MORE than anyone ever expected when teams started running the shell defenses though. I mean common sense would tell you they're professional QBs and they will be patient and sit back and pick you apart, but in most cases that hasn't really come to fruition.

[Valiant]

Young QBs and coaching carousel.

Then you have bets getting injured.

[MarkDavis'Haircut]

Also, QBs either don't receive enough time or they have lousy coaches.

Colleges also don't produce pro style QBs.

[chiefzilla1501]

I still don't understand the rationale behind benching your starters in the preseason. It's almost as if a bunch of coaches got together and tried to pull a Todd Haley by outsmarting the league with this stuff. Like, how did they all come to the same conclusion this preseason

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

started with mahomes, then allen, burrow..........play 2 deep safeties, make scoring death by 100 cuts, rather than give up the deep ball.

Pretty much this. DCs figured out a way to slow down Mahomes' deep ball and it worked well against others too.

[Bl00dyBizkitz]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I still don't understand the rationale behind benching your starters in the preseason. It's almost as if a bunch of coaches got together and tried to pull a Todd Haley by outsmarting the league with this stuff. Like, how did they all come to the same conclusion this preseason

They all listened to BWillie. He's world renowned for his football advice.

[TLO]

Because we are the Chiefs

[comochiefsfan]

Something that no one talks about is that, as players have gotten bigger and faster, the field has stayed the same size.

This leads to less space for the offense to operate in by default.