2024's Red zone failures

[scho63]

Boy, we sure have sucked balls in the redzone this year.

Thought Kareem and Dhop would help but last game we were 1 of 5 and this year we are at the bottom of the bottom third.

Can blame some on tackles but down inside the 20 you aren't holding the ball for very long.

I think the play calling has been poor and it seems our formations are so recognizable.

The inside shuffle pass has lost its luster.

We seem to have forgotten the jet sweep or quick slants.

I don't think we have had too many penalties inside the 20 but don't have the stats.

Who gets the blame here?

[493rd]

Just stop the only people who think there’s red zone problems are negative assholes who aren’t real fans.

[DenverChief]

It isn’t possible at all that mahomes getting creamed 1.5 seconds after the snap has anything to do with the dip in red zone efficiency. 2% from last year. On top of the OL possibly being tired from playing two games in 5 days? People around here will find any excuse other than the obvious. I’m surprised aliens have kidnapped Andy or Goodell has paid Patrick to “slow it down”. Good lord read what you are posting.

[DenverChief]

It’s really sad when the “hot take” is common sense and the garbage theories are main stream.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DenverChief

It isn’t possible at all that mahomes getting creamed 1.5 seconds after the snap has anything to do with the dip in red zone efficiency. 2% from last year. On top of the OL possibly being tired from playing two games in 5 days? People around here will find any excuse other than the obvious. I’m surprised aliens have kidnapped Andy or Goodell has paid Patrick to “slow it down”. Good lord read what you are posting.

2% at this point of the season is one attempt... pick one dropped pass, missed throw, that dumb sequence when they had like a million attempts within the 5 yard line against the Bengals, one sack.

That's not some glaring issue between last year and this year, they just aren't particularly great at it over the course of years because they choose to try shit out instead of consistently running the ball (and it's also a pretty misleading stat anyway)

[KCJake]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Run the football and don't be afraid to go for it on 4th down.

We run the ball more between the 20s than we do in the red zone.

Without getting too in-depth, this is probably a good start.

[UChieffyBugger]

Redzone stats

Vs Ravens 1/3

Vs Bengals 1/2

Vs Falcons 2/4

Vs Chargers 1/2

Vs Saints 2/7

Vs San Fran 4/5

Vs Raiders 3/4

Vs Tampa 4/4

Vs Denver 1/4

Vs Buffalo 3/3

Vs Panthers 2/5

Vs Raiders 1/5

If we just find a way to convert a few more trips to the redzone the games would look a whole lot different. There's evidence there that they can do well in that area but consistency is clearly lacking.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

It's one of those low sample size stats that don't mean a ton... Mahomes hits a few passes and they at least go from bottom 3rd to the top half.

Nothing with that shovel pass makes sense at this point besides some big reach that they keep going to that well so other teams will prep for it, just to do some fake shovel play in the playoffs or just setup looks for later...

The TD to Hardman to the In the Superbowl was a shovel play with an option.

[Monticore]

Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger

Redzone stats

Vs Ravens 1/3

Vs Bengals 1/2

Vs Falcons 2/4

Vs Chargers 1/2

Vs Saints 2/7

Vs San Fran 4/5

Vs Raiders 3/4

Vs Tampa 4/4

Vs Denver 1/4

Vs Buffalo 3/3

Vs Panthers 2/5

Vs Raiders 1/5

If we just find a way to convert a few more trips to the redzone the games would look a whole lot different. There's evidence there that they can do well in that area but consistency is clearly lacking.

It wouldn’t be a big issue if we could actually score from outside the redzone a little more .

[chiefzilla1501]

I am optimistic. I feel like we have a few things going here….

Kareem is gassed
While Kareem is good for the shorter yardage id rather have Pacheco get bigger chunk red zone gains. I imagine Pacheco gets a very normal workload after a long week going into a key division game. A rested kareem on the short stuff is inevitable.

Mahomes needs to use the next few weeks to get comfortable with DHop contested catches and he’s getting there. I feel like this year he is trying to be so careful with the ball that he’s sailing it over DHop and kelce way out of reach. He needs o be more comfortable with tight windows in the red zone.

We will see way more creativity closer to the end of the season. I imagine the shovel pitch will be retired and used to set up something different.
Humphries will help, because… duh

[TEX]

Originally Posted by scho63

Boy, we sure have sucked balls in the redzone this year.

Thought Kareem and Dhop would help but last game we were 1 of 5 and this year we are at the bottom of the bottom third.

Can blame some on tackles but down inside the 20 you aren't holding the ball for very long.

I think the play calling has been poor and it seems our formations are so recognizable.

The inside shuffle pass has lost its luster.

We seem to have forgotten the jet sweep or quick slants.

I don't think we have had too many penalties inside the 20 but don't have the stats.

Who gets the blame here?

The OL, and not just the Tackles. Play calling has been suspect as well.

[mr. tegu]

We can’t run well in the red zone because we lack shifty backs and those inside runs are very difficult in the more congested space. We also don’t seem to have any off tackle running plays. Just deciding to run it more isn’t going to fix the issues.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

We can’t run well in the red zone because we lack shifty backs and those inside runs are very difficult in the more congested space. We also don’t seem to have any off tackle running plays. Just deciding to run it more isn’t going to fix the issues.

Yeah off tackle always seems to be gimmicky in nature. And there's the infamous 2nd & long run-into-the-center's-ass-for-2-yards play, which is basically the only run play they have for that situation.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

It's one of those low sample size stats that don't mean a ton... Mahomes hits a few passes and they at least go from bottom 3rd to the top half.

Nothing with that shovel pass makes sense at this point besides some big reach that they keep going to that well so other teams will prep for it, just to do some fake shovel play in the playoffs or just setup looks for later...

Yeah - I looked into this several years back when Jackson had something like 80% of his touchdown passes inside the red zone or goal to go or something like that.

And ultimately it's just not repeatable year over year. And there doesn't seem to be anything specific that is determinative. Very few teams have ever shown themselves to have a rosetta stone in the red zone.

I think it's a sample size issue. 3-4 conversions in any given year can move you halfway up the list and ultimately that could be as simple as a couple uncharacteristic drops, misses or penalties across the board. You can get 6-8 failed conversions by just having normally reliable players fail at a bad time.

With guys like Kelce and Hopkins, not to mention Mahomes, who have a history of reliability, I think you're really just looking at wonky sample sizes and the fact that some of the spam plays we have had in the past have been sniffed out.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

We can’t run well in the red zone because we lack shifty backs and those inside runs are very difficult in the more congested space. We also don’t seem to have any off tackle running plays. Just deciding to run it more isn’t going to fix the issues.

I want to blame it on primarily running out of shotgun.

I’d love to see us run some off tackle, outside zone, and sweeps from under center.

I especially love zone blocking schemes. I feel like it simplifies things. Just ask your linemen to block the guy in front of them. For whatever reason Andy seems to prefer the power blocking scheme so that’s whatever..

At the end of the day, I still think Mahomes un****ing himself is the key. If he starts clicking the way he can/should, the run game is mostly immaterial.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yeah - I looked into this several years back when Jackson had something like 80% of his touchdown passes inside the red zone or goal to go or something like that.

And ultimately it's just not repeatable year over year. And there doesn't seem to be anything specific that is determinative. Very few teams have ever shown themselves to have a rosetta stone in the red zone.

I think it's a sample size issue. 3-4 conversions in any given year can move you halfway up the list and ultimately that could be as simple as a couple uncharacteristic drops, misses or penalties across the board. You can get 6-8 failed conversions by just having normally reliable players fail at a bad time.

With guys like Kelce and Hopkins, not to mention Mahomes, who have a history of reliability, I think you're really just looking at wonky sample sizes and the fact that some of the spam plays we have had in the past have been sniffed out.

There was a lot of talk about it amongst Bills fans in 2020/2021, which is probably the first time a I got annoyed enough to confirm my suspicion...
https://chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthre...e#post15500345

And the Bills would design a play for Allen to run into a brick wall up 4 touchdowns in the 4th quarter if it meant scoring in the red zone, so of course they're going to convert a few more over the course of a season while Mahomes will save it for the playoffs (usually).

Hell, in terms of that stat being wonky, the Bills and Bears are tied for the 3rd best red zone percentage right now due to how fee attempts the Bears have this season... each Bears attempt moves them 3.5% up or down a ranking where 2/3 of the league are separated by about 10%.