Decoding McCarthy - Many Red Zone Problems
Trying to understand why touchdowns are turning into field goals in 2023.
To have this conversation on the proper terms, I would love to quote the late coach, Joe Avezzano. I assume he needs no introduction, but just in case, Avezzano was a football lifer who gained most fame for his work as the special teams coach of the Dallas Cowboys during the Jimmy Johnson dynasty and all the way through the Dave Campo coaching era (1990-2002).
After that, he had a few more coaching gigs, but also did some broadcast work with me, both on radio and television. I learned a lot from him, but one quote absolutely would be the one I think about all the time when covering the NFL; he would say, “Remember Bob, the other team pays its players, too.”
The meaning, of course, is simple. We are so myopic in either praising or criticizing our guys that we don’t consider that the other side is trying to thwart our side. Sometimes, the other side had a very good plan and should get just a little bit of credit before we rip our guys to shreds after a loss like this. Why? Because they pay their players, too.
That takes us to the hot debate these days with the Cowboys offense about the red zone and the inability to score touchdowns in Arizona. Dallas has been very good in the red zone since Dak Prescott returned in 2021 from his massive injury of 2020.
Yesterday, we talked about how they were the best team in the league over two full years of 2021-22 at red zone touchdown percentage, or RZTD% for short. That is a huge sample size and I cannot hardly remember anyone talking about this being an issue before the Jets game one week ago. But, in fairness, 2-for-6 followed by 1-for-5 is a two-game stretch of 3-for-11 on red zone drives. That 27% is very troubling and it can easily be argued that it lost the game in Arizona. Eleven red zone trips in two games is more than average.
Your percentage can afford to be a bit lower, but it cannot be that low.