Factoid
Do you know who had the best offense in the red zone last year? It might surprise you. It was not an offense directed by a franchise quarterback like Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Michael Vick or Drew Brees.
No, it was whichever team was playing against the Eagles.
Teams playing against Philadelphia, remarkably, scored touchdowns on 33 of 43 possessions inside the red zone. As well as Vick played last year, the quarterbacks going against him were even better (at least in that part of the field).
Another defense – Kansas City – was also worse than any other offense’s best. It allowed touchdowns on 26 of 37 possessions.
The following chart shows a mixture of offenses and defenses, and they’re ranked slightly differently than you might expect. Normally, you see percentage figures on this kind of deal – teams scoring touchdowns on 70 percent of their possessions or whatever.
I’m presenting it in points – average points per drive. If a team allowed a touchdown on every possession in the red zone, that would be 7.0 points, on average (I’m just awarding the PAT and leaving out 2-point conversions). So the scores tend to range from 3.0 (if you kicked a field goal every possession) to 7.0.
OFFENSES/DEFENSES AVERAGING 5 PTS PER RED ZONE POSSESSION
No TD FG Pts
43 33 9 6.0 Philadelphia defense
37 26 10 5.7 Kansas City defense
56 38 16 5.6 Indianapolis offense
59 40 13 5.4 Houston defense
53 33 18 5.4 Houston offense
53 35 12 5.3 Dallas defense
45 29 11 5.2 Detroit offense
67 42 19 5.2 New England offense
54 33 15 5.1 Buffalo defense
43 27 11 5.1 San Diego defense
52 32 14 5.1 Denver defense
58 35 16 5.1 Atlanta offense
46 29 10 5.1 Jacksonville offense
43 25 13 5.0 Tennessee offense
—Ian Allan
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