Insider 2018 | Page 3

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There is nothing like driving down the field and being yards away from scoring only to watch the ball be passed over to the other team. You worked hard to get down the field, now you have to finish the job and put it in.

We looked at the red zone stats and found some very interesting tidbits.

First of all, the Tampa Bay Bucs. We were very surprised to see that they reach the red zone more than any other team in USSML. They found the red zone 33 times, scoring on 24 of those (15 TD, 9 FG). About 72% of the time, which is nowhere near good enough to compete with consistency. Coincidently enough, defensively the Bucs have given up the most red zone opportunities, allowing opposing offenses to reach the red zone 37 times, scoring 27 of those (23 TD, 4 FG), or 72%....What a crazy coincidence to be scoring 72% of the times your on offense in the red zone and allowing the defense to score 72% of the time they reach the red zone.

The Falcons have found the red zone the least amount of times in the league, 19, however have scored on 18 of those(14 TD, 4 FG).

The Jets defensively have allowed only 14 red zone opportunities, of which only 6 have resulted in touchdowns(3 FG).

The Steelers are not far behind, allowing 17 red zone opportunities, and 9 finding the end zone(1 FG).

We can learn a lot from statistics, such as tendencies, but more than anything we can dissect and figure out exactly what is holding a team back, as you can see in the red zone stats.

Red Zone

Stats

A Key

To Success

Two Teams Also Winless

Broncos & Raiders searching for 1st Win of 2018 campaign.

On the opposite side of the spectrum from the Steelers & Jets, two members of the AFC West find themselves in uncomfortable territory. The Broncos & Oakland Raiders are both winless on the season.

It’s easy to see after digging into the statistics why these teams are riding the pine currently and it can be best described in one word. Turnovers. Both teams have had their issues not only holding onto the ball, but also forcing turnovers when on defense.

One thing is for sure, one of these two teams is going to get off the pine soon as they will be facing each other twice in the second half of the season. Do we see a 1-1 split or will one team jump ahead of the other, leaving the other at the top of the draft board for next year’s draft?