Our Red Zone Offense

[Go Gophers Rah]

Here is the outcome of the Gophers trips inside the red zone this year:

16 TD's (10 by running & 6 by passing)
6 field goals
1 knee taken on the 1 yard line against Purdue as the game ended
1 knee taken against Northwestern as the game ended
1 that I cannot account for - either a turnover, a punt, a loss of downs or the end of a half (anyone?)

All in all, out of 25 trips into the Red Zone we are nearly perfect. Criticize our offense all you want, that is impressive.

[parkinglotgopher]

If this stat is accurate (not saying it's not, I just don't have time to check back on the numbers), it shows a solid scoring percentage in the red zone. It's the type of percentage you'd expect from a winning team.

What's not represented in the raw numbers, and the real shame of the season at this point, is seeing those six field goals and knowing which ones came from red zone trips against UW. If those are touchdowns, this is a stat from a 5-1 (3-0) team.

[Gopher Bandanna Guy]

What's not represented in the raw numbers, and the real shame of the season at this point, is seeing those six field goals and knowing which ones came from red zone trips against UW. If those are touchdowns, this is a stat from a 5-1 (3-0) team.

Agreed - especially since on a number of those possesions where we settled for field goals, we started inside the 10. Other than that, I can't criticize our ability to score when we get down there.

Oh, and I think the one RZ possession you are forgetting is one late in the game against Syracuse, where Weber was sacked from the 25, and he fumbled. Just the edge of the RZ, but it counts. Drive log from that game reads:

2nd-15, Syra25 13:34 A. Weber sacked by B. Sharpe. A. Weber fumbled. D. Smith recovered fumble

[highwayman]

...at 88%. That number is a little misleading, as only six teams of the 35 ahead of them have had more trips INTO the red zone. A smaller number of "trips in" would result in higher percentages per score. A lot of teams are in the mid-teens in Red Zone trips.

We are 4th in the Big Ten in percentage.

A better comparison: Our 22 scores puts us at #10 in the NCAA and 130 points puts us at #11 in the NCAA. I'll take that.

Take a look: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/ncaa-m-footbl-fbs-team-red-zone-offense.html

Our Red Zone defense is also at 88%, but thats on 17 "trips in" and only 89 points given.

http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/ncaa-m-footbl-fbs-team-red-zone-defense.html

[thailleagle]

We've always been solid in the Red Zone under Brewster, that's not really one of the Gophers issues.......

[highwayman]

We've always been solid in the Red Zone under Brewster, that's not really one of the Gophers issues.......

I KNEW there was a negative about this!

[Troy McClure]

The missing red zone trip came against wisky. We had it 3rd and 2 from the 18 when McGarry was called for a hold (Eskridge had run it down inside the 5). Weber was picked on the next play.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/playbyplay?gameId=292760135&period=3