Red Zone offense

[OrangeBowlMagic]

One area where the offense needs to continue to improve is Red Zone TD%. To me, this is one of the most important stats to offensive success. Yes, 60 yard TDs are great (and we had as many of them last year as anyone), they’re not incredibly sustainable. You need to be able to score TDs when you get down close. Since 2014, Miami is 119th in the country in Red Zone TD%. As you’d expect, the teams surrounding that number also suck on offense and overall. Wake, UVA, Kansas, Rutgers…the bottom feeders of the sport.

For more recent context, the number cratered at #104 in the Enos/Jarren debacle, culminating with running 1700 plays from the 3 yard line against FIU and still being so far from scoring you’d think we were the 40 Year Old Virgin. Last year, with a competent staff and real QB, we jumped up to 72nd. But that number is still nowhere near good enough. Football has completely changed into a strictly offensive game. The differences between 3’s and 7’s are massive. We need to have another 40+ spot jump to continue to revamp this offense.

2014 – 100th
2015 – 114th
2016 – 98th
2017 – 72nd
2018 – 58th
2019 – 104th
2020 – 72nd

That's ******* terrible and embarrassing.

 

[tyroil smoochie-wallace]

I think you can mainly attribute this to **** poor Offensive Line and Wide Receiver play. Also spreading the field out on short yardage and goal to go situations is key I think. Get the defense spread thin and run an RPO or qb keeper (if you have a good Oline) and its a Touchdown/Conversion every time.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

I think you can mainly attribute this to **** poor Offensive Line and Wide Receiver play. Also spreading the field out on short yardage and goal to go situations is key I think. Get the defense spread thin and run an RPO or qb keeper (if you have a good Oline) and its a Touchdown/Conversion every time.

Think it's a coincidence that all the triple option/run first teams are all at the top, though? It can't be, IMO. Navy, Army, Air Force, GT all in the Top 12. Oregon and OU are almost always in the top 10% of the country in rushing efficiency. I think almost every time you run the football in 2021, it's a -EV play. I'd throw it 75-80% of the time if I'm an OC today. But there might be something to be said about having some aspects of a power run game when you get down close. I'm not saying run the triple option, but maybe take some nuances from it and emulate what OU does as well. These teams don't always have the most insanely dominating OLs. But they run the **** out of the ball.

I also think these teams go for it on 4th down more often than just about anybody else. Give me 4 downs to score vs 3.

 

[DTP]

Miami was 17th in red zone scoring percentage last year so it’s really just a matter of turning a couple of field goals into touchdowns.

 

[DTP]

Think it's a coincidence that all the triple option/run first teams are all at the top, though? It can't be, IMO. Navy, Army, Air Force, GT all in the Top 12. Oregon and OU are almost always in the top 10% of the country in rushing efficiency. I think almost every time you run the football in 2021, it's a -EV play. I'd throw it 75-80% of the time if I'm an OC today. But there might be something to be said about having some aspects of a power run game when you get down close. I'm not saying run the triple option, but maybe take some nuances from it and emulate what OU does as well. These teams don't always have the most insanely dominating OLs. But they run the **** out of the ball.

I also think these teams go for it on 4th down more often than just about anybody else. Give me 4 downs to score vs 3.

You hit the nail on the head with the last paragraph. Triple option teams go for it on fourth down more than anyone else. They’re confident that they can always get those 2-3 yards. Their deliberate style also shortens games so scoring 7 instead of 3 is an even bigger difference when you’re dealing with fewer possessions.

 

[rayray]

our OL has been dog**** in short yardage in general for this entire period of time and our inability to score inside the red zone directly follows that. we've been an explosion over efficiency offense spanning multiple coaching staffs at this point but you can't really explode from within the red zone. can only hope that recruiting efforts at OL, RB and trying to add physicality at WR will pay off. i'm more of a jacurri brown skeptic than most on this board but he'd give us a short yardage/goal line element we've basically never had.

 

[305to954]

Have to be able to consistently run the football. That Especially correlates to red zone success

 

[brcane1]

Where were Whipple and Fisch at? Was Coley always that ****e?

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

Where were Whipple and Fisch at? Was Coley always that ****e?

2009 -- 31st
2010 -- 87th
2011 -- 29th
2012 -- 96th
2013 -- 86th

So, we've been good for 2 of the past 11 seasons. Awesome sauce.

 

[SWFLHurricane]

One area where the offense needs to continue to improve is Red Zone TD%. To me, this is one of the most important stats to offensive success. Yes, 60 yard TDs are great (and we had as many of them last year as anyone), they’re not incredibly sustainable. You need to be able to score TDs when you get down close. Since 2014, Miami is 119th in the country in Red Zone TD%. As you’d expect, the teams surrounding that number also suck on offense and overall. Wake, UVA, Kansas, Rutgers…the bottom feeders of the sport.

For more recent context, the number cratered at #104 in the Enos/Jarren debacle, culminating with running 1700 plays from the 3 yard line against FIU and still being so far from scoring you’d think we were the 40 Year Old Virgin. Last year, with a competent staff and real QB, we jumped up to 72nd. But that number is still nowhere near good enough. Football has completely changed into a strictly offensive game. The differences between 3’s and 7’s are massive. We need to have another 40+ spot jump to continue to revamp this offense.

2014 – 100th
2015 – 114th
2016 – 98th
2017 – 72nd
2018 – 58th
2019 – 104th
2020 – 72nd

That's ******* terrible and embarrassing.

Jesus.....How Offensive.....

 

[brcane1]

2009 -- 31st
2010 -- 87th
2011 -- 29th
2012 -- 96th
2013 -- 86th

So, we've been good for 2 of the past 11 seasons. Awesome sauce.

Somehow its more discouraging when the only two OCs who managed it fell off a cliff the next season.

 

[DTP]

Miami scored 26 red zone touchdowns on 43 red zone possessions in 2020. That's a 60% red zone touchdown percentage. They kicked 13 red zone field goals. If just three of those field goals were converted into touchdowns it would have bumped Miami into the top 15 teams nationally. The difference from 12th to 72 was literally 3 touchdowns.

 

[Colombie]

With all the RBs we have now maybe Lashlee will use more of the direct snaps / "Wildcat" plays that Auburn has used for years in the red zone.

Seemed like he trusted Cam to do it quickly on some 4th and short situations after times out but it was only used very sparingly.

 

[D_G87]

Rhett needs to diversify the run game as well. You can’t put a square peg in a round hole. He knew the interior of the OL was bad and continued running the power run plays with 200 lb RB’s. I hope that’s something the offensive staff looks at this offseason closely.

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

Rhett needs to diversify the run game as well. You can’t put a square peg in a round hole. He knew the interior of the OL was bad and continued running the power run plays with 200 lb RB’s. I hope that’s something the offensive staff looks at this offseason closely.

I think Lashlee really wants us to be an uptempo power spread, but you are right that our interior OL play was bad and was often a liability in the run game.

The optimal situation would be if Donaldson is healthy, motivated, and has his weight under control so he can lockdown that LG spot, and someone can step up at the other guard spot (Rivers or Campbell, maybe?). Would also be nice to see some improvement at C but I am even less optimistic about that spot for 2021. Otherwise, some of those power running concepts are going to continue to be a big ask for our backs.

 

[DTP]

A lot of those inside zone runs were read plays where King handed the ball instead of keeping. He has to get better at the zone read for the running game to function at a high level

 

[Cookie917]

Miami scored 26 red zone touchdowns on 43 red zone possessions in 2020. That's a 60% red zone touchdown percentage. They kicked 13 red zone field goals. If just three of those field goals were converted into touchdowns it would have bumped Miami into the top 15 teams nationally. The difference from 12th to 72 was literally 3 touchdowns.

I noticed that too how from #1 to last, the difference was 20%.... Also, did all the teams on the list play a full slate? I get it is a % but sorry I can't give a pass to a team like Washington who only played 4 games.

However, it made me wonder with King (if healthy) and some big boy RBs (Harris/Don/Thad/Brown), I wouldn't be opposed to Lashlee running a triple option close to the goaline. Hard to defend, works in short yardage situations, we have the horses to run it, would likely catch teams off-guard or at minimum make future teams prep for a triple option on the off-chance we go to it.

 

[Meast21]

Still cant believe we couldn't give Njoku's 6'6 younger brother with massive wingspan and jumping ability a few endzone jumps balls several years ago. Baffles my mind.

 

[DTP]

I noticed that too how from #1 to last, the difference was 20%.... Also, did all the teams on the list play a full slate? I get it is a % but sorry I can't give a pass to a team like Washington who only played 4 games.

However, it made me wonder with King (if healthy) and some big boy RBs (Harris/Don/Thad/Brown), I wouldn't be opposed to Lashlee running a triple option close to the goaline. Hard to defend, works in short yardage situations, we have the horses to run it, would likely catch teams off-guard or at minimum make future teams prep for a triple option on the off-chance we go to it.

They did run a “sorta” triple option last year but instead of a pitch it was an actual forward pass. They had some success with it but it’s one of those things you have to set up.

 

[OrangeBowlMagic]

I noticed that too how from #1 to last, the difference was 20%.... Also, did all the teams on the list play a full slate? I get it is a % but sorry I can't give a pass to a team like Washington who only played 4 games.

However, it made me wonder with King (if healthy) and some big boy RBs (Harris/Don/Thad/Brown), I wouldn't be opposed to Lashlee running a triple option close to the goaline. Hard to defend, works in short yardage situations, we have the horses to run it, would likely catch teams off-guard or at minimum make future teams prep for a triple option on the off-chance we go to it.

Not sure where you guys are looking, but the difference between first and last is much larger than that.

#1 in TD % in the country last year was Northern Illinois at 83.33%

Dead last, #127, was Bowling Green. They scored a TD on 33.33% of their possessions.

Obviously a massive difference.

Also, @DTP, I don't think what you posted is correct either. Miami did score 26 TDs on 43 chances, good for 72nd nationally at 60.47%. But you're saying just 3 more TDs gets you into the Top 15. That's not right. 29 TDs on 43 chances would be 67.4%. That would have been 37th. Sure, a big jump, but 3 TDs are 3 TDs. That could be the difference between winning and losing. How many games have we lost by 4 points or less the last few seasons? 1 last season, 2 in 2019 (and another by 7 but the game went into OT), another in 2018. Those points could easily be the difference between winning and losing, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the teams in the original tweet who are poor in this metric are some of the worst teams in the country. It's a correlation, no doubt.

Lastly, to get into the Top 15 last year, we'd have needed to score 32 TDs in our 43 chances. That's a significant jump from the 26 we did score.