How Do We Get Better in the Redzone?

[waving monkey]

why wouldn't execution be the answer? look at the line

 

[Sarge]

Yup, running the ball is the answer. .

end of thread/.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

We sucked at it last year. It's one of Garrett's biggest flaws. How do we get better inside the 20 this year?

its the OL. inside the redzone, everything istight. you need to truly have threat of a running game. you need an OL that can get a little push. inside the 20, 3 yard run goes a long way. we haven't had an OL that can get a push and get small creases for RBs inside the 20. that's not Garrett's fault. can't recall how many times we ran the ball inside hte 20, or inside the 10 and got 0 or negative yards. now, you are forced to pass and in those tight quarters, TD passes don't come easily, when the other team knows you are passing.

that's why I liked the the fredrick pick. if he turns out as we expect, we should see the rushing TDs increase from 4 to mid teens. if leary orlivings have a half decent year, we should see a lot of improvement.

also, having escobar, dez, austin and witten, will help, both from a 12 personnel and now you got a bunch of tall recievers who can go get the ball.

 

[Fredd]

OLine has to man-up in short yardage situations...they MUST get the better of the guy they are blocking...Callahan needs to instill some "we are better than you" attitude in this line...Fred will help that and hopefully, his nasty demeanor will be infectious to the rest of the OL

they have the skill players to score, they need the push from the OL

 

[conner01]

if you can't run the ball in the red zone then they can put 7 guys covering a very samll part of the field and it's very hard to pass the ball. you have to exacute, you have to prevent penalties which to me is about exacution. but the most important thing is force the lb's to respect the run.
escobar and dez can be nice weapons in the red zone but you have to force teams to atleast look and see if you are running

 

[RoyTheHammer]

Run the ball and actually utilize the weapons you have. Dez, Witten, Escobar this year as well.

 

[KDM256]

Get a running back who rarely gets the back of his jersey dirty.

 

[Idgit]

Anybody have red zone/goal line success statistics by any chance?

 

[Slamman]

Anybody have red zone/goal line success statistics by any chance?

http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct

Dallas ranked 20th in TD% in the red zone in both 2012 and 2011.

 

[tm1119]

Anybody have red zone/goal line success statistics by any chance?

http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct

That is TD only, so it doesn't factor in FG's. But if you look at Bailey's stats he only made 6 FG's within 30 yards.

Funny how that list goes almost hand in win-loss standings form last year. Obviously a few exceptions, but for the most part it seems as though you have to be efficient in the redzone to be a good team.

EDIT: Lol, got beat to it.

 

[Slamman]

The answer to this question is pretty easy. Unfortunately, it has little to do with a second pass catching TE (Escobar may help some but the issue is much deeper). In 2012, Dallas ranked 28th in rushing TDs. In 2011, they ranked 30th. To put things in perspective, Cam Newton has nearly doubled the Cowboys rushing TD totals from 2011 and 2012. Alfred Morris' rookie year produced as many rushing TDs as the Cowboys 2011 and 2012 totals.

Adding another receiving TE to the mix won't help much because the issue is space. The windows are much smaller as there isn't nearly as much field to cover. The only thing that will really help the red zone TD% is improved play on the OL.

 

[Idgit]

http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct

Dallas ranked 20th in TD% in the red zone in both 2012 and 2011.

http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct

That is TD only, so it doesn't factor in FG's. But if you look at Bailey's stats he only made 6 FG's within 30 yards.

Funny how that list goes almost hand in win-loss standings form last year. Obviously a few exceptions, but for the most part it seems as though you have to be efficient in the redzone to be a good team.

EDIT: Lol, got beat to it.

Sorry, guys. I asked the wrong question. I was looking for red zone/short yardage rushing.

I recall AdamJT13 saying we were in the top 10 in that category last year, and finding it hard to believe. But I can't find a reliable measure that isolates rushing plays.

EDIT: Took a bit of digging, but this is the post I was referring to.

And this was another post I came across on the topic.

Adam's amazing, but I'd rather look at the source statistics if they were available. I bring it up, though, because I think a lot of the red zone rushing problem is overstated.

 

[Pokes12]

Jason Garret sucks in the Red Zone. He gets one idea and then runs the same play to failure over and over. He has no common sense or feel for the game. You cannot try and show everyone how smart you are and lose every game without having a huge flaw in your psyche. Get someone else to call the plays or let Romo do it on his own.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

New coach. If Callahan truly gets to run the O we'll be better this year.

 

[tm1119]

Sorry, guys. I asked the wrong question. I was looking for red zone/short yardage rushing.

I recall AdamJT13 saying we were in the top 10 in that category last year, and finding it hard to believe. But I can't find a reliable measure that isolates rushing plays.

EDIT: Took a bit of digging, but this is the post I was referring to.

And this was another post I came across on the topic.

Adam's amazing, but I'd rather look at the source statistics if they were available. I bring it up, though, because I think a lot of the red zone rushing problem is overstated.

Hmm I'm not dedicated enough to sift through everything and see where we ranked but this should help you http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasyfootball/teams/redzone/playerstats/DAL

According to that we ran the ball 40 times inside of the redzone for a grand total of 92 yards resulting in 2.3 yards per carry. Like I said, I'm not about to go through every team and do that to see where we ended up ranking, but just using common sense that doesn't appear very good. Would be pretty surprised if that ranked us inside the top 10.

 

[dallasfan4lizife]

we've been ineffective in the redzone since 2008 when garrett was given full control of offense

 

[Eskimo]

Sorry, guys. I asked the wrong question. I was looking for red zone/short yardage rushing.

I recall AdamJT13 saying we were in the top 10 in that category last year, and finding it hard to believe. But I can't find a reliable measure that isolates rushing plays.

EDIT: Took a bit of digging, but this is the post I was referring to.

And this was another post I came across on the topic.

Adam's amazing, but I'd rather look at the source statistics if they were available. I bring it up, though, because I think a lot of the red zone rushing problem is overstated.

The stats are interesting but I wonder about the actual raw data.

For example, we ran reasonably well in those limited situations but is that because teams sold out for the pass. What percentage of play calls did we have on snaps inside the 10-yard line? It seems to me like we rarely run in those situations due to past futility. We'll run it a bit more inside the 3 but anything outside the 5 we mostly pass or run ineffectively.

There has got to be a reason we have so few rushing TDs. I don't believe it is because Garrett doesn't like running the ball since we used to do it really well with Barber from 2005-8. Everything changed in 2008 when Kosier missed the season and we had Procter in there and then in 2009 we seemed to run the ball really well except on the goal-line (remember the SD game). By 2010 it had all fallen apart with that old OL and 2011 when we came out with Costa and Nagy on the interior to start the season we were totally manhandled.

It's too bad Adam doesn't post much here since he was a whiz at finding and/or analyzing the numbers.

 

[xwalker]

If I were the Cowboys GM and decided I wanted to fix the redzone scoring problem, then I would:

1. Get the best possible run blocking Center in the draft.

2. Draft a really tall TE that is a really good receiver and can win most contested catches.

3. Continue drafting tall WRs.

4. Replace Doug Free with Jermey Parnell. I would consider a rotation at the position in order to get Parnell the required experience without being overwhelmed.

5. Give a young OG that is big and strong a chance to win a starting position.

6. Get as many guys on the roster as possible that can play both Center and Guard (Frederick, Costa, Bernadeau, Kowalski, Cook).

7. Get an offensive coordinator who has a background in coaching the OLine.

8. Replace fat RBs with younger players. Look for players that can also pass block and play special teams.

9. Get some proven NFL defensive coaches to "coach up" the existing players on that side of the ball.

 

[StarHead69]

If we simply get the plays off before the defense has a chance to get completely comfortable out there we will improve dramatically in the Red-Zone.

I read a column that implied Romo was responsible for making blocking calls.

http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/a...ntinuity/0832a5d0-e783-4778-b0c5-d3b8e43e5687

I hadn't thought about that earlier. Assuming the very intelligent Frederick can handle those, we should be able to snap the ball with more than 1 or two seconds on the play-clock. Even if that shaves only 2 seconds off the time it takes everyone to get set, the defense won't be able to know exactly when the snap is coming. I'm pretty sure our OL will look much better when they aren't constantly put at such a disadvantage. The author also mentions continuity, which is often overlooked on our board.

 

[TheCount]

New coach. If Callahan truly gets to run the O we'll be better this year.

Prepare for disappointment.

Just like the Doug Free thing, I knew that the longer we waited on cutting the guy, the less likely it would get done. You can talk yourself out of anything if you give yourself enough time, fear is a wonderful thing.

Same thing with Garrett calling plays. The fact that they've waited this long, and will continue to wait to make a call on it, leads me to believe Garrett will retain those duties - for better or worse.