percyhoward
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The Cowboys offense in 2009 ranked near the top in total yards, but only around the middle of the league in red zone success. The reason for this is that we rolled up our yardage in large chunks, gaining 10 yards at the end of a long run (or catch and run) instead of 3, 4, and 3 yards at a time.
It isn't that we preferred the big play to several short plays as a way of advancing down the field, it's that we just weren't very good at the short plays. This shows up in our red zone numbers. And the shorter the play to be made (the less room we had to work with) the less successful we were. At least that was the case last year.
red zone short yardage--percentage of red zone first downs (or touchdowns) converted on 3rd or 4th down with 1 or 2 yards to go, or on any down from the 1- or 2-yard line.
Instead of all the Cowboys' short yardage plays from anywhere on the field, or all the plays run in the red zone, I selected only the short-yardage plays run in the red zone. Dallas had 25 such plays, which is pretty close to the league average of 24.2 red zone short yardage plays per team.
The following rankings show how our short yardage offense in the red zone in 2009 put us at the bottom of the NFL, virtually tied with the Raiders.
Short Yardage Conversion Rate in Red Zone
* = playoff team
01 GB..74% 17-23 *
02 Cin 69% 11-16 *
03 Ari 68% 17-25 *
03 Ind 68% 19-28 *
05 Pit 67% 14-21
06 NO..64% 16-25 *
07 Was 63% 15-24
08 Mia 61% 23-38
09 NE..59% 20-34 *
10 SF..58% 07-12
11 NYJ 57% 12-21 *
11 Buf 57% 04-07
13 Det 56% 10-18
14 Bal 55% 12-22 *
15 Den 54% 15-28
16 Atl 53% 18-34
17 Car 52% 15-29
18 Hou 51% 18-35
19 Chi 50% 16-32
19 KC..50% 10-20
19 TB..50% 05-10
22 Min 49% 19-39 *
23 StL 47% 09-19
23 Ten 47% 09-19
23 Jax 47% 14-30
26 Cle 45% 09-20
27 SD..42% 16-38 *
28 Phi 41% 09-22 *
29 NYG 41% 11-27
30 Sea 40% 08-20
31 Dal 36% 09-25 *
31 Oak 36% 05-14
Lg Avg 53% 412-774
Our 9 of 25 conversion rate in red zone short yardage means that we had 25 red zone plays on 3rd or 4th down with 1 or 2 yards to go, or on any down from the 1- or 2-yard line, and we gained enough yardage for a first down (or touchdown) on 9 of the 25 plays.
Last year, there were 9 playoff wins among the top 14 teams on the list. There were only 2 playoff wins among the bottom 18, both against bottom 18 teams.
As could be expected, most red zone short yardage plays are right on the goal line. 21 of the Cowboys' 25 plays in this list were from the opponent's 1- or 2-yard line. We converted 3 of 4 outside the 2, and only 6 of 21 from the 2 or closer.
All 6 conversions were TD's, and our 6-21 goal line scoring rate was also among the league's worst, percentage-wise (29%). I looked at goal line offense for the other teams at the bottom of the red zone short yardage rankings, and only Oakland's percentage (2-11, 18%) was worse than ours. Philly--a notoriously bad goal line team--was 6-17 (35%), Sea was 6-15 (40%), NYG was 7-19 (37%), and San Diego--the worst short-yardage running team in the NFL (whole field)--was 10-28 (35%) at the goal line.
Our 6-21 conversion rate on goal line (and 9-25 overall red zone) includes all plays--runs or passes.
It isn't that we preferred the big play to several short plays as a way of advancing down the field, it's that we just weren't very good at the short plays. This shows up in our red zone numbers. And the shorter the play to be made (the less room we had to work with) the less successful we were. At least that was the case last year.
red zone short yardage--percentage of red zone first downs (or touchdowns) converted on 3rd or 4th down with 1 or 2 yards to go, or on any down from the 1- or 2-yard line.
Instead of all the Cowboys' short yardage plays from anywhere on the field, or all the plays run in the red zone, I selected only the short-yardage plays run in the red zone. Dallas had 25 such plays, which is pretty close to the league average of 24.2 red zone short yardage plays per team.
The following rankings show how our short yardage offense in the red zone in 2009 put us at the bottom of the NFL, virtually tied with the Raiders.
Short Yardage Conversion Rate in Red Zone
* = playoff team
01 GB..74% 17-23 *
02 Cin 69% 11-16 *
03 Ari 68% 17-25 *
03 Ind 68% 19-28 *
05 Pit 67% 14-21
06 NO..64% 16-25 *
07 Was 63% 15-24
08 Mia 61% 23-38
09 NE..59% 20-34 *
10 SF..58% 07-12
11 NYJ 57% 12-21 *
11 Buf 57% 04-07
13 Det 56% 10-18
14 Bal 55% 12-22 *
15 Den 54% 15-28
16 Atl 53% 18-34
17 Car 52% 15-29
18 Hou 51% 18-35
19 Chi 50% 16-32
19 KC..50% 10-20
19 TB..50% 05-10
22 Min 49% 19-39 *
23 StL 47% 09-19
23 Ten 47% 09-19
23 Jax 47% 14-30
26 Cle 45% 09-20
27 SD..42% 16-38 *
28 Phi 41% 09-22 *
29 NYG 41% 11-27
30 Sea 40% 08-20
31 Dal 36% 09-25 *
31 Oak 36% 05-14
Lg Avg 53% 412-774
Our 9 of 25 conversion rate in red zone short yardage means that we had 25 red zone plays on 3rd or 4th down with 1 or 2 yards to go, or on any down from the 1- or 2-yard line, and we gained enough yardage for a first down (or touchdown) on 9 of the 25 plays.
Last year, there were 9 playoff wins among the top 14 teams on the list. There were only 2 playoff wins among the bottom 18, both against bottom 18 teams.
As could be expected, most red zone short yardage plays are right on the goal line. 21 of the Cowboys' 25 plays in this list were from the opponent's 1- or 2-yard line. We converted 3 of 4 outside the 2, and only 6 of 21 from the 2 or closer.
All 6 conversions were TD's, and our 6-21 goal line scoring rate was also among the league's worst, percentage-wise (29%). I looked at goal line offense for the other teams at the bottom of the red zone short yardage rankings, and only Oakland's percentage (2-11, 18%) was worse than ours. Philly--a notoriously bad goal line team--was 6-17 (35%), Sea was 6-15 (40%), NYG was 7-19 (37%), and San Diego--the worst short-yardage running team in the NFL (whole field)--was 10-28 (35%) at the goal line.
Our 6-21 conversion rate on goal line (and 9-25 overall red zone) includes all plays--runs or passes.
...it really has nothing to do with redzone efficiency and short yardage situations 
