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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.We're still suffering the hangover of VERY bad early season numbers, and we' haven't improved it a lot. I think we're getting better at keeping teams out of the RZ, though, hence most of our others numbers are on the rise.
When you are rebuilding a Defense, those things happen.
But the RED ZONE rating is sometimes a RED HERRING.
All it measures is how often, having gotten into the red zone, an opponent scores a TD. Without context its a ridiculous statistic to keep. Supposing that you had the ultimate Defense and prevented any team from getting in the red zone, except one single time a season. One single time you let a team get there and they scored. Your red zone Defense rating would be -100% and worst in the league even though your opponents only scored... ONCE.
To evaluate red zone Defense you must see how many opportunities they yielded. The Pats are averge or better in the number of red zone opportunities that they gave up to their opponents.
Besides, BB's defensive strategy is always to prevent the quick long score. "Bend don't Break" is the summation of the strategy. What that means in practice, is that if you keep bending and not breaking, the opponents when they finally score, will probably score from the red zone.
The experience gained by all the newcomers will cut down the red zone opportunities next year.
Alternatively, if you had a Defense that gave up long TDs over and over, and over again, and couldn't stop anybody. The Defense would then have a pretty good red zone rating, but it would be a totally misleading statistic.
When you are rebuilding a Defense, those things happen.
But the RED ZONE rating is sometimes a RED HERRING.
All it measures is how often, having gotten into the red zone, an opponent scores a TD. Without context its a ridiculous statistic to keep. Supposing that you had the ultimate Defense and prevented any team from getting in the red zone, except one single time a season. One single time you let a team get there and they scored. Your red zone Defense rating would be -100% and worst in the league even though your opponents only scored... ONCE.
To evaluate red zone Defense you must see how many opportunities they yielded. The Pats are averge or better in the number of red zone opportunities that they gave up to their opponents.
Besides, BB's defensive strategy is always to prevent the quick long score. "Bend don't Break" is the summation of the strategy. What that means in practice, is that if you keep bending and not breaking, the opponents when they finally score, will probably score from the red zone.
The experience gained by all the newcomers will cut down the red zone opportunities next year.
Alternatively, if you had a Defense that gave up long TDs over and over, and over again, and couldn't stop anybody. The Defense would then have a pretty good red zone rating, but it would be a totally misleading statistic.
Early in the season, when Matt Cassel was that "stiff should have been cut!" guy and the team was integrating all the young players, the defense played a very passive style designed to cut down on the number of possessions in the game. The team didn't blitz much, and the lack of pressure exposed the #2 corner and the middle of the defense against the pass.
Now that Cassel is the new black, the safeties are playing better (the ILB rookies are still struggling in coverage) and Seymour has gotten healthy and returned to his dominant self, I'd expect to see more blitzing all over the field, and better results in the defensive red zone.