Two big problems on offense: 3rd downs & red zone

[MTK]

Skins are 6/33 on 3rd downs. 6 conversions in 3 games?? That's insanely bad.

What's interesting is they kick ass on 1st downs and average something close to 8 yards an per play. So something appears to be going horribly wrong on 2nd downs.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Skins are 6/33 on 3rd downs. 6 conversions in 3 games?? That's insanely bad.

What's interesting is they kick ass on 1st downs and average something close to 8 yards an per play. So something appears to be going horribly wrong on 2nd downs.

I can remember off hand at least 3 times we've penaltied our way out of 3rd and shorts. So it is probably more like 5 or 6 times we've done. Remember too in the Dallas game we made some 3rd and longs early on. In fact we only seemed to be able to make 3rd and longs.

With a mobile QB we should be much more efficient on 3rd. It's like we rely on McNabb on 1st and 2nd then on 3rd we panic and make terribly awful play calls.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Skins are 6/33 on 3rd downs. 6 conversions in 3 games?? That's insanely bad.

What's interesting is they kick ass on 1st downs and average something close to 8 yards an per play. So something appears to be going horribly wrong on 2nd downs.

I'm just looking back at my notes from the first three games, and it certainly appears that the tendency after an unsuccessful first down play (and we've had our share of successful ones for sure) is to reverse trend. If it's an incomplete pass, we like to run or screen in second down. If we ran for little gain, we like to take a shot, either at the sticks or down the field.

It's a strong trend.

The result appears to be a severe reliance on getting a big play when we try it. If not, a third down is nearly inevitable. And obviously, that third down figure is going to regress towards the mean a little bit, but it's going to be low as long as we are in third and longs.

And Portis is right that when we do get in third and short, we have the fun ability to get a procedure penalty and back it up to third and long.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Skins are 6/33 on 3rd downs. 6 conversions in 3 games?? That's insanely bad.

What's interesting is they kick ass on 1st downs and average something close to 8 yards an per play. So something appears to be going horribly wrong on 2nd downs.

You alluded to it earlier- running game epic fail.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by GMScud

You alluded to it earlier- running game epic fail.

Hey Scud did you get my PM?

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Skins are 6/33 on 3rd downs. 6 conversions in 3 games?? That's insanely bad.

What's interesting is they kick ass on 1st downs and average something close to 8 yards an per play. So something appears to be going horribly wrong on 2nd downs.

Throw away the two 60+ yard passes on first downs against the Texans, and I would argue that something is seriously wrong on 1st down too. Because of meager 1st and 2nd down production running the ball, we're putting too much pressure on the passing game to convert 3rd and long. I bet that our yards to go on third down is among the highest in the league.