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

[MTK]

Lost in all the focus on the struggles of the defense is the fact the offense is coming up short in two critical categories, 3rd down conversions (18% - last in the league) and red zone offense (22%, 2 TDs out of 9 possessions - again last in the league).

Improving in these 2 categories will keep the defense off the field and lead to more points. Just wanted to bring this topic up since the defense is receiving such a huge brunt of our criticism, but it's obvious the offense needs to shoulder some blame as well.

Thoughts?

[GTripp0012]

Red zone offense tends to be a function of the strength of the rest of your offense. We can improve that by getting stronger on the lines and at running the ball.

3rd downs are an issue. We're a terrible team out of the shotgun/3 WR package, and we don't have any creative plays out of that package. I just don't see that getting better anytime soon.

We've protected the quarterback alright (not great) on those third and longs, but teams can cover all of our receivers down the field.

One reason that 3rd down percentage is lower than last year is because we have to pass in short yardage as well, which makes every third down as difficult as a third and seven.

[mredskins]

I think 3rd downs on both sides of the ball is the biggest issue. I realize you are trying to focus on the offense here but by god I have never seen so many 3rd and longs given up in my life.

[MTK]

Getting the ground game cranked up and staying out of 3rd and longs would be nice too of course.

[#56fanatic]

I agree 100%, which is why I have a hard time understanding why Devin Thomas isn't used at all in the red zone. The dude is big, strong WR and can go and get the ball. Again, we are the only freaking NFL team that has a problem running fade routes, or jump balls in the endzone. It killed me last year when Malcome Kelly was on the bench and we couldn't do that in the redzone. Kelly is what 6'4, Thomas is 6'2. they have a minimum of 2-3 inches on an average corner. If he supposedly can't run routes and forgot how to play, he can at least jump for a ball or run a simple fade. Also, Where has cooley and Davis been in the redzone? Or how bout a bootleg? I am not a coach, but for some reason over the last how many years, our playbook goes to shit when we get inside the 20.

[Chico23231]

Redzone playcalling I think has been rather poor. We are not using the middle of field and it seems we are not using our both our tight ends which is a freakin strength.

3rd down is just god aweful. I have no clue on anything here, we just stink.

Not having an effective running game is killing us in both these areas.

[irish]

The Skins best WR (Moss) is just too small to be a factor in the Red Zone and cant win jump balls. Everyone know the Skins cant run the ball and cant do a fade route with their small WRs so IMO it makes them easy to defend.

[over the mountain]

with the redzone i know kyle (or mike or both) have said that running the ball in the redzone is a major priority for their offense to balance the attack and d schemes in that part of the field.

i, like other posters on here have also stated, that it was frustrating to see us try and run the ball twice in a row in the redzone last week for 1-2 yards an attempt.

with that said, play actions and naked bootlegs have been very effective in the redzone so maybe, even though running the ball in the redzone by itself isnt all that effective, by committing to the run in the redzone, defenses must honor the run and it is setting us up for successful play actions, etc.

i remember the first couple of series against the boys we were converting on 3rd and longs every time.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by mredskins

I think 3rd downs on both sides of the ball is the biggest issue. I realize you are trying to focus on the offense here but by god I have never seen so many 3rd and longs given up in my life.

Yeah, even if you're going to lose the game anyway, giving up 3rd & 20 conversions are just inexcusable efforts.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

Yeah, even if you're going to lose the game anyway, giving up 3rd & 20 conversions are just inexcusable efforts.

Seriously! 3rd and 20 is like OK bathroom break or grab a beer not with this team it is TD for the other team!

[SmootSmack]

Crazy to think we're tied for last in the league in 3rd down conversions with the 3-0 Pittsburgh Steelers.

Sometimes to really understand why a team is struggling in 3rd down conversions is to look at their 2nd down attempts. I haven't done this, but I would be interested to know how many 3rd and longs they've had to face. (which I believe Matty also alluded to)

Our Red Zone offense is consistently abysmal

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Getting the ground game cranked up and staying out of 3rd and longs would be nice too of course.

Yeah, without statistical evidence I'd say we seem to be in 3rd and long a hell of a lot. That is killer. It's a lot easier to get creative on 3rd & 3.5 rather than 3rd & 9. I'd also like to see Portis in on 3rd more often.

I'd dont see why leaving him in to chip and release would be bad. Especially on a 3rd and mid-range.

[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 SmootSmack

Our Red Zone offense is consistently abysmal

Personnel.

[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.