The Key to wins this season (my rant)

[CrazyCanuck]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

I think our red zone deficiencies don't have anything to do with the mental makeup of our team. The WRs, Cooley, Portis, Betts, Royal, and the O-Line all have great mental makeups at any phase of the game. They turn up the intensity in the red zone just fine.

Our red zone issues stem from mistakes by Ramsey mostly. When the field gets shorter you find more defenders in a tighter spot, hence they can afford to bring more pressure without worrying about getting beat deep. Ramsey fumbled and got sacked too much in the red zone. His passing accuracy also isn't great.

Hopefully Brunell will avoid the mistakes Ramsey made, and not fumble or take big sacks in the red zone. But I don't see Brunell as a major threat to move the ball into the end zone consistently. I think he'll be better than Ramsey but I don't think the Skins will suddenly become fantasy football's best team with him in there.

We're still strategically challenged when it comes to the red zone. Portis bulked up, but he's still not big enough to really be a battering ram like Bettis or McAllister. Betts isn't a bad option for goallines, though he's not much bigger than Portis these days. Moss & Patten aren't great options in the red zone because they need more open space to create the separation with their quickness. Our saving grace is Chris Cooley, he's a good target. But one target plus a mediocre goalline running threat don't make for a great red zone threat. Gibbs has resorted to using Taylor as a WR to create the needed size mismatch. I actually think that can work, but him making that move is proof that he thinks we lack strategic advantage in the goalline situations.

I don't think it's mental whatsoever. We're just not strategically built to punch the ball in that well. At least the line looks great, we should be better at running it in this year, but we'll still have to settle for our share of 25 yard FGs.

Well said. I agree 100%.

I think Royal can be an effective target in the redzone and I'd like to see him and Cooley in there together as often as possible. Adding Taylor into the mix can't hurt either.