11-08-2019, 02:41 PM
(11-08-2019, 02:28 PM)fredtoast Wrote: I have seen a few members here complimenting the Bengals red zone defense. Currently they are third in the league allowing a td only 41.4% of the time the opponent enters the red zone, but that stat is kind of deceiving.
3 times in just 8 games the opponents settled for a FG in the final seconds of the first half because they ran out of time (SF, Ari, Jax).
2 times opponents have settled for a FG in the final minutes of the 4th quarter because all they needed was a FG. Jacksonville just needed a FG to go up by two scores so they just ran the ball 3 times to kill clock and kicked FG with 2 minutes left. Arizona just needed a FG in the final seconds to win so they spiked the ball to stop the clock.
2 times Buffalo fumbled in the red zone.
Arizona was stopped by a 10 yard illegal block in the red zone.
One red zone possession consisted of just one 4th down play from the Bengals 19 when Jacksonville kicked a FG.
Overall the Bengals have stopped teams from scoring tds 17 times in 29 red zone situations, but over half of those 17 (the nine listed above) were due to timing or mistakes by the offense. This explains a lot of why such a horrible defense can still rank as "high" as 21st in points allowed.
And by horrible I mean
32nd in yards per game
32nd in yards per play
32nd in QB pressures
32nd in QB hits
32nd in interceptions
32nd in pass yards per completion.
32nd in rush yards per game (by a huge 27+ yard margin over the next worst)
32nd in rush yards per attempt
31st in yards per drive
31st in sacks
31st in passing yards per attempt
30th in forced turnovers
30th in rush tds
29th in percentage scoring drives.
Holy shit. I didn't even realize it was THAT bad. Every player on this defense has regressed.
