One of the most glaring areas where the Lions need improvement for 2022 is red zone TD scoring and better red zone defense.
Columbia only scored TD's on 51% of its trips in the red zone, as opposed to allowing its opponents a 70% red zone TD mark.
Some of the offensive issues in the red zone are connected with the discussion in the previous post about how the Lions need to amp up their air attack.
But many of us also saw the team lose momentum too many times after big plays engineered by QB Joe Green to get them into the red zone in the first place. Sometimes, that was because of switching to wildcat QB Gabe Hollingsworth and the offense clearly needing more time to adjust to the switch. Sometimes, it just seemed like the play calling got too conservative. Either way, settling for too many field goals is a recipe for disaster in football and Columbia needs to get that red zone TD percentage up to 65% or better this fall.
I do think that having RB Ryan Young for another year will lead to improvements here, as he continues to get strong as an inside runner who can bang into the end zone from inside the 5. This is a skill I think Hollingsworth will get better at too, as he showed a great flash of brilliance in this department with his tough TD at Dartmouth.
As for red zone defense, the only game where the inability to hold opponents to FG attempts made a big difference was the loss to Yale. But there were a number of things that contributed to that loss in a game the Lions looked like they had under control.
4 comments:
No question that we need to improve in the Red Zone. There was some missed opportunities earlier in the season to score additional points against Princeton, Yale and other teams. With hindsight, we may have been too conservative in our play-calling and underestimated Joe Green's running ability and the remarkable athletic skills of several of the newcomers. It turned out that the supposedly immobile Green was actually a fine runner, Gabriel Hollingsworth is tough and talented, Bryson Canty is almost unstoppable in the end zone and Wells Meyer and Marcus Libman are sure handed receivers. I would like to see the Lions add some more motion plays to the offense next year to make it harder for defenses to deal with the remarkable skills of the foregoing players as well as those of our "Top Gun", Ryan Young.\\
Agree with you Stan, and would add that I'd like to see Hollingsworth throw the ball more in 2022. Seems like every time he took a snap the Defense packed the box knowing he would likely run. Throwing the ball on occasion might create more Red Zone opportunities. Concerning relatively low YPA from last season, believe it was a function of Green's ability to get rid of the ball rather than get sacked when no one was open. With an experienced O-Line and QB, the YPA should improve.
Re the Yale game—two big turning points plus an adjustment. the first turning point was when we allowed a fluke run back of a punt toward the end of the first half when we allowed the returner to pick up the ball instead of downing it. The second turning point was the gaffe by the officials in the thyroid quarter which killed our drive—we gained 8 on first down, had an incomplete pass on second down, but instead of 3rd and 2 the officials made the spot 3rd and 8. The adjustment—Yale adjusted its blocking scheme over half time allowing Grooms time to operate. One of the very few times in which we might have been outcoached in terms of half time adjustments which we did not counter.
Freudian slip—meant third quarter.
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