Strategy Discussion: Red Zone Offense.

[JesterBlaze]

I've done well when it comes to Red Zone Offense in FOF lately (forget whether it's a long time thing or recent so I say "lately") so I'll throw some info (correct or not but always honest) out there.

From what I've gathered from visuals and experience, not data collecting/analyzing, red zone offense can be greatly effected by:

1) ball control offense
2) OLine


Option 1: Nothing ends a drive, red zone or otherwise, quite like a tasty turnover. They're awesome!! One second your in the other team's red zone about to score, the next they're in their own red zone (or 20 yard line) coming back at you! Viva the turnover!! The fundamental part of all offense is keeping the ball. Non-fumble guys have to be your mainstay or you're gambling EVERYTHING on the luck of the football gods. This pertains to the whole field of course but is especially devastating and game-changing when you're already counting 3, hoping for 7, and end up on defense.

Option 2: The red zone comes down to what??? Two first downs at most. While the elite WR or RB can break the 50+ yarder on any given play, the great OLine is going to make the consistent 3-4 yard gain. If any football team in the history of existence could guarantee 3 yards per play they'd simply go for it on 4th every time and score a TD every possession. It's so far been not a focus of mine and maybe coincidence but I've had a legit OLine for a while and always had a good Red Zone offense... and good yards/game for that matter...

... Scoring/game pertains in large part to Special Teams and Defense and is another discussion but I throw the seed out here.

[markc]

very interesting. I thought that the prevailing wisdom was to pass more when you get to the red zone because either a) red zone defense gears more toward stopping the run, or b) the game engine starts getting stingy on rush yards, or c) a combination of both.

Oddly, in 2022 my team struggled greatly in the red zone. Lots of (record number of) FGs - few TDs, 26th in points per visit. In 2024, McNeil was deadly in the RZ, and we were 5th in points per visit. Net result = about the same record/finish and a first round exit

[Matt]

red zone does get stingy.
In past versions, I tried to whip the ball around a little more as defenses began looking for the run because that's what you're supposed to do.

I've found that completion % drops in the red zone. for that reason, I prefer to run the ball to try to get manageable down and distance.
As I'm checking stats from last season, we were tops in the legue in redzone points