Be Simple When In the Red Zone!

The Bucs were much improved as an offense in 2015 ranking 5th in total yards, 5th in rushing, and were much more explosive than in previous years. However, they were only 20th in scoring offense as they averaged 21.4 points per game which is just average in comparison with other top ten offenses. The offense needs to score at least 24 points per game in today's NFL, but more importantly it must be more effective in the red zone. The Bucs scored a touchdown on just 52% of its red zone attempts which is decent but it needs to be closer to 60%. This is what made the Panthers so effective as they had a 69% touchdown efficiency in the red zone which is excellent.

The Bucs shouldn't have a problem scoring in the redzone with the weapons they have as they should keep it very simple. Its either run it in with Doug, fades to Evans, slants to Jackson, or up the seams with our tight ends. Too many times last year the offense got away from just being simple and instead tried to be too cute by over thinking it. Some of this was due to having a rookie qb who at times didn't pull the trigger when he needed to costing the team potential touchdowns. The good thing is Koetter knows the offense needs to score more, and he is going to figure it out. Why so confident? Well he has to if he wants to win or else he will be gone too. Here is Koetter from one of his weekly press conferences:per pewterreport.com

“We got to get off to a faster start,” Koetter said. “The last two games, we’ve ran the ball okay to start the game, we’re moving the chains, but when I say get off to a faster start; moving the ball, moving the chains, getting first downs, that doesn’t get you points on the scoreboard. We’ve got to finish drives. We’ve been playing from behind and from an offensive standpoint we have to take that on ourselves. ‘Hey, get off to a fast start. Let’s get the lead and play with the lead.’ Come out of the gates and get points on the board sooner. That’s one thing we definitely need to get better at.  … The bottom line is, on all these stats we talk about in here, the bottom line is get more points than the other team and we haven’t done that.”

So for 2016, it is real simple score touchdowns in the red zone if you want to win more. This team needs to learn how to finish drives to really be a top notch offense. With the talent they have on the team, there is no reason they shouldn't be.