Comcast Red Zone Recap: Week 14

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Lions - 1 score on 1 chance (1 field goal)

The Lions had another lackluster day in the red zone because of a lack of appearances inside the 20.  The score obviously reflected this stat, as the Lions only scored once, which was on a 22-yard field goal.  That was the Lions' lone trip to the red zone, similar to how they only had one trip last week against Cincinnati.

Ravens - 5 scores on 6 chances (4 touchdowns, 1 field goal, 1 fumble)

Baltimore was actually on or inside the 20 on eight occasions during this game, but I only counted six of them.  That is because the Ravens once kicked a field goal from the 20 on fourth down, which I don't really consider a red zone appearance, and they also got into the red zone at the very end of the game but took a knee on the next play, so again, I don't think that is a real appearance.

Even without those two trips to the red zone, the Ravens still managed to get inside the 20 six times.  The first trip didn't go quite so well because Ray Rice fumbled the ball and it went out of the end zone for a touchback, but points were put on the board every time after that.  It basically just took Baltimore some time to heat up, because the Ravens went from turning it over in the red zone to kicking a field goal to eventually scoring nothing but touchdowns.  In the third quarter, for example, the Ravens got into the red zone on three straight drives and scored a touchdown every time.  It was really a bad performance by the Lions' defense after the first couple of trips to the red zone for the Ravens.

Overall

The Lions' offense has got to start finishing drives to get into the red zone more often.  This whole one red zone appearance a week trend of late is extremely frustrating, because it shows that the offense isn't even close to doing much of anything.  Unfortunately I fear that trend will continue this week with Kevin Smith out for the season and Matthew Stafford likely unable to play again because of his shoulder injury.

For the defense, I actually don't think they will give up that many red zone appearances to the Cardinals this week.  I mean that in a negative way, though.  Arizona has so many big-play weapons that I expect most of their scores to be from well beyond 20 yards.  Perhaps that is being a bit too pessimistic, but Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston, and Beanie Wells seem like they will run circles around the Lions' defense.  Like I said earlier this week, that's good news for one of my fantasy teams, but extremely bad news for the Lions.