This post is sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel. 

Lions - 1 score on 1 chance (1 touchdown)

Once again, the Lions' offense spent very little time in the red zone.  That has been the offense's biggest problem in the last month or so.  They do quite well in the red zone, but they only make it inside the 20 a couple times a game at most it seems like.  Against Minnesota, the Lions' lone red zone trip produced a touchdown on a pass to Will Heller.  At the end of the first half the Lions could have possibly had another trip inside the red zone and got to the 20, but they immediately kicked a field goal, so I'm not going to count that.

Vikings - 4 scores on 6 chances (2 touchdowns, 2 field goals, 1 fumble, 1 turnover on downs)

The defense was also not much different than it has been this season.  The Vikings had a whopping 6 trips to the red zone, but the Lions only gave up a couple touchdowns.  On top of that, twice Minnesota didn't even score any points.  That was because of a fumble and a failure to gain a yard on fourth down.  The fumble was Adrian Peterson's fault when he lateraled the ball behind Percy Harvin and Sammie Hill ended up with it, but the other time the Vikings were kept off the scoreboard was when the defense made a stand on fourth down.  All in all, I will take only giving up 2 touchdowns on 6 red zone opportunities every time.

Overall

It seems like I'm beating a dead horse because it's the same thing every week, but I'll say it one more time.  The Lions' offense needs to get into the red zone more often, and defensively, the Lions need to keep their opponents out of the red zone.  The defense's bend but don't break style works quite well when you consider that opposing teams' red zone efficiency based on touchdowns isn't all that great against the Lions, but the fact that teams are consistently getting into the red zone as many as 6 times a game is very concerning.

This post is sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel. 

Lions - 1 score on 2 chances (1 missed field goal, 1 touchdown)

The Lions' only two trips to the red zone this past Sunday came at the very start of the game.  The first trip was on the game's opening drive, when the Lions moved the ball down the field only to have Jason Hanson kick a field goal off the right upright.  The promising drive ended in disappointing fashion, but the Lions got the ball back on the very next play when Louis Delmas picked off a pass and returned it down to the 2-yard line.  After a false start, Matthew Stafford found Brandon Pettigrew in the end zone for a touchdown, making for a quick and easy red zone appearance.

During the rest of the first half, the Lions had the ball in Seattle territory quite a few times, but they never got inside the red zone again.  That wasn't a big deal when Bryant Johnson made his amazing catch for a touchdown, making a red zone trip unnecessary.  On other drives it was a problem, because the Lions' drives either stalled before they reached the 20-yard line or they simply turned the ball over.

In the second half, the Lions only got close to the red zone once, and even then that drive ended on a 50-yard field goal.  The Lions really struggled to move the ball in the second half, and Seattle didn't turn the ball over and give Detroit the ball inside the red zone to start a drive, so it was one big struggle in the final two quarters.

Seahawks - 6 scores on 6 chances (2 touchdowns, 4 field goals)

After the first quarter, Seattle's offense became an absolute red zone machine.  Every offensive scoring drive for the Seahawks went through the red zone, though only two resulted in touchdowns.  Similar to some of the previous games this season, the Lions' defense relied on bend but don't break football.  The Seahawks picked apart the Lions' defense with lots of dink and dunk type of plays, but once it got into the red zone, getting into the end zone wasn't an easy task.  One drive the Seahawks had to kick a field goal simply because they ran out of time, but other than that the defense did a good job of holding Seattle to a field goal more often than not.  Of course, it's pathetic that the Seahawks were able to get in the red zone six different times, but the defense got away with it by only giving up a pair of touchdowns.

Overall

The Lions' offense, thanks in part to the defense creating turnovers, spent all of its time in the red zone in the first few minutes of the game.  After that they didn't enter the 20 again, which is a big reason why they only managed to score a field goal after the first quarter.  Just like we saw in some recent games, the offense either failed to get into the red zone after a solid drive (i.e. what happened in the second quarter) or simply didn't even come close to the red zone (i.e. what happened in the second half).  Going forward, the offense is going to have to be much more consistent and not leave so many points on the field with turnovers and stalled drives.

On the defensive side of the ball, I was happy that the Seahawks only scored 2 touchdowns out of their 6 red zone appearances, but that last number is disheartening.  I knew Seattle tore the defense apart with mainly underneath stuff, but I didn't even realize that they made it into the red zone a whopping 6 times until I wrote this post.  Bend but don't break football works to make up for a lack of talent, but the defense really needs to starting making more stops before the opposing team gets into the red zone.  6 red zone appearances in 3 quarters is just depressing.

This post is sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel. 

Lions - 1 score on 2 chances (1 interception/safety, 1 touchdown)

I suppose if you're only looking at whether or not the Lions scored points, then they technically were 2/2 in the red zone against the Rams.  Since a turnover happened before the first points were scored, though, I'm not going to count that as a successful trip inside the 20.  Though it did produce points, a successful trip inside the red zone is when a touchdown or a field goal is scored, not when Matthew Stafford throws an interception and it turns into a safety because the defender decides to run back into the end zone and gets tackled.

The Lions' other trip to the red zone was a short and successful one.  Following a big pass to Bryant Johnson that put the Lions on the 5-yard line, Matthew Stafford scored a touchdown on a run two plays later.  The 2-point conversion following the touchdown was also successful, making for one heck of a sequence of plays.

Rams - 1 score on 2 chances (1 field goal, 1 interception)

NFL.com recorded 3 trips to the red zone for the Rams, but I am not going to count the last drive where they ran the ball once and took a knee twice.  Yes, that drive started and ended in the red zone because the Lions turned the ball over on downs, but that was not really a red zone opportunity considering the Rams were just trying to run the clock out.

As for their 2 real red zone chances, they were not very good, to say the least.  Both trips inside the 20 lasted only one play.  The first time a holding play moved the Rams from the 13 to the 23, and they were unable to move the ball at all after that.  Josh Brown did make a field goal to salvage something out of the drive, but it was a pretty quick red zone appearance.  The same goes for when the Rams made it to the Detroit 17 in the third quarter.  After two straight incompletions, Marc Bulger had his pass tipped into the air and intercepted by Dewayne White, meaning 0 points were scored on this drive.  Not only did this red zone appearance not alter the score, but it gave the Lions the momentum that led to their game-tying touchdown.

Overall

The biggest problem for the Lions' offense is that they are still not taking more drives into the red zone.  Quite a few times they were able to move the ball, but the drive stalled before they were anywhere near the Rams' 20-yard line.  That is a big part of why they only managed to put 10 points on the board against St. Louis, which was a really disappointing effort.  It's good to see that they scored one way or another when they did get into the red zone, but I'd still like to see the number of trips increase in the future.

The defense was just the opposite for the Lions.  Not only did the defense limit the Rams to only a couple real red zone opportunities, but those opportunities only produced a field goal.  The first red zone chance only lasted a play because a holding penalty took St. Louis outside of the 20, and then Dewayne White brought the second chance to an end by making a great interception.  Let's hope the defense keeps up their great play in the red zone long enough for the offense to figure it out for at least one game.  If the Lions get a solid red zone performance out of both the offense and defense on the same day, it could be enough for their second win of the season.

Because the Lions were on a bye, there is no red zone recap this week.  Instead, the weekly post sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel will take a look at my experience with it from a couple Sundays ago.

When I first announced that Comcast was coming on board as a sponsor, one of the things I mentioned was that my brother had told me how much he loved NFL RedZone.  I could certainly imagine why, but it wasn't until a couple Sundays ago that I got a first-hand look at why this is such an awesome channel.

I was home for a few days during the weekend of the Packers game, meaning I finally got a chance to check out NFL RedZone (I have Comcast at my house).  I only briefly checked it out during the Lions-Packers game since I was busy watching that, but as soon as it ended I flipped over to NFL RedZone and immediately realized why my brother was such a big fan of it.  For someone like me, who cares about how his fantasy players are doing and just enjoys seeing other games, this was like heaven.  I got to watch the end of the early games, including the exciting finishes to the Vikings-Ravens and Jaguars-Rams games.  Then, when the late games began, I basically saw every important play that happened.  I got to track Tom Brady's amazing performance that caused me to lose a fantasy game, and I also watched as the Eagles choked against the Raiders, eliminating me in POD's survivor pool.

One warning I do have is that if you actually want to get things done, it's not a good idea to watch NFL RedZone.  Usually this season I have posted a recap of the Lions' game right after it is over, but it took me at least an hour to write it this time because there was constant action on NFL RedZone.  There were no commercials, so with there always being football on my TV, it was tough to stay focused on writing a recap.

I definitely wish I had access to NFL RedZone every week, but it's probably a good thing for all of you that I don't, because I wouldn't be very productive on Sundays if I could watch that channel.

This post is sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel. 

Lions - 0 scores on 1 chance (1 interception)

Just like the Steelers game, the Lions did not spend much time in the red zone against the Packers.  The difference between the Lions' last two games is that aside from the one time they did get into the red zone against the Packers, they only came close to the 20-yard line one other time.  At least against Pittsburgh Daunte Culpepper led the Lions down the field a few times.  That was only to have most of those drives eventually stall or end in a turnover, but against Green Bay that only happened once.  That alone shows you how bad the offense was on this past Sunday.

The one time the Lions got close to the red zone early in the game was near the end of the first quarter when they decided to go for it on 4th and short and were stopped.  The ball was on the 21-yard line on fourth down, so if the Lions had moved the chains, they would have entered the red zone.

The first and only actual trip to the red zone didn't happen until the fourth quarter.  Drew Stanton was the quarterback, and it looked like he was going to put an end to the Packers' shutout.  That didn't happen, though, as Stanton was picked off in the end zone on third down from the 10.  Stanton threw a bad pass on the inside of John Standeford, who was well covered, and it was picked off by Atari Bibgy.

Packers - 4 scores on 5 chances (1 touchdown, 3 field goals, 1 lost fumble)

The score of this game, 26-0, does not reflect just how much the Lions were dominated.  The reason for that is because the Lions' defense was outstanding in the red zone.  After the Packers' first trip to the red zone on their second drive, they were unable to score another touchdown in the whole game despite being inside the 20-yard line four more times.

The next three trips to the red zone resulted in a field goal with the Packers not even being able to get inside the 8-yard line.  The Packers did get down near the goal line on their final trip to the red zone, but Julian Peterson made sure they wouldn't even get a shot at a field goal this time.  Peterson knocked the ball out of Aaron Rodgers' hand, and after it bounced backwards, Larry Foote jumped on it to give the ball to the Lions.

Overall

Just like last week, the offense's biggest problem was that it only got inside the 20-yard line once.  What's even worse about the Packers game is that that one trip produced a turnover rather than points. 

The defense definitely made up for the offense's red zone woes.  This easily could have been a game where the Packers won by more than 40 points, but the defense stepped it up big time and only gave up one touchdown in the red zone despite the fact that Green Bay was inside the 20-yard line five different times.

This post is sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel. 

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

The fact that the Lions had only one visit to the red zone this past Sunday says quite a bit about how the game went.  Sometimes this stat could be a bit misleading if a team simply had tons of big plays that ended up scoring touchdowns, meaning they didn't need to get inside the 20, but that was not the case for the Lions at all.

The one time the Lions did get in the red zone, they didn't even end up finishing the drive in it.  The Lions got down to the 7, which is when Daunte Culpepper made a terrible play that resulted in intentional grounding.  That was a 16-yard penalty, moving the Lions out of the red zone and eventually leading to a Jason Hanson field goal.  The drive still counts as having a trip to the red zone in spite of where it ended.

Many other times during this game the Lions knocked on the door to the red zone, but something went wrong on all but one drive.  Whether it was an interception, a turnover on downs after three straight sacks, a field goal, or a missed field goal, the Lions just could not move the ball after they got close to the 20-yard line.  The one time they did keep playing well for an entire drive was when Dennis Northcutt caught a touchdown pass near the end of the game, but that was from beyond 20 yards out, meaning the Lions surpassed the red zone that time around.  That obviously wasn't a big deal, but the other drives show a complete offensive failure after a promising start to the possession.

Steelers - 3 scores on 3 chances (3 touchdowns)

The Steelers really didn't spend a ton of time in the red zone, as they usually scored pretty quickly after getting inside the 20.  For example, the first trip to the red zone lasted only one play.  After a 21-yard pass to Hines Ward put the Steelers on the 7-yard line, Rashard Mendenhall bounced to the outside and score untouched.  The next time Pittsburgh was in the red zone came in the second quarter and technically lasted for three plays.  Mendenhall ran for 9 yards down to the 5-yard line and scored a touchdown on the next play.  A holding penalty nullified the score, but Ben Roethlisberger found Heath Miller on the very next play for a touchdown.  The final trip to the red zone for Pittsburgh was later in the second quarter when Roethlisberger threw another touchdown pass, this time to Hines Ward from 17 yards out.  Again it only took a single play for the Steelers to score after they got in the red zone.

Overall

The Lions were really terrible on both offense and defense when it came to the red zone in this game.  The one time the offense actually got into the red zone was a disaster, and the fact that they only managed to get inside the 20 once was a disaster as well.  Defensively, the Lions could not stop Pittsburgh at all in the red zone.  The Steelers ran a total of 5 plays in the red zone during this game, and 4 of them ended up with a Pittsburgh player crossing the goal line.  Of course, 1 of those touchdowns was called back because of a holding penalty, but every play except that one and the 9-yard run by Mendenhall resulted in a touchdown.

This post is sponsored by Comcast's NFL RedZone Channel. 

As mentioned last week, every Wednesday I am going to take a look at how the Lions did in the red zone during the last game, analyzing both the offense and defense.  This week I am going back to the Bears game, where the Lions were perfect offensively and not as great on the defensive side of the ball (you can partially blame the offense and special teams for some of their struggles). 

Before I get into the specifics of what happened, first I want to break down what exactly red zone efficiency is.  According to NFL.com's stats, a successful trip to the red zone ends with a touchdown and nothing else.  While I understand why that is the case, scoring points at all seems like it should be counted as a successful trip to the red zone.  Obviously for a defense the best-case scenario is to force a turnover or come up with a stop on fourth down, but most of the time a stop results in a field goal.  I do think it is important to take note of whether a touchdown or field goal was scored, but overall red zone efficiency, in my view, is putting points on the board (or keeping points off the board, in the defense's case).

Continue reading this post »