Red-Zone

The 2015 Wyoming Cowboys through four games (0-4, 0-1) have a case of the blues, the red zone blues. Yard totals are measured in every which way by statisticians but in the game of football the only stat that truly matters is points. One must have more points than the opposition to win (and as Herm Edwards famously said, “You play to win the game.”) and one way to measure the success of a team in term of scoring and preventing points is through red zone efficiency. As you might guess the Pokes so far this year have been quite inefficient with their red zone efficiency on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, Wyoming ranks 126th in the country and last in the Mountain West in red zone efficiency scoring only 61.54% of the time when entering the red zone (opponents 20 yard-line to the goal line). Wyoming has scored 8 touchdowns and 0 field goals in a total of 13 red zone chances, this is down from 77% and 98th in the country last season. For a team that wants to have a dominant running game this number is extremely low and for the offense to improve they will have to find a way to be more effective in running the ball in this red zone area were passing often becomes harder due to a lack of space.

On the defensive side of the ball things aren’t much better. Wyoming ranks 111th in the country and 11th in the Mountain West in red zone efficiency with opponents scoring 91.67% of the time. That is 11 scores in 12 attempts with 9 touchdowns and 2 field goals making up the totals. In comparison, Wyoming allowed scores 82.35% of the time under Bohl in his first season ranking 59th in the country. For Wyoming to find a winning formula (both long-term and short-term) the defense will have to find a way to slow down the opposition and hold them to field goals instead of touchdowns.

Top college football teams are efficient in these red zone areas and Wyoming has quite a bit of work to do just become average in these metrics. Until this is a point of emphasis by Wyoming and its coaches much like the players you the fan will be singing the red zone blues.