NC State turning the red zone into the dread zone

This can’t last but it may already be too late.

Get it, dread zone. Ugh, I’m sorry.

Anyway, if you hadn’t noticed, NC State’s had some trouble converting red zone possessions into points lately. During its four-game losing streak, the Wolfpack has reached the red zone a total of 10 times, scoring on only half of those trips. It scored a touchdown on only two of those 10 trips. That is very bad.

For the season, NC State is scoring points on 75% of its red zone trips, which ranks 114th out of 128 FBS teams. State’s touchdown percentage is 58.3%, ranking 88th. And again, the numbers over the last four games: 50.0 scoring percentage, 20.0 touchdown percentage.

Going back to the full-season FBS numbers, the team with the worst TD% is Rutgers, at 36.4%. So, yeah, this has not been the best month for NC State’s offense when it comes to finishing drives.

The silver lining: these numbers are completely aberrant. Sometimes bad luck and tough matchups and bad playcalling and poor execution can hit all at once, leading to a four-part football tragedy otherwise known as NC State’s last month. It’s no one thing; it is a lot of things. Some more obvious than others.

State’s been squandering red zone possessions at an incredible rate. It can’t hold. But it’s also gettin’ pretty late in the season, so a reversal now might not make much difference to the rest of the year, if any difference at all. But at least we’ve seen some pretty unusual stuff, I guess?

http://www.backingthepack.com/nc-state-football/2016/11/8/13560202/nc-state-turning-the-red-zone-into-the-dread-zone