Long gone are the days of the profitable gold zone in Green Bay.
For those unfamiliar, former Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was a big fan of the 2002 movie “Austin Powers in Goldmember.” Mike Myers’ character, Goldmember, was a villain with gold hair who wore a gold tracksuit.
Hackett and the Packers called the area inside the opponent’s 20-yard line the gold zone, not the red zone. Goldmember enjoyed partying at his nightclub, so Hackett emphasized group celebrations after the Packers scored touchdowns and encouraged everyone to “get the gold” when they got near the end zone.
In Hackett’s first two years as offensive coordinator, the Packers ranked eighth in red zone touchdown percentage in 2019 (64 percent) and first in 2020 (80 percent). Since then, including Hackett’s third season as offensive coordinator in 2021, the Packers haven’t been nearly as good inside the opposing 20-yard line.
The Packers ranked 19th in red zone touchdown percentage (58.6) in 2021. They fell to 24th (51.9) in 2022. In 2023, they rose back to 19th but with a lower rate (51.6). This season, the Packers are as bad in the red zone as they’ve been in head coach Matt LaFleur’s six years in charge. They’re converting only 48.7 percent of their red zone trips into touchdowns. That ranks 27th in the NFL through 11 weeks.
The Packers (7-3) scored a touchdown on three of five red zone trips in Sunday’s 20-19 win over the Chicago Bears, but the two trips inside the Bears’ 10-yard line that the Packers didn’t score on left a sour taste. Against better teams over the last seven games of the regular season and in the playoffs, assuming the Packers make it, they’ll need to be much more efficient than they have been in the red zone in the first 10 games.
“I feel like sometimes we pick the wrong time to, like, have a MA (missed assignment) and things like that,” running back Josh Jacobs said. “We might have a mishap here, and it’s like, not in here. In the red zone, you gotta be perfect. Everybody gotta do they job and (then) some. In this league, it’s always hard when you going against good teams, especially down there where the field gets tighter, so it’s really just on us.”
The Packers’ red zone deficiencies have come in different shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s the slight misplacement of a throw or a drop. On quarterback Jordan Love’s pass to running back Chris Brooks on the opening drive against the Detroit Lions in Week 9, it was both on third down, and the Packers settled for a field goal. Sometimes it’s a questionable decision, like the one to pass out of a run-pass option on second-and-1 from the Bears’ 5-yard line after Jacobs had just gained 9 yards on first down. Love ended up throwing the ball away.
While we’re on questionable decisions, what about LaFleur’s to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 6, down 5 with 11:29 remaining? The head coach had some thoughts Monday.
“There weren’t very many possessions,” LaFleur said. “You just didn’t know when you were going to get the ball back. You could put it like this because this is something you always kind of talk about after the fact: ‘Did we do the right thing?’ I have long conversations with (assistant quarterbacks coach and game management specialist) Connor Lewis, and he was like, ‘Well, you can look at it like this: We can kick the field goal, get the 3 points. That would make it 19-17, and then they had the 50-yard drive.’ … Who knows what happens if they get the ball at the 30 versus they get the ball at the minus-2-yard line, so who knows how it would have played out? I did check with our (staff about) the analytic deal, and I guess it was a difference of, like, 2 percent or 3 percent or something like that in favor of going for it, but that’s not why. I don’t care about that at the end of the day. That doesn’t matter to me. I was just curious, so it’s basically a flip of a coin.
“I wish we would have called a different play on third down, in hindsight. I guess once we got inside the 10-yard line, in my mind, it was four-down territory, so that would have allowed us to potentially sneak in another run. Throwing the ball against Cover 2 down there is not always great. It’s very, very hard to do. There’s just not a lot of space. They do a good job with some of the leverages on their safeties, and so the play that was called for on third down really didn’t give Jordan a lot of options there, and then he saw some daylight and he scrambled, and then fourth down, another scramble drill. So when you’re doing that, that’s not ideal. I would say … we’ve got to have a better plan in that situation.”
Unreal story from Eddie Lacy on tonight’s show about how he learned Mike McCarthy could track his iPad film time at home and what James Starks told him to do after. Eddie was awesome the whole time, but this one is hilarious. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/gBuXe6INB1
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) November 19, 2024
Now that LaFleur has provided his reasoning, back to not giving Jacobs the ball on second-and-1. Not only that, but left guard Elgton Jenkins was flagged 5 yards for being illegally downfield when the play went off-schedule. Then wide receiver Christian Watson missed his block on cornerback Kyler Gordon on the next play, a horizontal run to receiver Jayden Reed for a loss of 5 on second-and-6. “Bad play call. Should have run the ball downhill. Didn’t do it,” LaFleur said. On the next play, the Packers committed another error, this one Love airmailing it over tight end Tucker Kraft for an interception.
It’s not one thing the Packers need to fix in the red zone. When you’re as bad down there as they’ve been this season, it’s much more than that. Penalties, questionable play calls, drops, missed throws, missed blocks, you name it. And sometimes you just have to tip your cap on certain plays to a stout red zone defense like Chicago’s.
“I think we had some (opportunities), and obviously I think we left a couple plays out there, but like I said, they’re very good in the red zone and third down,” Love said. “We knew that coming into the game. Obviously, red zone, you want to put up more points. You want to finish a drive with touchdowns.”
If the Packers haven’t hit their stride in the red zone yet, is there time left to do so? Perhaps, if last year’s late-season offensive surge is any indication the team is capable of getting hot late on that side of the ball. For the number of opportunities the Packers left on the board in Chicago, they at least scored touchdowns on three of their five red zone trips.
Love caught the Bears with 12 men on the field and hit Reed down the seam for a 15-yard score on the opening drive. That’s keen awareness and execution. On Jacobs’ 7-yard touchdown run up the gut, center Josh Myers, right guard Sean Rhyan and right tackle Zach Tom created a substantial hole. That’s hitting your assignment, not missing it. Love willed the Packers into the end zone with his legs on another red zone trip, first scrambling 13 yards to the 1-yard line and then getting a little help from Kraft on the tush push.
Jordan Love to Jayden Reed!
📺: #GBvsCHI on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/8M42BPFiUs— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
The potential for execution and crisp play in the red zone is there. The Packers just need to exhibit it more efficiently if they want to reach their attainable ceiling this season.
“We know the stuff’s there,” Watson said. “We just got to execute better. … I feel like once we hit our stride, we’re going to be really good.”
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Sign Up
(Photo: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)
