Bend but don't Break

[alabamagrizzly]

Montana's red zone D has been pretty good this year. Currently we are 1st in the con and 33rd in the league. What really stands out though is lack of touchdowns teams score when they get in the red zone. 73% of the time we stop them from scoring a TD which will demoralize most teams (except No Dak St). Below is a ranking of all the teams that stop opposing offenses from scoring TD's more the 50%.

rank_team________games_O-TD/att_O-TD%
1st Alcorn_____________5g__2/12__17%
--- Stony Brook_________5g__2/12__17%
3rd Montana_________5g__4/15__27%
4th Illinois St___________3g__2/7__29%
5th Tennessee St________5g__2/6__33%
--- Coastal Carolina______5g__3/9__33%
--- Georgetown__________5g__4/12__33%
--- Brown_______________2g__2/6__33%
9th NC A&T_____________5g__7/20__35%
10th Robert Morris_______4g__8/22__36%
11th Charleston Southern_5g__3/8__38%
--- Chattanooga_________4g__5/13__38%
12th Eastern Kentucky___4g__5/12__42%
--- Villinova____________4g__5/12__42%
14th North Dakota St____4g__3/7__43%
--- Norfolk St___________5g__6/14__43%
--- Fordham____________5g__6/14__43%
--- Missouri St__________4g__6/14__43%
18th Sacred Heart______4g__4/9___44%
--- Texas Southern______5g__7/16__44%
--- Butler______________4g__7/16__44%
--- South Carolina St____5g__8/18__44%
22nd Youngstown St____5g__5/11__45%
--- Albany_____________4g__5/11__45%
--- Indiana St__________4g__5/11__45%
--- South Dakota St_____4g__5/11__45%
--- Bucknell___________4g__5/11__45%
27th Bethune-Cookman_5g__6/13__46%
28nd Mercer__________5g__7/15__47%
--- Maine_____________4g__7/15__47%
30thFlorida A&M______4g__10/21__48%
--- Delaware St_______5g__13/27__48%

Some cool side notes about this list. Only seven of the top 31 teams have allowed more red zone opputunites then us yet we are still third in the country. Few teams are even close. Theres 123 teams in the FCS and only 31 are under 50% and only 11 are under 40%. Just four of us are under 30%.

In the Big Sky it's not even close. No one is under 50% besides us and five of the teams give up TD's almost 75% or more. We also play the three worst teams on this list.

Big Sky Con standings
1st Montana_________5g__4/15__27%
2nd Northern Colorado__4g__6/12__50%
--- UC Davis___________4g__10/20__50%
4th Southern Utah______5g__14/25__56%
--- Portland St_________4g__14/25__56%
6th Montana St_________5g__11/18__61%
7th North Dakota_______5g__10/16__63%
8th Idaho St____________4g__11/17__65%
9th Weber St___________5g__13/18__72%
10th Northern Arizona___5g__14/19__74%
11th Eastern Washington_5g__12/16__75%
12th Sacramento St_____5g__16/21__76%
13th Cal Poly__________4g__11/13__85%

 

[reinell30]

Be careful with insightful posts like this. Some EGrizzers were asking for Gregorak to resign or be fired...They may not like these stats....

 

[Gallatin Griz]

Sweet post alabama!

 

[grizindabox]

I thought this was going to be a post about the offense... :mrgreen:

 

[Copper Griz]

I personally was impressed with MSU and and EWU's high ranking.

 

[marceagfan5]

75% for EWU, ouch...but I guess thats one stop a game and all that the O needs.

Impressive numbers for the Griz...

 

[EverettGriz]

Sweet post alabama!

How long you been waitin' to use that one??

 

[DPGriz4]

That kind of percentage is unsustainably high. What is encouraging is that 3 RZ possessions/game is the lowest rate in the Big Sky (tied with NoCo), best way to keep teams from scoring RZ touchdowns is by keeping them out of the Red Zone.

 

[bigforkgriz]

That kind of percentage is unsustainably high. What is encouraging is that 3 RZ possessions/game is the lowest rate in the Big Sky (tied with NoCo), best way to keep teams from scoring RZ touchdowns is by keeping them out of the Red Zone.

Our red zone stats are nice, but I agree I would much rather have NDSU's where they have had only 7 red zone appearances by their opponents. It is more of a "don't bend" defense. It also has to do with their time of possession offense.

 

[PhxGriz]

Be careful with insightful posts like this. Some EGrizzers were asking for Gregorak to resign or be fired...They may not like these stats....

You think those percentages have anything to do with Gregorak? The same mind that just allowed a team to march down the field is going to pull magic out his arse all of a sudden?

Good one dude. Its the players-they are studs, not Gregorak.