On to our weekly red zone update post. Many thanks to Comcast for sponsoring BTSC and the other SBN football blogs this season. Their Red Zone Channel continues to received rave reviews so if you find yourself frustrated watching out of market games and are missing more football than you should each week, check out the channel and consider at least catching each and every play league wide inside the 20 yard line.
On to the numbers.
Week 10 Red Zone Efficiency
4 trips, 4 FGs
2009 Cumulative Red Zone Efficiency:
31 Trips; 15 TDs; 13 FGs; 1 missed FG, 2 turnoves - 48.3 % TD efficiency (-7.3%) 90.3 % scoring efficiency (+1.4%)
The Steelers performance in the red zone was devastating on Sunday. Even one successful trip inside the Bengals 20 and Pittsburgh likely wins and captures first place atop the AFC North. Their struggles continued though and now Bruce Arians must go back to the drawing board and rethink his play-calling strategy in the area of the field where the windows are smaller to throw the ball. Ben's touchdown throw to Hines Ward against the Broncos was a thing of beauty, but even it required perfect execution to avoid being deflected by a Broncos defender. Not sure what the answer is but the Steelers better get it figured out sooner rather than later. Despite the issues though punching it in to the endzone, Steelers fans can at least feel good about Jeff Reed's kicking this past month and a half after his struggles earlier in the year.