DON LANDRY – ARGONAUTS.CA COLUMNIST
TORONTO – First the good news: So far this season, the Toronto Argonauts have driven the ball into that mythical promised land of football known as “The Red Zone,” 14 times in 3 games. That would be 14 forays inside the opponent’s
20 yard line, for a very healthy average of nearly 5 per game. That is tops in the CFL, according to the league’s official weekly stats package.
Now the bad news: Out of those marches, the Boatmen have capped it off with a major score on 5 occasions. A quick little bit of mathematical gymnastics and you come up with a red zone touchdown efficiency rating of precisely 35.7 per cent. Additionally, 6 other trips have led to successful field goal attempts and only one has ended with a turnover.
For both the man designing the offence and the man executing it, that number is too low. As far as how MUCH too low, that is a point of contention.
“Coaches will tell you they want astronomical numbers,” began head coach Scott Milanovich. “But, I would like to be about 50 (per cent). If you’re above 50 and you’re getting down there 6 or 8 times (per game), you’re scoring some points.”
That’d be fine with quarterback Ricky Ray, but he actually has his sights trained a little higher than that.
“I’m not sure,” he said, thoughtfully. “Definitely we want to be better than 35 per cent. I mean, I’d like to say that 2 out of 3 times we’re scoring touchdowns.”
The coach and the QB may have slightly different numbers in mind, but they do agree completely on a couple of things. That the current conversion rate is not acceptable and that there really is nothing to be worried about.
“You can still win games without having a 90 per cent production level in the red zone,” offered Milanovich as he dismissed any real worry over stalled drives in the shadow of the opponents’ goal post. After all, he reasons, the numbers will even out by the time the regular season has drawn to a close. “You can’t get caught up in it,” he continued. “There’s trends that go on in a season where you’ll get hot in the red zone and you’ll score 7 in a row and then you’ll get sluggish,” he said.
With all that’s been written and said about the little things that have the Argos perched with a 1-2 record after three games when they could have been atop the East at a perfect 3-0, red zone touchdown efficiency seems to have taken a back seat to some other early season tribulations, such as penalties and special teams tackling. To be certain, a loss in Edmonton to start the year could have easily been a win if not for 18 Toronto penalties and a loss last weekend in Hamilton might have been a victory if not for TI-Cat receiver Chris Williams’ two kick returns for touchdowns.
That said, a little more mustard on those red zone excursions in the form of major scores could also have turned the tables.
It’s a point not lost on Ray.
“In a couple of our losses, if we were just able to score a few more touchdowns, it could have been “w’s” for us so we’ve just got try and continue to improve,” he said. “We’re moving the ball well and we’re coming away with points more times than not. When you lose, you start focusing on things that you need to improve on and that’s one area. A couple more touchdowns and we could have had some different results.”
He’s right, the Argos are moving the ball very well. Another look through the league’s weekly stats bears this out. The team is number one in net offence, on the strength of being ranked number two in both the running and passing games. Ray’s 937 aerial yards has him just 7 yards behind the league leader, Montreal’s Anthony Calvillo. In moving the sticks, the Argos offence stands second to Calgary, with 69 first downs compared to 70.
All rosy numbers, and when you consider the team is also tops in the CFL in yards-after-catch, the mystery of the red zone may indeed be one that is soon solved.
“Yeah, we want to score more touchdowns, but our guys need to keep doing what they’re doing and execute a little better down there and we’ll see more touchdowns,” said Milanovich.
Ray agrees with his coach. The little things inside the 20 yard line mean a lot.
“It’s been a mixed bag. It’s just little things that add up,” he said, of the breakdowns, penalties, and near-misses that have forced his crew off the field in favour of the field goal unit. It’s not that opposing defences are doing anything baffling, he argues. He pretty much knows what he is going to get when he spies the defence from behind centre.
“Obviously, the closer you get to the goal line, the more man coverage you’re going to get. Most defences are pretty similar. You might see a little more pressure, too, as you get into the score zone area. For the most part you’ve got expect it to be man coverage.”
Knowing what you’re facing and exploiting it are two different things, of course. Ray says Milanovich has done a good job of devising red zone schemes.
“We add new wrinkles every week, (for) when we get down there. New plays that try to break some of their tendencies or what we feel best is going to get a guy open. So, we’ve just got to do a better job of making those plays,” Ray concluded.
As for the coach, he reiterated his stance that a 35.7 per cent touchdown conversion rate is nothing that should get anyone too bent out of shape.
“When you move the ball between the twenties as well as we have and as well as well as we should be able to do throughout the season, as long as you don’t turn it over, and even if you do stall, you’re collecting points. If you can score touchdowns half the time, not ever turn it over and always walk away with points, it means you’re going to be pretty good at the end of the day.”
While the Argos offence is moving the ball effectively, Milanovich would like to see continued improvement from the offensive line, when it comes to keeping Ricky Ray protected on passing downs. He cautions against putting too much pressure on just the line, however.
“We’ve done a better job. Over three weeks, we’ve progressively gotten better up front. We’ve run the ball better, we’ve protected better.
Ricky’s still getting knocked down a few too many times – which would be ANY times – but it’s not just the offensive line. There’s a lot of issues at play there.”
Milanovich pointed to a number of things, outside of offensive line play, that could lead a quarterback to get belted. Extra protection from running backs, a ball held a little too long by Ray, or offensive planning that sees the QB in the same place too often, are all contributing factors.
Take a look at the CFL’s stats and you might be surprised to see that the Argos pass protection is more than holding its own, at least as far as sacks go. Thus far, there have been 125 drop backs by Ray (most in the league), with 5 sacks surrendered. That puts the Argos in second place in “sack frequency,” behind only the B.C.Lions.