Red Zone 2012

One of the Tide's problems last year was an inability to finish drives strong. While red zone production was a respectable 88%, only 55% of the red zone scoring was for touchdowns. This year's campaign is off to a much better start.

In five trips into the red zone this season, the Tide has scored all five times. Most importantly, all five of the scores have been touchdowns. Of course, this is only two games in, but it is still a very hopeful sign. Western Kentucky fielded a sporty defense against Bama. Let's break it down and see exactly how the scoring went:

Michigan

Alabama had three red zone opportunities against the Wolverines. They scored two rushing touchdowns, a 9-yard run by Eddie Lacey and a 1-yard by TJ Yeldon. The other touchdown was a 2-yard pass to Mike Williams.

Western Kentucky

Bama had two trips into the zone in this game. They scored touchdowns on a 14-yard pass to Christion Jones and a 12-yard pass to Kevin Norwood.

This is encouraging to me. A mix of running and passing, and a mix of players doing the scoring. Also, take note of the WKU game. The ground game wasn't really getting it done all through that game, but we were able to turn to the passing game to not only move the ball downfield on longer passes, but to punch it in from the red zone.

All in all, these look to be developing trends, and I am very happy to see them. Hopefully they will continue to garner good results.

Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer
Give 'em hell
Alabama!