Big Ten offenses struggle when entering red zone

LINCOLN, Neb. — For all the drama of Illinois’ nineovertime win at Penn State, the game was illustrative of the difficulties many Big Ten teams are encountering when their offenses get near the goal line.

The Big Ten’s 14 teams have combined for the conference’s lowest scoring rate in at least 10 years in the red zone, the area inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

The Illinois-penn State

overtimes were marked by passes overthrown, underthrown, dropped and broken up, and runs that got

stuffed, before Brandon Peters connected with Casey Washington to produce the Illini’s 20-18 win.

“It is definitely a great example of how difficult it can be to score and get

quality plays down there,” Nebraska quarterback Adrian Martinez said.

Just past the midway point of the season, Big Ten offenses have scored on

80.6% of their trips inside the 20, including touchdowns on 55.6%. Both

marks are lowest among the Power Five conferences and, among the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision leagues, only better than Conference USA’S rates of 80.4% and 50.4%, respectively.

No. 5 Ohio State is the outlier. The Buckeyes lead the nation with touchdowns on 79.3% of their red-zone possessions (23 of 29) and they’re tied for fifth

in overall red-zone scoring at 96.6% (28 of 29).

But seven Big Ten teams rank 100th and lower in overall red-zone scoring;

nine are 99th and lower in red-zone touchdowns.

The degree of difficulty naturally increases as an offense approaches the end zone because the field becomes compacted vertically; there is is simply less room within which to stretch a defense. Martinez said that’s magnified in the Big Ten because most of the teams have strong defenses and the general offensive

style lends itself to fewer possessions.

“You have to execute and be precise on the details,” Martinez said. “There’s already less room for error in the Big Ten, and so in the red zone that margin for error is even smaller.”

Wisconsin defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard

said stopping the run is an emphasis across the Big Ten, and that plays a big role. Ohio State leads the

nation in red-zone rushing at 5.5 yards per carry, but

seven Big Ten teams are averaging less than 2.5 inside the 20.