Eagles’ red zone defense key to early success

Fifteen. That’s the number of offensive plays the Atlanta Falcons ran inside the red zone against the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles. Fifteen plays from inside the 20-yard line.

The worst red zone team in the NFL last year, the Denver Broncos, converted 40% of their trips inside the 20 into touchdowns. Last Thursday, the Falcons had one success in five visits. The math is simple; it was a catastrophic display of poor play-calling and execution.

The worst part for the Falcons and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian is nobody that was paying attention was shocked by this result.