Watching Super Bowl LVII on Sunday as a dejected Green Bay Packers fan, one of the biggest takeaways for me was not just the offensive firepower available to the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, but more so the efficiency with which both teams operated in the red zone. The two teams had very different approaches when closing in on the final yards, and the Packers could stand to learn a lesson or two on formulating a red-zone identity from the two best teams in the league.
You don’t get to 73 total points without a whole bunch of touchdowns, and the Chiefs and Eagles combined for nine of them on Sunday evening. If you take out Nick Bolton‘s defensive touchdown, seven of the eight offensive touchdowns came from inside the red zone. Only the deep pass play from Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown stood as the outlier. Besides that, Kansas City and Philadelphia’s offenses found ways to keep finding the end zone.
Philadelphia’s approach could not have been more straightforward. Their use of the quarterback sneak has received quite a bit of attention in recent weeks, and it was used to perfection on six(!) different occasions on Sunday. Hurts finished with three rushing touchdowns, plus a two-point conversion run, in an approach that made me jealous as a Packers fan. Green Bay rarely, if ever, uses Rodgers as a ball carrier in these types of situations. Having a running back nicknamed Quadzilla wasn’t the magical cure either, as A.J. Dillon came up short far too often this season.
On the opposite sideline, it wasn’t so much of the brawn as it was the beauty of the play design Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy brought to life in the Kansas City offense. The Chiefs scored a number of different ways in the red zone, including having one of the best tight ends of all time in Travis Kelce and a simple Isiah Pacheco run play. They also had two seemingly mirror-image short-pass plays to the flat, in which Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore waltzed into the end zone untouched.
Philadelphia’s approach worked because they committed to it, had the personnel to operate it, and ran it repeatedly because KC couldn’t stop it. For the Chiefs, Reid was clearly able to identify a weakness within the way that the Eagles passed off the offensive player moving in motion. Therefore, he went back to the well for two of the biggest play calls of his career.
This all comes in stark contrast to the manner in which the Packers ended their regular season, whimpering to the finish line at home in a loss to the Detroit Lions. Green Bay had an opportunity to blow the game wide open, even before halftime. However, after four trips into Lions’ territory, the Packers settled for three field goal attempts and added a turnover for good measure.
“Whether it was poor play design, or lack of execution or all of the above, it wasn’t good enough. We did a piss poor job in the red zone,” LaFleur said following the season-ending loss to Detroit. “I’ve said it before, sometimes you kick enough field goals, and you’ll get yourself beat.”
We can’t place all the blame on LaFleur. We’re all well aware that Aaron Rodgers ultimately decides what play is run after the ball is snapped. Whether Rodgers is back or if it’s Jordan Love at the helm, the Packers must find an identity within the red zone. Whether it’s doubling down on a power approach like the Eagles, or leaning into scheme and space like Kansas City, LaFleur needs to figure out a better way to operate within the red zone if the Packers want to have another sniff at the playoffs, much less the Super Bowl.
