Arizona Cardinals center’s comments on red-zone offense are more accurate than you think
By Sion Fawkes
When you lose a football game 26 to 9, it’s clear you just struggled through an awful outing. But the Arizona Cardinals offense found themselves in the red zone three times, they just couldn’t finish the job. And it allowed the Los Angeles Rams to ultimately break open a huge lead.
Per Pro-Football-Reference, the Cardinals have a red zone conversion percentage of just 50 percent, tied for 20th in the NFL. Therefore, center Hjalte Froholdt’s comments following yesterday’s loss may come as a shocker to you regarding the team’s overall performance inside the 20-yard line.
""I feel like we've been fairly successful in the red zone. I feel we've been good at executing and [the Rams] had a good plan and out-executed us today, so our hats off to them, hats off to their front seven for winning those matchups. But you got to win one-on-ones.""
- Hjalte Froholdt
Source: 'It's very frustrating': Red zone woes holding Cardinals back by Josh Weinfuss, ESPN.com
Hjalte Froholdt is correct about the Arizona Cardinals red zone offense
Despite the meager 50 percent conversion percentage from the Cardinals offensive line, it really isn’t as bad as it looks. Before the Redbirds went a paltry 0 for 3 in Sunday’s loss to the Rams, the Cards were a solid 8 for 13 in converting their red zone opportunities into touchdowns, good for a percentage of 61.5.
Therefore, the Arizona Cardinals aren’t half-bad when they drive deep into an opponent’s territory; they just had one terrible game when they found themselves inside the 20. They are also still converting their red zone drives into some form of points 81.3 percent of the time, so once again, it shows us that the Cards red zone offense isn’t as bad as advertised this past Sunday.
Despite Froholdt’s words and the numbers backing up his claims, the Cards still need to find a way to redeem themselves from last week’s pedestrian outing inside the 20. If they can’t fix their recent red zone woes, then Froholdt’s comments will hold less water this time next week.
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(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference and ESPN.com)