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Red Zone Watch: Can Mississippi State keep up its success against Alabama?

By Talal Elmasry

Published: Nov 10, 2015 · 10:15 AM EST

We keep track of red zone stats for you each week.

OFFENSIVE RED ZONE STATISTICS

Based on what it’s done this season, Mississippi State should challenge Alabama in the red zone on both sides of the ball. Offensively, the Bulldogs lead the SEC and are 4th in the FBS in red zone touchdown percentage, getting in the end zone exactly 75 percent of the time (27 of 36 attempts).

Vanderbilt didn’t have a single red zone trip against Florida, so none of its percentages change and it remains at the bottom of the SEC in scoring percentage, coming away with points just 61.5 percent of the time.

It’s worth noting that Arkansas and Tennessee are the only two teams that rank among the top five in the conference in red zone attempts and touchdown percentage. Meanwhile, Missouri only gets in the end zone 31.8 percent of the time, which is dead last, not just in the SEC, but in the FBS.

This list is sorted by scoring percentage.

SCHOOL	GAMES	ATT	SCORES	SCORE%	TD	TD%	FG	FG%
1. LSU	8	32	29	90.6%	22	68.8%	7	21.9%
2. Kentucky	9	28	25	89.3%	17	60.7%	8	28.6%
3. Auburn	9	37	33	89.2%	21	56.8%	12	32.4%
4. Mississippi State	9	36	32	88.9%	27	75%	5	13.9%
5. Ole Miss	10	48	41	85.4%	28	58.3%	13	27.1%
6. Alabama	9	41	35	85.4%	24	58.5%	11	26.8%
7. Tennessee	9	42	35	83.3%	26	61.9%	9	21.4%
8. South Carolina	9	28	23	82.1%	12	42.9%	11	39.3%
9. Missouri	9	22	18	81.8%	7	31.8%	11	50%
10. Texas A&M	9	40	32	80%	23	57.5%	9	22.5%
11. Georgia	9	33	26	78.8%	15	45.5%	11	33.3%
12. Arkansas	9	41	32	78.1%	26	63.4%	6	14.6%
13. Florida	9	38	29	76.3%	24	63.2%	5	13.2%
14. Vanderbilt	9	26	16	61.5%	10	38.5%	6	23.1%

DEFENSIVE RED ZONE STATISTICS

As I mentioned before, Mississippi State should also challenge Alabama defensively in the red zone if you base that on the fact that the Bulldogs have only allowed a TD in the red zone 32.3 percent of the time, tied for 3rd-best among all FBS schools.

Vanderbilt (38.7) and Florida (42.9) join Mississippi State among the top 10 FBS schools in that department entering Week 11.

LSU has struggled defensively in the red zone this season, and it showed against Alabama, which scored on five of six trips there against the Tigers. The only trip in which the Tide didn’t score was at the very end of the game when Alabama was running the time out with no intention to score. That was just the second time in 23 opponent attempts that LSU had “prevented” a team from coming away with points.

Kentucky deserves some credit as opponents have entered the red zone 41 times against them, yet Kentucky ranks 3rd in the SEC by only allowing a score on 75.6 percent of those occasions.

SCHOOL	GAMES	ATT	SCORES	SCORE%	TD	TD%	FG	FG%
1. Georgia	9	24	17	70.8%	12	50%	5	20.8%
2. Vanderbilt	9	31	22	70.9%	12	38.7%	10	32.3%
3. Kentucky	9	41	31	75.6%	22	53.7%	9	21.9%
4. Tennessee	9	33	25	75.8%	17	51.5%	8	24.2%
5. Mississippi State	9	31	24	77.4%	10	32.3%	14	45.2%
6. Auburn	9	38	30	78.9%	22	57.9%	8	21.1%
7. Missouri	9	26	21	80.8%	12	46.2%	9	34.6%
8. Florida	9	21	17	80.9%	9	42.9%	8	38.1%
9. South Carolina	9	38	31	81.6%	24	63.2%	7	18.4%
10. Texas A&M	9	37	31	83.8%	16	43.2%	15	40.5%
11. Alabama	9	19	16	84.2%	10	52.6%	6	31.6%
12. Ole Miss	10	37	32	86.5%	19	51.4%	13	35.1%
13. Arkansas	9	38	33	86.8%	25	65.8%	8	21.1%
14. LSU	8	23	21	91.3%	17	73.9%	4	17.4%

Talal Elmasry

Born and raised in Gainesville, Talal joined SDS in 2015 after spending 2 years in Bristol as an ESPN researcher. Previously, Talal worked at The Gainesville Sun.