Kansas City Chiefs Scoring By Field Position - Week 3

There are many factors that go into why teams score points in the NFL.  One of those factors is the staring field position on each drive.  The further away a team is from the end zone the less likely they are to keep a drive going long enough to score.

Against the San Francisco 49ers the Kansas City Chiefs moved the ball two or more zones 8 out of 12 possessions.  A football team that is moving the ball 2 or more zones a possession is a team that is not only winning the field position battle but a team that is scoring points.

Let's check out the numbers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kansas City Chiefs  - Field Position Scoring ------------------------------------------------------------------------

• The NFL averages are only approximates since I have grouped the starting field position into zones.

Chiefs Scoring By Field Position Chart

Scoring by Field Position:  Zone 5 Comments:

• With all the success that the Chiefs had against the 49ers they still have yet to score any points when starting their drives in zone 5. 
  
• The one area the Chiefs did improve when starting from zone 5 is the number of zones they travel before giving the ball back to the opposing team.  Last Sunday the Chiefs started from zone 5 twice.  One drive was a 6 play drive that traveled two zones an the other a 7 play drive that ended in an interception.
• A review of the Chiefs possessions when starting in zone 5 shows them running the ball around 64% of the time.  The first two runs on each possession being a run.
• Last week I wrote that for teams to score points from zone 5 they need bigger chunks of yardage to overcome the myriad of things that can go wrong when trying to sustain a long drive.  In the possession that ended in the INT the Chiefs had two plays over 15 yards.  Both runs were Jamaal Charles runs. 
  

Scoring by Field Position:  Zone 4 Comments:

• Most of the Chiefs drives this season are starting from zone 4:  77% of the time.
• Since zone 4 is the most frequent starting position the Chiefs need to improve the number of zones they travel and scoring from this zone.
• The Chiefs didn't travel any zones twice, traveled only 1 zone twice, and 3 zones twice.  Only one of those times did the Chiefs score.
• The Chiefs had 4 plays over 15 yards out of 33 plays from zone 4.  Guess which drives all 4 of those plays happened...that's right, the ones that they travel at least 3 zones (one of which they scored a TD and the other was a missed FG).

Scoring by Field Position:  Zone 3 Comments:

• The Chiefs finally put some points on the board after starting from zone 3.  In fact, the Chiefs started form zone 3 three times in the 49ers game and scored on each possession.
• One drive consisted of 6 passing plays (2 of 15yds or more) in a row concluding with a Succop field goal.  The second was a 2 play drive that consisted of 2 passing plays and one play of 15 yards or more.  And the final drive from zone 3 was a 7 play drive consisting of 7 running plays and 2 plays of 15 yards or more.
• The common theme here, as I have stated in my other posts regarding field position, is that teams need big chunks to move the ball through zones and into the end zone.  Every play doesn't need to be a big gainer...but when it comes to scoring from zones farther away from the end zone, you better have some people that can make a couple big plays or your drive is going to stall. 

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