It sounds obvious, but how a team performs when they get the ball in the red zone is important. If you don’t believe me, just watch the final few plays of Tech’s game winning drive against Southern Miss on Saturday night.

It took until fourth down, but Luke Anthony and Griffin Hebert were able to punch it in and take the lead. That play clearly decided the game, but how a team performs in the red zone in general often decides which team wins and which teams loses.

So while Houston Baptist’s offensive numbers look scary on the surface (over 1,000 passing yards across two games against FBS opponents), let’s take a look at where the Huskies have struggled.

No, I’m not talking about the rushing attack that has averaged less than 60 yards per game.

No, I’m not talking about the defense that allowed 729 yards to a Mason Fine-less North Texas team in Week 1.

And no, I’m not talking about the Husky kicker that has a field goal percentage in line with a coin flip.

So, I guess the Houston Baptist team that only fell to Texas Tech a week ago by two points has a few issues, but among them is their red zone offense.

The worst team in FBS football in the red zone last year was Georgia Tech, who scored on only 16 of their 27 trips inside the 20. The average points per red zone trip for the Yellow Jackets was 3.85 in 2019.

That is a bad red zone offense. But Houston Baptist has found a way to be even worse:

Well, that was just one game. Surely, the Huskies would be better in the red zone against the Big 12 team they almost upset:

Georgia Tech was able to score on 59% of their red zone trips last year. The second worst team (Maryland) score on 66% of their chances near the goal line.

Houston Baptist is at 50%.

The average points per red zone trip is exactly 3. If the Huskies simply kicked (and made) a field goal as soon as they hit the 20 yard line, they’d score just as many points and save us all some time.

Even if we include all drives that Houston Baptist brought inside their opponents 40, things don’t look any less bleak:

And while Southern Miss scored on all of their redzone chances this past weekend (the early turnover on downs happened at the 22 yard line), Tech’s defense inside the 20 was phenomenal.

The Bulldog defense was #1 in preventing points backed up to their goal line in 2019. Granted, 2019 was more-or-less a decade ago, and Tech employed a different defensive coordinator.

But it’s starting to look like we might be about to see what happens when a very stoppable force meets an immovable object on Saturday night.

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Nathan is also a contributor to gtpdd.dog, a lighthearted Louisiana Tech blog. Be sure to check out @gotechplsdntdie on Twitter.