I'm glad you asked, Marshall Faulk, because this gives me a good reason to go back and check the effectiveness of the San Diego Chargers' two-minute offense under Mike McCoy!
My first thought is, because the team is not great in the red zone, that their two minute offense probably does not often get into the end zone. Let's see what the numbers say....
2014 (So Far)
The Chargers have had two late 4th quarter drives while losing so far this year.
- Against the Oakland Raiders last week, San Diego got the ball down by four with 4:43 left. Two quick passes by Philip Rivers were followed up by four runs by Branden Oliver, the last being a 1-yard run into the end zone.
- Against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 1, the Chargers got the ball down by one with 2:25 left. Three consecutive incomplete passes, the last on 4th & 2, turned the ball (and the win) over to the Cardinals.
I'm putting them down for 1-1 in late game-winning drives so far this year.
2013
Since Marshall said the team was down by six, and therefore needing a TD, I'm going to ignore all of the times the team was down by 3 and got the ball back with 5 minutes left and ended up with a FG.
As far as scenarios where the team needed a TD and had to go into their "red zone offense" last season, there were really only two instances...
- Against the Dolphins in Week 11, the Chargers trailed the Dolphins 20-16 and got the ball back with 1:54 left to play. The team was able to get all the way to Miami's 25 before running out of time and losing the game.
- The very next week, in a shootout with the Chiefs, the Chargers were again down by four and getting the ball back with 1:22 left to play. This time, before they ran out of time, Philip Rivers hit Seyi Ajirotutu for a 26-yard touchdown and the win.
So, again, 1-1.
With the game on the line, down by six points, and two minutes left....the Chargers have about a 50% chance of winning. That's actually not terrible. Also, since they did it to the Chiefs last year in Kansas City, I'm going to say they'd have a good chance of doing it to them this year in San Diego, if need be.
Join the #GMCPlaybook discussion at sbnation.com/sponsored-gmc-playbook and on Twitter by following @thisisgmc & @marshallfaulk.