Packers Going for Gold in Red Zone

Actually, it's not the red zone. It's the gold zone, as offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett explained.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have been money in the red zone.

Until one failure apiece in each of the last two games, the Packers had scored touchdowns on 12 consecutive trips inside the 20-yard line.

Green Bay enters Sunday’s game at the Indianapolis Colts ranked fourth in the NFL with a touchdown rate of 73.5 percent. The NFL has tracked red-zone efficiency since 1998. Green Bay’s best was 68.1 percent in 2012.

Fun-loving offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has coined the red zone the “gold zone” in honor of the movie “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”

In the movie, Goldmember loved, well, gold.

“You see, Mr. Powers, I love gold. The look of it, the taste of it, the smell of it, the texture,” he told Powers, the quote hilariously going off the rails at that point.

“I don’t know if anybody’s seen the movie,” Hackett said. “It’s an ‘Austin Powers’ movie. Big fan of ‘Austin Powers.’ Really enjoyed those. And Goldmember is one of those guys that, he loves gold. And I think you’ve got to respect somebody that really loves gold. And for us, when you get inside the 20-yard line, you have a chance to score touchdowns we score, everybody gets gold. … I think that’s something that the guys have really bought into and they’ve learned to love and appreciate Goldmember and what he believes in, and we believe in a lot of the same stuff. Not the bad villain stuff but the get-the-gold stuff.”

The full quote is in the video.