Third down becoming the hot stat
WGR’s Nick Mendola may have been on to something when he pointed out the Bills were not very good on third downs this past sunday. Well with ESPN radio’s Colin Cowherd’s revelation, , the Bills need to clearly improve on third downs offensively if they are going to get into the playoffs.
Cowherd like many strong opinionated people is a polarizing figure. It is either you love him or completely hate him just lie the Coach Chuch Dickerson.
However, with the revelation that somebody in Las Vegas takes into consideration third down convertion rate on offense, clearly the Bills have to improve on that situation if they are going to play with the big boys.
Cowherd went on to state that the top teams in the league are teams with good thrid down convertion rate, except only the Jets.
With the team only at 32 percent for the whole year it is pretty obvious what is the offenses probelm is.
The top teams in the league are at, or around, 50 percent. So, when the Bills go up against those teams do not expect the Bills to have the ball much.
The four losses by the Bills this year were agains teams in the top six on third downs. Also of the last ten games half of them are against teams 11th or better in third down percentage.
Thise teams are the New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, and the New York Jets.
If as the theory goes the team with the ball more wins with the Bills current record they would go 7-9. Considering the amount of injuries that is not bad at all.
So, the Bils fate lay in two peoples hands Bills offensice coordinator Steve Fairchild, and quarterback Trent Edwards. If they both find out what it takes to convert on third downs then they will win a lot of games.