Third Down Conversions
The final area the Buffalo Bills need to improve is getting off the field on third downs. Last season, the Bills ranked seventh in the NFL in third down conversions, allowing conversions on only 35.8% of third down attempts.
This season though, the Bills are near the bottom of the league and have allowed third down conversions 45.5% which is 19th in the league.
This has resulted in the average number of plays per drive to go up from 5.6 to 6.1 and nearly 10 more yards per drive from 26.2 yards to 35.3. The ability to extend drives this season has seen opponents averaging a full point more per drive from 1.29 to 2.34.
The good news is that the Bills offense has jumped even more in this category from 1.66 to 3.00 so it hasn’t resulted in losses yet. However, the margin of victory should be much larger with the improvements the offense has made. If the Buffalo Bills defense can improve these three areas, they should have more convincing victories than needing fourth quarter comebacks.