Bills replay: Third downs have become nightmare
The Buffalo Bills' offensive coaches went to work Monday studying their problems on third downs.
They have a lot of studying to do.
The Bills are converting just 26 percent of their third-down chances into first downs. That rate would be the worst percentage for a full season in the NFL in four years, since San Francisco converted 24 percent in 2005. It would be the second worst in Bills history, ahead of only the 1997 offense.
Third-down situations were a big problem in the Bills' 31-10 loss to Houston on Sunday. The Bills converted just 2 of 10, and that was a key reason they were on the field only 20:52.
"You've got to succeed more on third down," Bills coach Dick Jauron said Monday.
"It was a tough one to sleep on with the way we performed, with the way I performed," said quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. "We're glad there's a bye week because we have a lot of stuff to figure out. The biggest thing is we have to figure out the problem on third downs."
The maddening thing for the Bills was they were not in many third-and-long situations against the Texans.
Six of the 10 situations were third and 5 or shorter. The Bills converted none of those.
But that's nothing new this season.
The Bills are just 1 of 7 on third and 2 this season.
They are 2 of 12 on third and 3.
A decent offense should convert 60 percent of those plays.
Jauron was asked if he would try to add a significant number of new plays during the bye week or increase the terminology of the offense in order to expand on what the offense is doing.
"Every week I think every team adds a few twists, a few relatively new things," Jauron said. "But it's hard to add a lot."
"Alex and I talked about that very thing this morning," Jauron said of how much to expand the offense. "When you watch the video, it's not like [the opponents]) know what we're doing. It's not like they have it figured out. Now they're good. They make plays, and we don't. But when you look at first and second down, our third-down situations were not insurmountable. We just failed to do it. ...
"The longest one was third and 8. So we were putting ourselves in situations where you'd think you would succeed. And we didn't succeed."
On the first third-down play, a third and 3, the timing between Fitzpatrick and intended receiver Josh Reed, who was open, seemed off. Fitzpatrick's pass sailed too high and incomplete.
The Bills gave up pressure on blitzes on a third-and-3 play in the first quarter and a third-and-5 play in the second. Fitzpatrick was sacked both times.
A third-and-goal play from the 3 resulted in an incomplete pass on a fade route for Terrell Owens. The throw was good, and the route was good, but the Texans' defender made an excellent break-up.
The Bills had a third-and-3 screen pass well set up in the third quarter, but Fitzpatrick's throw for Marshawn Lynch was a bit too far, and he couldn't haul it in. With the pass game struggling, the Bills tried to run on third-and-2 late in the third quarter. But Fred Jackson was stopped for no gain.
Fitzpatrick said he could have handled the pressure a little better.
"Our guys up front, they played well," he said. "I think they rebounded from the Carolina game. There were some times I think where I might have been a little skittish back there, just in terms of feeling some color [opposing team jerseys] and trying to run out instead of stepping to the side or stepping up."
"We've tried to change some things to give us a better chance," Jauron said. "It's just not one thing. Something seems to happen. We had a number of big-play possibilities. And you take a sack. Or when you get the protection, it doesn't seem like down the field it's what you're looking for. We have a few days to review it."
Actually, the Bills are not the worst team in the league on third downs this year. They're ranked 30th. Cleveland is 31st at 24.8 percent, and Kansas City is 32nd at 21 percent.
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