The New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills are two of the worst defenses in the NFL when it comes to getting off the field. Teams have converted 45.9 percent of their third down attempts against the Saints. That is the sixth worst rate in the NFL.
The Bills aren't much better. They find themselves in the bottom 10 in the league as well. Their defense has allowed a 43.9 percent conversion rate is the tenth worst. This may come down to who is able to fix their third down woes.
What makes Buffalo's standing so fascinating is the Jets had 11 third down attempts in their Week 2 showdown against the Bills and converted none of them. That's one way to bolster a defense's conversion rate, but the Bills still found their way to the bottom of the league.
Saints improvements versus the Seahawks were fool's gold
Yes, you read that right. There was technically an improvement that came from New Orleans' sloppy performance versus Seattle. The Saints only allowed the Seahawks to three of their nine third down conversion attempts. It is the only time a Saints opponent converted less than half of their conversion attempts on third down.
It's easy to point to the second unit coming into the game for why the Saints defense was more effective. However, the Seattle backups actually converted two of four third down attempts.
It's fool's gold because Seattle rarely needed to go to third down with the starters. They excelled on first and second down, so there's no reason to use third down defense as a feather in the Saints' caps. Additionally, the failed attempts were mostly due to penalties on that set of downs that put the Seahawks behind the sticks
Can Spencer Rattler and the Saints take advantage of Bills' deficiencies?
The Dolphins converted 10 of 15 third down attempts in Week 3. It's doubtful the Saints will recreate that level of success, but hopefully the Bills' struggles help the Saints kick their own struggles. They've only converted 35 percent of their third down attempts, seventh worst in the league.
Either the Saints or Bills have to break their trend for at least a week. In order for New Orleans to be the team that seizes the opportunity, they'll have to minimize penalties that lead to longer third downs. Obvious passing situations against a team who allows the second least amount of yards per game won't work in the Saints favor.
The run game is the Saints' way to success, but they need to be put in positions to use it. That also makes things easier on Rattler. Instead of asking Rattler to go blow for blow with Josh Allen in a battle of heroics, put Rattler in situations that maximize his chances of success.