ORCHARD PARK – As much as it surely drives you crazy as a fan to watch the Buffalo Bills’ defense give up third-down conversions, especially those bang your head against the wall third-and-longs, imagine what it’s like for defensive coordinator Bobby Babich and his players.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” nickel cornerback Taron Johnson said Wednesday.
Scream all you want when opposing teams extend drives against Buffalo, but no one gets more aggravated when the Bills can’t get off the field than the coaches who then question their schemes and play calls, and the players who don’t execute them.
“I think two things there,” Babich said. “I could help ‘em with calls, and we’ve got to be able to execute and make sure our rush and coverage is working together. We know what the weaknesses are of every call that we’re in and if they attack one of the weaknesses, it’s my job to put us in a different call. And so, we’ll certainly address that, get it corrected and look to be better next time.”
In the opener against Baltimore, the Bills allowed Lamar Jackson and company to convert on 6 of 11 third downs and that helped the Ravens score 40 points that night.
The Bills then had the luxury of playing the anemic Jets in Week 2 and by winning on the early downs, they put quarterback Justin Fields in difficult third-down situations and the Jets went 0-for-11 which, even for them, was rather astonishing.
But the problems returned against the Dolphins who went 10-for-15, and that was nearly enough for Miami to pull off an upset victory.
Against the Ravens and Dolphins combined, the Bills’ defense allowed a 61.5% success rate which would rank as the worst in the league by a huge amount, but then you mix in the Jets’ game and that improves the season rate to 43.2%, though that still ranks a not-so-great 23rd.
This continues a trend that haunted the Bills in 2024 when they finished 29th in third-down defense, allowing conversions 43.7% of the time, and when you look at it, it’s never just one thing that has broken down. Sometimes there’s no pass rush and the coverage can’t hold up, and at other times the coverage breaks down immediately.
“Third-and-7 plus, those are situations as a defense, if you want to be a good defense, you shut them down right there and the drive goes no further,” McDermott said. “The week before it was really good, this (past) week not good enough. It’s an important piece of being a good defense, though, and playing complementary football with the offense.”
What has been most maddening is that the Bills have actually performed well on the early downs, only to give it up on third down.
“It’s a good sign that we’re playing some good football on first and second down,” McDermott said. “We’re beginning to understand the importance of gap integrity on early downs. We’re beginning to understand the importance of rushing and coverage working together. And we’re getting ourselves into some good third-down situations. But then there’s another level of the mentality that you’ve got to take into those third-down windows and situations, and then the execution that has to unfold in those as well.”
In the games against the Ravens and Dolphins, there were 17 plays where those teams passed when they had third-and-6 or longer, and they converted seven of them. Those are such gut punches.
“We felt like we were winning first and second down, getting to third-and-long, and just weren’t detailed and finishing those drives,” Bernard said. “I don’t know what the stats were in the second half (Miami went just 2-for-5), but it felt like we got off a little bit more. But yeah, that’s something we’ll go back and look at. Last week we did really well, and this week it wasn’t as good. So it’ll be good to go back and see the things that we need to get corrected.”
And that will be on Babich to find ways to improve in that area.
“To get ‘em into 16 third and fourth downs, that’s excellent, but we got to get off the field and our guys know it’s not good enough,” Babich said, speaking of the Miami game. “We knew it the whole game and certainly I’ll do everything I can to put ‘em in position to do that and do a better job there.”
The Saints’ offense has not been proficient in many areas, and part of the problem has been inefficiency on third down as they rank 26th with a conversion rate of 35%.
As long as the Bills defend well against Alvin Kamara and the run game, they should have a distinct advantage on third down against inexperienced quarterback Spencer Rattler who is now 0-9 as a starter in the NFL following last week’s 44-13 loss in Seattle.
“I feel like that’s something that, I’m not saying we easily can fix it, but we can fix it,” Johnson said.
One thing to watch, though, is the Bills’ personnel deployments because the Saints have used plenty of no-huddle in the first three games, so the Bills will have to be sharp in making sure they have the right defenders on the field and understanding the calls in a hastened manner.
“I just think making sure our players are aware of it and ready for it,” McDermott said. “They’ve used it pretty much in all three games and it’s a big part of their offense. So because of that, it has to be a piece of our defense this week. And the things that come from it are multiple. So I know our guys are doing a good job with that as they prepare.”
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Saints game could be turning point for Bills’ third down woes
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
