If you have caught any Buffalo Bills games this season - and let's face it, if you're here, you've probably seen them all - you are by now keenly aware of the team's struggles to convert 3rd and 1 situations into first downs. In the quick All-22 slides above, we wanted to take a look at three such plays from Sunday's win over the Baltimore Ravens.
On those three third downs, the Bills converted just one into a first down. All three plays were run out of the same personnel grouping and alignment; the first two running plays didn't work because of blocking breakdowns, but the third, a designed pass, was made possible by the first two plays nonetheless.
Note that three plays is hardly enough to make a sweeping generalization about the team's struggles on the whole, but in this particular contest, the major problem was blocking. Scott Chandler, in particular, looked bad on two of the three short-yardage plays in question.
Playing against another excellent defensive front seven this week in the Cleveland Browns, this should be a major area of emphasis for Buffalo's coaches as they continue to try to sustain drives and eat up more clock with their run-first, hurry-up offense.