The hallmark of the New Orleans Saints since 2006 has been their offense. That was the year that Sean Payton and Drew Brees came to the Big Easy. But, in 2017, there was a serious chink in the armor of that unit. All of a sudden, the unstoppable scoring machine was having trouble converting third downs.
The problem with third downs wasn’t a minor issue. It was a pretty steep drop-off from seasons prior. In 2016, for example, the Saints were converting 48.6-percent of their third down attempts. It was 47.7-percent in 2015.
In 2017, the third down conversion rate fell to 37.