Top 5 storylines to follow for Buffalo Bills vs. Miami Dolphins | Week 9

One area the Bills have wanted to clean up this season is third down. On offense and defense, they rank in the bottom half of the NFL, but last week, they turned it around.

Against the Seahawks, Buffalo’s offense converted 53% of their third down opportunities (8/15). On defense, the Bills held Seattle to just one for seven (17%) on third down chances.

Sean McDermott said their success had to do with what happened on first and second downs.

“I think more than anything, it was yards to go,” McDermott explained. “When you looked at our offense’s yards to go on third downs, I think it was approximately around five yards to go. Defensively, I think it was beyond. I think it was upwards of 9, 10, 11 yards to go on third downs for their offense.

“So, that’s certainly a big help. That’s a first step when you’re winning first and second down and then the execution on third down as well, on both sides of the ball.”

Ahead of last week’s game, offensive coordinator Joe Brady said the coaching staff challenged the offense to sustain drives and was happy with how the team answered.

“I think a lot of it was a good job with communication, all being on the same page and just doing the simple better,” Brady said. “We were able to overcome some of the things that we weren’t able to overcome with past games and it allowed us to sustain drives.”

McDermott said executing on third downs goes back to the team’s preparation during the week.

On defense, the Dolphins are the second-best on third down allowing conversions just 30.9% of the time. On offense, Miami is converting 38.5% of their third downs (18^th). We’ll see if Buffalo can build off their strong performance last week.