Oakland Raiders: 5 things that must improve against the Arizona Cardinals
By Kevin Saito
1. Third-Down Conversions
It seems like a simple formula to success — convert your third-down opportunities, keep the ball moving, eat up the clock, wear the other defense out, and keep their offense off the field.
But with a third-down conversion rate of just 37 percent last season, the Raiders were a middle of the pack-ish team — nineteenth in the league to be precise. They weren’t terrible but they weren’t great at converting those third-down opportunities either.
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Against the Rams, Oakland converted six of their fourteen third-down opportunities — a success rate of 43 percent. And while that’s an improvement and something to build on, there is a lot more work to do in that department.
Especially when you consider the NFL leader in that category last season (Indianapolis) converted on nearly half of their third-down opportunities. The Colts hit on 49 percent of their third downs to be precise.
To find the sort of offensive success they hope to have this season, the Raiders will need to be closer to the numbers the Colts put up rather than their middle to lower end of the pack numbers they posted last season.
A five percent difference may not seem like much but it can often mean the difference between winning and losing a game.
Against the Cardinals, the Raiders will need to build on the successes they had on third down against the Rams and push that successful conversion percentage even higher to get to where they want to go this season.