Seahawks 3rd Down Notebook: Week 17, Cardinals

The Seahawks turned in another stellar performance on 3^rd down versus the Cardinals in Week 17, going 8 of 15 (53.3%) for the game. When the Seahawks were actually running their "real" offense and not winding down the clock late, they were closer to 7 of 11 (63.6%).

The Seahawks closed the season with a string of seven performances on 3^rd down all over 52%. During the last 7 games they were 61 of 98 (better than 8 of 14 on a per game basis) on 3^rd down for a whopping 62.2% average. The Seahawks improved their performance on 3^rd down in every category I track in the last 7 games compared to the first 9 games

1-2 Yards: 64% to 75%
3-6 Yards: 35.6% to 65.7% (a 30% improvement!)
7-15 Yards: 31.4% to 54.3%
15+ Yards to go: 0.0% to 50%

More details on the flip on 3^rd down in the last seven games are below:

A few things that jump out:

(1) Seattle improved their season-long average up to 48.8% (this includes penalty conversions and excludes kneel-downs).

(2) In the last seven games, Seattle was over 50% on 3^rd downs over 7 yards, and 50% on 3^rd downs over 15 yards!

(3) In the last seven games, Seattle went 23 of 35 (65.7%) in the ultra-important 3-6 yard to go distance (up from 35.6% in the first nine games).

(4) How has the 62.2% performance on 3^rd down manifested itself into points? Seattle averaged 32 points per game in the last seven games, and scored 29 points or more in six of the last seven games.

(5) Post bye, Seattle scored 256 points (32 PPG) after scoring only 167 in the first 8 weeks (20.9 PPG).

(6) Seattle was able to funnel 37.3% of all 3^rd downs into the 3-6 yard to go category (80 of 213), and was able to pay that off in the last seven games -- after a poor 16 of 45 performance (35%) from that distance in the first nine games.

(7) In the last seven games, Seattle converted eight 3^rd downs six times, and converted seven 3^rd downs vs Pittsburgh.  In three games, Seattle converted TEN third downs (MIN, CLE, STL).  In the first nine games, Seattle converted seven 3^rd downs only once. 

More to come...