It Is What It Is » Patriots’ improvement on third down helped pave way to Super Bowl title

If there’s one point I feel like I’m constantly hitting on, it’s the importance of third down on both sides of the ball. Defensively the Pats have struggled in recent years to get off the field, and even this year they were only 16th in the league. But that all changed in the playoffs when that rate dropped to 23.3%.

Offensively they were the best in the playoffs as well, with the two notable fourth quarter conversions to Edelman that basically saved the game.