Third down conversion percentage

An American football team’s “third down conversion percentage” shows how well they turn third downs into first downs. This is what it means in full:

A down is a play or attempt to move the ball forward in American football. Each team has four downs, which means four chances to move the ball 10 yards. Anytime they move the ball 10 yards, they get a new set of four downs.

Third Down: You have three tries out of a possible four. If a team fails to move the ball 10 yards after three downs, they usually have to decide what to do on fourth down: try to convert on fourth down or kick the ball away (for a punt or a field goal).

In this situation, a “conversion” means getting the extra yards needed for a first down. Getting enough yards on third down to cover the last 10 yards from where the set of downs started is what this means.

Finding the Percentage: To find the third down conversion percentage, divide the number of successful third down conversions by the total number of third down tries. The most common way to show this number is as a percentage. For instance, if a team tries 10 third downs and only gets 5 of them to lead to first downs, their third down conversion rate is 50% (5 downs, 10 attempts).

This number is significant because it shows how well a team can keep the ball and keep going on the attacking drive. Teams that are good at offense usually have high third down conversion rates. This is because they can keep runs going and score more often.