Nobody would call moving the ball one of the St. Louis Rams strengths this season. Scoring was, once again, hard to come by for Spagnuolo's group this week, for several reasons. However, offense lovers did get some relief from the endless procession of three-and-outs as the Rams set a season high for third down conversions against the Texans this week, converting 8 of 15 third down attempts. The 53 percent conversion rate was the highest of the season.
On fifteen third downs during the game, the Rams had an average distance of 6.9 yards to convert it for a first. Naturally, that meant they had to throw the ball plenty, 11 times in fact. The Rams were successful on 5 of those 11 pass attempts. Two of the unsuccessful throws came on third-and-12 and third-and-19.
They ran the ball four times on third down, converting three attempts. Each run came on third-and-1 or third-and-2. Shurmur called a pass on one third-and-2, Null's TD to Danny Amendola.
Now, third down conversions mean nothing if you can't move the ball well enough to score, but for the Rams of 2009, this is measurable progress and something to build on for next week and beyond.