When I think about the most important things that a team needs to be good at to succeed in the modern NFL, my mind always goes to third down. Most of the time, the best teams are the ones that can stay on the field on offense and get off the field on defense. And that consistently comes back to having success on third down. Yes, success on earlier downs makes third downs easier, but even then, there come several crucial moments in most NFL games where a team needs to execute on a third and medium or third and long. Outside of blowouts, which are ultimately fairly uncommon in the NFL, those are the plays where games get decided most of the time. And what happens on those plays that’s different? Mostly, the offense isn’t going to run the ball, and the defense knows the offense isn’t going to run the ball. This is where quarterbacks have to make a read, receivers have to get open, and offensive linemen have to hold up in pass protection.…