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Analyze Tendencies by Down and Distance

Use TruMedia's football filters to break down play calling and efficiency by specific down-and-distance situations. In this example, we'll filter the team offense leaderboard to show only 3rd-and-long plays and compare how all NFL teams perform in that situation.

Difficulty: Intermediate · Estimated time: 5–10 minutes

Prerequisites​

  • Access to the NFL demo site
  • Familiarity with basic navigation (team pages, leaderboards)

What You'll Learn​

  • How to navigate to the team offense leaderboard
  • How to apply down and distance filters to isolate specific situations
  • How to read play calling tendencies and efficiency metrics for a given down-distance combo

Step 1: Navigate to the team offense leaderboard​

Go to the Teams section and select the Offense leaderboard. This shows all 32 NFL teams ranked by offensive stats like yards per game, rush and pass yards, and conversion rates.

Navigate to the team offense leaderboard

Step 2: Open the Search Filters panel​

Click Search Filters on the right side of the filter bar to open the filter panel. You'll see a list of available filters for football data.

Open the Search Filters panel

Step 3: Add the Down filter​

Click Down in the filter list. This adds a down filter to the filter bar, letting you isolate plays from a specific down.

Add the Down filter

Step 4: Select 3rd down​

Open the Down dropdown and select Third. The leaderboard now reflects only 3rd-down plays across all teams.

Select 3rd down

Step 5: Add the Distance To First filter​

With the Search Filters panel still open, click Distance To First to add a distance filter. This lets you specify a yardage range to complete the down-and-distance combo.

Add the Distance To First filter

Step 6: Set minimum distance to 7 yards​

Open the Distance To First dropdown, type 7 in the minimum distance field, and press Enter. The leaderboard now shows only 3rd-and-7-or-longer plays — a common "3rd and long" situation.

tip

3rd and 7+ is one of the most revealing situations for offensive tendencies. Teams that are too predictable here — passing on nearly every play — become vulnerable to aggressive pass-rush packages.

Set minimum distance to 7 yards

Step 7: Review the filtered leaderboard​

With both filters applied, the leaderboard now ranks all 32 NFL teams by their performance on 3rd-and-7+ plays. Compare yards per play, pass vs. rush yards, and conversion rates to identify which teams are most and least efficient in this critical situation.

Sort by any column to find the best and worst performers — for example, sort by 3rdCv% to see which teams convert 3rd-and-long most often.

note

You can apply these same down-and-distance filters on individual team or player pages to drill into specific tendencies.

Review the filtered leaderboard

Key Takeaway​

Down-and-distance filtering reveals how predictable a team's play calling is in specific situations. Identifying tendencies — like a team that passes 85% of the time on 3rd and 7+ — gives coaches actionable intelligence for game planning and play design.

Next Steps​

  • Try filtering by personnel grouping to see how formations change by down and distance
  • Use the quarterback efficiency report to see how a QB performs in these situations
  • Analyze Red Zone Efficiency
  • Build a Weekly Opponent Prep Package