Extra Points from 30 yard line thoughts

[Jonathan Ashbeck]

During the rainy Packer Titan game the PAT from the Titans was missed.

[Jonathan Ashbeck]

Originally Posted by DaveinMtAiry

No I think the idea is to make it less of an automatic. I don't see coaches going for 2 because they are afraid of missing the extra point from the new distance.

No respectfully. They did PAT experiments for the first two preseason weeks.

[7express]

Here's a thought which may or may not have been brought up:

Eliminate the extra point. Scoring a touchdown is worth 7 points and after a touchdown a team can do 1 of 2 things:
1) Attempt a 2 point conversion
2) Skip the 2 point conversion and go straight to the kick off. If you make the 2 point conversion, you get an extra point added to your total so you end up with 8 on that TD drive. if you go for 2 and you fail you lose a point and end up with 6 points on that TD drive.

[Jonathan Ashbeck]

Originally Posted by Ghengis

what about 2 pt conversions? would they still be run from the 2 yd line? I'd probably go ahead and fake a 2-point conversion and then kick it from there instead.

The thing is they still have the 2-pt conversions at the 2-yd line as the current PATs are spotted at the 15.

[Unsettomati]

Originally Posted by jdm2008

Well if this is case, they should just make the touchdown 7 points(and you could go for 2 and if you missed get 6). I would be ok with that solution. I do know that the extra point is just a wasted play that takes up time as it is.
But the bolded is false, when extra points were kicked many years ago they were far from automatic. IN 1974 the percentage of extra points made were 90%. That is much lower than today, and they were even lower when the extra point was put in the 1930-1940s.

In 1974 and 1975, the rival World Football League made touchdowns worth 7 points, followed by what they called the 'action point' - a play from the two and a half yard line that had to be run or passed (not kicked) and was worth one point. Both the AFL and NFL also experimented with a similar option in preseason games back in the 1960s.

Actually, in 1974 extra points were made at a 92% clip. Not up to recent rates, but not too bad.

FYI - In 1973 the success rate was 98%. It dropped because 1974 was the first season the goal posts were moved from the goal line back to the end line. Thus, extra points went from being 10 yards to 20 yards.

I was curious, so I did a little digging.
In 1960 the success rate was 97%.
In 1950 it was 94%.
In 1940 it was 85% (the only team that was perfect on extra points that year was the Pittsburgh Steelers - probably had something to do with the fact that they only scored six touchdowns all season!)
The earliest season for which the NFL recorded extra point attempts was 1932 - that year the league made 67% of its tries.

For historical NFL info, this is the site:
Pro-Football-Reference.com - Pro Football Statistics and History