Terry Mitchell

The Perils of Going for Two Too Early



Posted: Friday, October 09, 2009

by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com

No football team should ever go for a two-point conversion before the last few minutes of a game, no matter what the score. Doing so could create unintended consequences down the line.

Here's an illustration. Let's say a team that is trailing 10-9 in the third quarter scores a touchdown to take the lead, 15-10. It would be tempting for that team to go for two in that situation, but they should resist. But suppose they did it anyway and the conversion attempt failed. That would create two possible consequences that I could think of without even trying very hard (not to mention the ones I could likely brainstorm with just a little effort).

First, it would allow the other team to take the lead with two field goals. The six-point lead they would have enjoyed by going ahead and kicking the extra point would have required their opponents to score a touchdown and make an extra point or kick three field goals in order to take the lead.

Second, a 16-10 lead would allow them to put the game away in the waning seconds by kicking a field goal to grab a nine-point lead. However, with a 15-10 lead, a field goal still does not snuff out the other team's chances, as it could tie the game with a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

This is just one small example scenario and two possible pitfalls of attempting a two-point conversion too early. The lesson here for any football coach is that he should resist temptation and not consider going for two until it's late enough in the game so that there's time left for just one or two more possessions at the most.
 
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports. He is also the owner of a new privacy-enhanced search engine - http://www.SearchMost.com.

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Anonymous
 2 years 209 days ago.
It's hard to argue with the points in this article, but I'll try. Yes it is tempting to go for two and extend a lead. If it's a high scoring game and you need to score as many points as possible, then I think it might be wiser to be aggressive. The other situation would be if one offense was just blowing the other team's defensive line off the line every play, then I would feel confident about making a short run for two points. I wouldn't do this in the first half, but if during the second half it appeared that neither defense can stop a scoring orgy, then I'd go for all the points I could make to put more pressure on the opposition. This was a good solid article.
» left by Terry Mitchell 2 years 208 days ago.
93 fans.
I'm glad you liked the article. However, I've rarely seen teams go for two because "it's a high scoring game and you need to score as many points as possible." Teams that are trailing generally go for two to try to either tie the game or reduce the number of possessions they need in order to catch up. Teams that are ahead generally go for two to get their lead to the next 3-point or 7-point increment.
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