Quote Originally Posted by antdante77:
Usually just read along but Im gonna take a stab at explaining what Van is saying because my friends failed to comprehend when I was stating the same point during the game.
For the arguments sake lets say that no matter the time of the game the 2 pt conversion has the same success rate. If you disagree with that then that's a whole different topic. Houston scores to go down 12 XP/2pt pending
Assume the 2 pt conversion will be successful when attempted
1. Attempted now and converted down 10, you need a td and fg to tie
2. Kick XP now, later kick fg, score td, convert 2 and game is tied
SAME RESULT
Assume the 2 pt conversion will fail when attempted (here's where the difference comes in)
1. Attempt now and miss, down 12 and need 2 TD's
2. Kick XP now down 11, next drive stall out so kick a FG down 8, Next drive TD then missed 2, still down 2. NOW YOU NEED A 3RD SCORE, whereas if you knew ahead of time you were going to miss the 2 (by attempting it earlier) you would have went for it on 4th down
Hopefully that clears it up a little bit, not really looking to argue but I feel that makes perfect sense and is the right move especially considering there are 5 minutes left so any opposition scoring drive should end your chances regardless
The situation is assuming you are down 18 in the final qtr....
So, it is safe to assume you will be attempting 1 or even 2 onside kicks during this qtr....
So, it is safe to assume the opp will have a good chance to kick atleast 1 fg.....
Now...lets say you go for 2 after the 1st td, down 12 to try to make it a 10 point game....if you miss, then the opp gets a fg you are down 15 and not 14....
So now, you are ending up needing to go for 2 a 2nd time.....
I dont remember seeing many teams going for 2 down 12....in fact I cant remember any other games this year a team did it besides Houston Sunday....(I didnt read the whole thread so maybe it happened, but there is a very good reason teams rarely do it)
No offense to all the very smart people on this site who should be in college and the pros coaching football teams....but there is a reason they make millions