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Score to make it a 9 pt game— go for 1 or 2?

IowaPackFan

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Dec 30, 2006
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Watching the Tulane vs USC game and Tulane was down 15 with <5 minutes to go. Tulane scores right away to make it 9 points and elects to go for 1 to make it an 8 point game. This means if they score again they have to get the 2 point conversion to tie. I’d go for 2 on the first one to make it 7 point game. If you get it, great it’s a 7 point game now. If not, then you know you have to play for two possessions regardless.

All that said, the USC returner makes a boneheaded mistake which leads to them getting the ball at the 1 followed by a safety to make it a 6 point game. Not something you can usually count on though.
 
Watching the Tulane vs USC game and Tulane was down 15 with <5 minutes to go. Tulane scores right away to make it 9 points and elects to go for 1 to make it an 8 point game. This means if they score again they have to get the 2 point conversion to tie. I’d go for 2 on the first one to make it 7 point game. If you get it, great it’s a 7 point game now. If not, then you know you have to play for two possessions regardless.

All that said, the USC returner makes a boneheaded mistake which leads to them getting the ball at the 1 followed by a safety to make it a 6 point game. Not something you can usually count on though.

If you miss the two, now you are down 9 points and need 2 scores.

If you get the PAT, you only have to score 1 td.

I'd take the PAT.
 
If you miss the two, now you are down 9 points and need 2 scores.

If you get the PAT, you only have to score 1 td.

I'd take the PAT.

If it's late enough in the game and you're down 15, you know that the only way it's a 2-score game is if you have a successful 2-point conversion. It's better to know earlier if the 2-point conversion is successful.

With that said, I don't think it actually makes that big of a difference. Because if the 2-point conversion fails, you're going to be screwed 98% of the time anyway.
 
Good rule of thumb is to go for two only when you need it. If you miss the two point conv the first time, it leaves it to a two possession game.
Yeah, but miss it the first time or the second you’re still down the same result. I’d rather miss it with 4 minutes left knowing it’s a two possession game rather than miss it on the second with 8 seconds left.
 
Agree with the OP. Most people will always opt for 1 in this situation but it's more advantageous to go for two so you know if you have to plan for an additional possession. NFL teams are finally catching on.
 
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Agree with the OP. Most people will always opt for 1 in this situation but it's more advantageous to go for two so you know if you have to plan for an additional possession. NFL teams are finally catching on.
That mskes total sense. I automatically think kick and save the 2 for later
 
Agree with the OP. Most people will always opt for 1 in this situation but it's more advantageous to go for two so you know if you have to plan for an additional possession. NFL teams are finally catching on.
This (with the caveat that it needs to be late enough in the game). If you are down 8, conventional thought is that this is a one-possession deficit, but the reality is that you don’t know that—it could be one or it could be two, depending on the success of a FUTURE two point attempt. Convention when down 9 says kick the PAT and “make it a one-possession game,” but what you need the most at that point is KNOWLEDGE—you need to KNOW if you only need the ball once more or twice more. The only way to determine this is to attempt the 2 point PAT at that point and either succeed or fail. If you wait you are deferring that knowledge to a point in time where it is potentially useless.
 
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This exact same situation happened a few years ago against Purdue. You should've seen the shit show on this board when we didn't get the 2 point conversion.
It was the only thread ever to run 5-10+ pages and keep engaged…. but I felt I was doing gods work.

You always go for 2 first. This is not an opinion - it is a fact. I’m a very tolerant guy and the only people I am unwilling to accept are anyone that “saves” the 2 point, anti-vaxers, and the Dutch
 
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