NFL Rules Forced Titans To Kick Extra Point In Yesterday's Game?

[Yavin4]

If you didn't see the Titans/Cardinals game (btw, thanks to the Favre lovers at Fox Sports for staying with a non-competitive game to the end), the Titans were down 4 and scored a TD with no time left on the clock. At that point, the game was over because the Titans had a 2 point lead with no time remaining. There was no reason to kick the extra point because there was no time left on the clock.

Yet, they did kick the extra point. Now, in OT, when a team scores a TD, there are no extra point attempts. The game simply ends. Is there an NFL rule that requires extra point attempts in regulation, even if they're irrelevant to the final outcome of the game?

BTW, the Cards were a 2.5 dog to the Titans. That extra point killed everyone taking the Cards and the points.

[LisaM]

1. Couldn't the other team have run it back, scored two, and tied it?

I think the key here is that is was a 2-point lead and that the extra point is relevant becuase the other team could have tied it, even on a non-timed play. I don't know the NFL rule on this, but perhaps if it had been a three-point lead, they would not have run the play.

[Yavin4]

2. In the NFL, A Block Point After Cannot Be Advanced for a Score

The ball is dead.

[LisaM]

3. Well in college you get two.

But, this might be the explanation. It's for tiebreakers.

NFL

In the National Football League, the scrimmage for point after attempt takes place from the two-yard line. In American high school and college football, it is from the three-yard line. In Canadian football it is from the five-yard line. The game clock does not run during an extra-point attempt, except for some rare circumstances at the high-school level (some state associations allow for the clock to run continuously in the second half if one team is leading the other by an outrageously huge margin).

In the NFL, the attempt for extra point(s) is required after a touchdown scored during the regulation (i.e., not overtime), because points are used for some tiebreakers in the standings. Rarely, this can result in such an attempt having to be made at the end of the game when it cannot change the outcome of the game. If the game is in sudden death overtime, the extra-point attempt is omitted if the winning score is a touchdown. In American high school and college football, it's likewise omitted following a touchdown on the game's final play if six points were enough to win or if the scoring team was already ahead or can not win or tie the game with a successful conversion attempt.

[madinmaryland]

4. I the snap was fumbled before the kick, it would be worth two points.

Yeah. Didn't Tony Romo do something like that a couple of years ago.

:grr:

[Yavin4]

5. That Was A FG Attempt That He Fumbled

Not a point after.

[hughee99]

12. Self delete. nt

[Renew Deal]

6. There is a rule requiring the extra point to be taken.

Probably because points affect playoff tie-breakers. OT is viewed differently.

[Yavin4]

8. I Know That's The Rule But It Makes No Sense

Points are points. If they're important in regulation, then they're important in OT as well.

[Onceuponalife]

Double post

[Onceuponalife]

15. But OT is sudden death (unlike college)

So the game ends immediately after someone scores. Not true in regulation. It all makes sense to me but then I've always been a stat nerd.

[Jimbo S]

7. Not required

The "Try" is never required, even when there is time on the clock.

I have a copy of the 1994 rule book in front of me. I won't type out the whole rule. Maybe it's on the NFL website(?)

Rule 11, Section 3:
Article 1 - After a touchdown, the scoring team is allowed a Try. This Try is an attempt to
score one or two additional points, during one scrimmage down with the spot of snap...

[Renew Deal]

10. It is required during regulation.

Don't get hung up on the "allowed" portion of it.

[Awsi Dooger]

9. Unlike college, the NFL always requires the attempt

I've seen several high profile examples after time has expired. The most brutal was maybe 8-10 years ago, a Bills game. I was at the Imperial Palace sportsbook. The trailing team was down by 4 and scored on a controversial catch after time had expired. There was a long review before the play was upheld. When they announced it was a TD, the opponent protested and left the field, refusing to line up for the extra point. The extra point would decide the spread, which had closed at -2.5. A guy in that sportsbook was running around in mocking delight, saying he didn't care about the extra point because he had +3.5, the line on the Hilton parlay card. It was the last game on his ticket and he was already celebrating. Meanwhile, the Bills took advantage of the absent opponent and didn't bother sending out the kicker. They ran a standard play for 2 points, winning by 4 and costing the guy his bet. :rofl:

College is just the opposite. It's mandated that the try is NOT attempted after time has expired, unless the outcome is in doubt. There was an example just last week. Colorado scored against Nebraska on a 60 yard bomb as time expired. The officials initially let Colorado line up for the conversion until one of them remembered the rule and waved them off, declaring the game over.

[Yavin4]

11. To Paraphrase The Great Homer Simpson

Your story is funny because it's not about me.

[Saboburns]

13. I had Buffalo that day, I remember it well

It happened exactly as you said. They ended up winning by 4 to cover. One of the greatest wins of my horrendous gambling career.

Serendipity.

On a side note, I once played a team in fantasy football where the QB threw a ball that got batted back to him which he then caught and ran in for a TD. In fantasy a 12 point play.

I lost by 9 that week.

Bitterness

[trumad]

14. Great story Awsi

Like I always say---don't celebrate until that importnat word is declared... "Official" or in football "Final"

[RoadRage]

16. I think your NU v CU example is incorrect..

I watched the entire game last week... the end of the game was this:

Colorado had about 10 seconds left on the game clock.. QB threw a pass out of bounds as the clock was running down and on the screen showed 0. NU thought they'd won the game.. but then the refs reviewed it and put 1 second back on the clock. CU then lined up for a 47 yard field goal attempt with 1 second left, and hit it for the 13-12 win.

There was no 60 yard bomb touchdown.. and with the field goal, of course they wouldn't have lined up for the extra point.

Sorry.. i'm a rabid husker fan!

[RoadRage]

17. NEVERMIND..

I just re-read your post.. you said CU game.. not the Big 12 championship vs. Texas. Ignore all that above.. ;)