I was reading the thread on analytics and it spurred me to post this. Whoever came up with the point system in football was a mad genius. Making it into the endzone gives you six points. That has the same value as two drives, stopped short, and ending with a Field Goal (3 x 2 = 6). But the TD gives you the opportunity to kick an extra point which now makes the TD worth 7 which is 2.3333 Field Goals. And if you go for two, and make it (about a 40% probability), your TD & 2 is worth 2.667 TDs.
As the game goes on, you can play really well and still be losing 7-6 if you don't hit the endzone and give up a cheap TD on a broken play or turnover. At the same time, by manipulating the extra point/2 pointer, you can manage the margins to force the other team to have to score a TD (4+ point lead) tie the game (7 point lead) or a TD +2 to tie the game (8 point lead). Or, if it isn't the end of the game, the simple case of selecting the PAT or 2 pointer, positions the team to manage the lead to force a FG to tie, FG to win, TD to tie (6), TD/PAT to tie (7), or TD +2 to tie (8).
Not to be lost is weird quirks when a safety is scored or a PAT returned by the defending team. I still recall Iowa purposely taking a safety to cut their 6-2 lead to 6-4 with lots of time left in the game. The genius was not giving up a TD to fall behind when neither team's offense could score consistently. It ended up being crazy like a fox.
It is amazing to me that so many games come down to a HC managing those seemingly simple margins early in the game. This brings me back to the thought that whoever came up with this seemingly weird scoring method was mad genius.
As the game goes on, you can play really well and still be losing 7-6 if you don't hit the endzone and give up a cheap TD on a broken play or turnover. At the same time, by manipulating the extra point/2 pointer, you can manage the margins to force the other team to have to score a TD (4+ point lead) tie the game (7 point lead) or a TD +2 to tie the game (8 point lead). Or, if it isn't the end of the game, the simple case of selecting the PAT or 2 pointer, positions the team to manage the lead to force a FG to tie, FG to win, TD to tie (6), TD/PAT to tie (7), or TD +2 to tie (8).
Not to be lost is weird quirks when a safety is scored or a PAT returned by the defending team. I still recall Iowa purposely taking a safety to cut their 6-2 lead to 6-4 with lots of time left in the game. The genius was not giving up a TD to fall behind when neither team's offense could score consistently. It ended up being crazy like a fox.
It is amazing to me that so many games come down to a HC managing those seemingly simple margins early in the game. This brings me back to the thought that whoever came up with this seemingly weird scoring method was mad genius.
