The scoring team is permitted to score an additional point following a touchdown by kicking the ball through the uprights of the goalpost. A PAT, also referred to as an extra point or point after touchdown, is what this is.
Examples of PATs in Action
When a PAT is attempted, the ball is traditionally kicked from inside the 10-yard line from the 2-yard line in the NFL, or the 3-yard line in college or high school.
How to Improve Your Football Skills
In an effort to make the play a little more exciting, the NFL moved the PAT line back to the 15-yard line for the 2015 season. The updated rule also permits the defense to convert a play for two points. Two points are awarded if the defense stops the kick on a PAT and returns it for a touchdown or retrieves the ball on a two-point try through a fumble or an interception and returns it for a touchdown. An unsuccessful PAT used to be considered fatal.
The new regulation has had a significant impact. Extra points are now uncertain, in contrast to how they were under the previous PAT rule. Since 1977, kickers have missed more PATs than in any other year; in 2016, for instance, they missed 71 PATs.
A Major Miss
The most obvious instance took place in 2016. In the AFC Championship game, the Denver Broncos faced the New England Patriots. The Patriots scored a touchdown in the first period, and Stephen Gostkowski was brought onto the field to tie the score.
One of the best and most dependable placekickers in the game was Gostkowski. At that point in his career, he had converted an astounding 87.3 percent of his field goal tries. Since 2006, he had not missed a field goal. Gostkowski was the kicker in the league you wanted to make a PAT in a close game during a conference final.
The error would severely harm New England in the future. The Patriots had to attempt a two-point conversion to knot the score late in the game when they were trailing the Broncos 20-18. The Broncos won the Super Bowl after they missed, then missed the playoffs. Gostkowski has successfully converted 523 out of 523 extra point attempts prior to that.
More Simple Mistakes
Even so, even under pressure, kickers occasionally missed extra points. On a play that involved numerous laterals against the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2003, the New Orleans Saints pulled off a miraculous comeback. The Saints’ season was on the line when they managed to score a touchdown on the play and trail the Jaguars by just one point, 20-19. If they lose, they would have a 7-7 record and no chance of making the playoffs. John Carney, the Saints’ placekicker, ultimately missed the extra point, resulting in a loss.