Inside the Numbers dives into NFL statistics, streaks and trends each week. For more Inside the Numbers, head here . Whenever a team is trailing by seven points late in a game and driving, the talk quickly turns to whether they will go for 2 and the win if they happen to score a touchdown.
Tampa Bay , New England and Seattle all opted against it in Week 9 and ended up as overtime losers. The situations weren't entirely identical, with the Seahawks scoring with 51 seconds left, the Patriots on the final play with an exhausted Drake Maye , and the Buccaneers with 27 seconds left and Patrick Mahomes on the other side. But the decisions and the outcomes were.
Were those necessarily bad decisions? The data says maybe not, with teams opting to kick the extra point in the final minute of regulation having a slightly higher winning percentage than teams that go for 2 historically. According to numbers tracked by Sportradar back to 2000, teams that attempted the extra point have a 37-49-2 (.432) record in those scenarios even after the three losses this week.
That includes two defeats when the kicker missed the extra point, 10 more losses when the opposing team scored before the end of regulation and six wins when the team got the ball back and scored — with five of those following turnovers. Teams that tried for 2 had a 10-15 (.400) record, having made 12 of the 2-point tries.
But two of those makes led to losses when the opposing team drove for a late field goal — including a ga.