NFL Rules Question About PAT.
 

The NFL changed its PAT rule starting last year.

When a team scores a TD it must inform the R as to whether it will attempt a 1-point PAT or a 2-point PAT which determines on which yard line the ball is placed for the PAT. I have two scenarios:


Play 1 (1-point PAT): The team lines up for the place kick. The snap goes over the Kicker's head. The Kicker recovers the ball and either (a) completes a pass to a legal receiver in the endzone, or (b) runs the ball into the endzone. What is the correct ruling?


Play 2 (2-point PAT): The QB lines up in the shotgun formation. The snap goes over the QB's head. The QB recovers the ball and sees that he has no open receivers and has defenders bearing down on him. He proceeds to dropkick the ball through the uprights. What is the correct ruling?


Thanks from a former futbol official, LOL!

MTD, Sr.

(1)(a or b) - the result of the try is a touchdown and scores 2 points

(2) - the result of the try is a field goal by the offense, one point is awarded

NFL Rule 11-3-2 Results of a try

Thanks.

MTD, Sr.

#2 I understand, but not #1. NFL adopted a rule that ostensibly limits a team to 1 point if a certain spot is chosen for the try, but 2 points are allowed? Is it some kind of "good faith" exception, such that trying for 1 point is all that's required to achieve either 1 or 2 points?

Remember, on play 1, they're snapping from the 15 instead of the 2. So if a team wants to attempt a 2-point try from the 15 yard line rather than from the 2 yard line, why not give them the same amount of points for the more difficult conversion?

For #2, though this isn't directly in the rulebook, it has been made clear that a drop kick from the spot of a 2-point attempt is an unsuccessful try, even if kicked from behind what the LOS would be for a 1-point attempt.

That's what I was thinking, but I couldn't remember how it was officially worded. I thought it was something like "A successful FG on a try that is snapped from the 2 is worth 0 points."

Of course, that's conceptually the easy case. Case #2 is the head scratcher. That's why, without having the rule in front of me, I'd've guessed bwburke94 & Altor to have been correct.

Darn, looks like I had them reversed in my previous post!