New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin says the NFL is going the wrong way

Michael David Smith, Pro Football Talk:

Giants coach Tom Coughlin says the NFL went in the wrong direction in its preseason extra point experiment.

Coughlin says that if the idea is to make extra points a more exciting play, moving kicks back to the 15-yard line while keeping two-point conversion attempts at the 2-yard line wasn’t the right way to do it. Coughlin says the NFL should have moved all point-after attempts to the 1-yard line, to encourage coaches to go for two.

Giants. com:

With the Giants, Coughlin is 90-70 in the regular season and 8-3 in the postseason. The 90 victories are second in franchise history to Owen’s 151. Coughlin has led the Giants to two NFC East titles and five playoff berths. His eight postseason triumphs tie him with another Hall of Fame member, Bill Parcells, for the most ever by a Giants coach. Coughlin was the team’s wide receivers coach under Parcells from 1988-90.

The Mara family who own the New York Giants are not in the habit of changing coaches. Following the 1990 season when Bill Parcells retired for the first time, the Giants promoted Ray Handley to the head coaching job. He was chosen over assistant coaches, Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin.

Handley had a very difficult tenure in his two years as Giants head coach. He took over a Super Bowl team, and proceeded to go 8-8 and 6-10.

Gary Myers, New York Daily News:

Handley was such a disaster the players staged a mutiny and GM George Young had no choice but to fire him after two seasons.

It is easy for Tom Coughlin to be bold, and go for two. He is in his 11th campaign with the New York Giants. If there is such a thing called job security in the NFL, Tom has it.

In the 2013 season, only five extra points were missed for a 99.6% completion rating. In the last five years, field goals from the 33 yard line have a rating of 91.8% completion. Tom Coughlin is correct when he says a 33 yard attempt is much more difficult in the Northeast than it would be in Miami in November when it is 75 degrees. The wind and snow play a huge factor in even attempting such a kick.

Kevin Seifert, ESPN.com:

"Generally speaking in the NFL, you should make that [33-yard] kick," Indianapolis Colts place-kicker Adam Vinatieri said. "My expectation for anyone is that they should make it. So I'm not sure if this is a steppingstone to move it again or what."

Finally, there seemed to some an unnatural and inorganic feel to a rule that calls for one point from a 33-yard kick but three (from a field goal attempt) as short as 19 yards.

Kevin Seifert, ESPN.com:

You might not think there is much difference between a play from the 1- or the 2-yard line, but in NFL terms there is. Since the start of the 2001 season, which is as far back as ESPN Stats & Information records on it go, the conversion rate of two-point plays from the 1-yard line is 65.5 percent. From the 2, it's 46.9 percent. At that rate of success, more coaches probably would choose it over an extra point.

Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo Sports:

Of course, the league could go Bill Belichick's route and eliminate the extra point entirely.

Paul Murphy is a freelance writer from New Hampshire.

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