NFL introduces taller uprights, experimental PATs in last nights game

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Last night in the Hall of Fame game between the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills the NFL not only debuted their taller field goal uprights but also experimented with a longer extra point try.

The taller uprights, raised from 30 feet to 35 feet, were implemented to combat a recent problem of kicks going over the top of the bar. Making it hard for the officials to determine if the kick was good or not. This was suggested to the NFL rules committee by Bill Belichick after the Patriots lost a game to the Baltimore Ravens when the kick went over the top of the uprights and was ruled good(when anyone with decent depth perception could tell it was wide).

The longer extra point attempts will only be in effect for the first two weeks of the preseason. That will give the NFL data to look at and decide if they want to make it permanent.

Not everyone is sold on the longer extra points. The guys over at For The Win had this to say.

All three 33-yard extra points were converted last night. Except for the novelty of the first try, there was no added excitement. That was to be expected, because the only time a kick is interesting is when the game is on the line or Sebastian Janikowski is lining up from 70 yards. It turns out the increased threat of missing doesn’t add to the drama. As such, the extra point never seemed more disposable than it was last night.

While last night might not have had any added excitement over the longer extra point, at some point it should create it just based on the numbers alone. The conversion rate of extra points now is at 99.5 percent. Last year 27 of the 32 teams made all attempted PATs. The year before all 32 teams made all attempted PATs. That's about as automatic as it gets.

While moving the PAT back to a 33 yard attempt it only drops the conversion rate down to roughly 90 percent. It still makes it more difficult. That PAT to try the game with under a minute left will be more dramatic as there is a better chance the kicker might shank the kick and their team loses by one.

Of course this isn't the only solution. The NFL could eliminate the extra point altogether.

Part of me wonders whether that was the entire point of this test. Instead of we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas the NFL could abolish the extra point soon and say we tried something and it was capricious, arbitrary and unentertaining.

They could make touchdowns automatically worth seven points unless a team wants to make an attempt at the two-point conversion. This also eliminates the possibility of players getting injured on what is essentially a useless play. As we saw with Rob Gronkowski breaking his arm for the first time in 2012.

Whether or not you like the NFL tweaking the field goal and extra point process the fact of the matter is something had to be done. The kickers in today's NFL are too accurate and too strong compared to the kickers in the early era of the NFL. The game has evolved and the rules have to catch up.

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