A 2 point conversion and horrible clock management. It's what cost Jake Delhomme a Superbowl MVP award and the Carolina Panthers their chance at a Superbowl victory. With the score 21-16 and Carolina just having scored a touchdown, John Fox elected to go for 2 with nearly an entire quarter of football to play. They didn't succeed. They scored again and didn't get the 2 point conversion, 22-21 Carolina. Brady drives the Pats down the field, score, and get the 2 pt conversion, 29-22 Pats. Delhomme drives the Panthers down the field and get the tying score with 1:07 left on the clock. In that drive the Panthers complete about a 30 yard pass down to the 15 yard line with just under 2 minutes to go. The Panthers mysteriously call a quick timeout instead of running off 35 seconds and giving Brady as little time as possible to make his game winning drive, which ended with a FG. Rewind. Go for one, which you should always do until it gets down to about half way thru the 4th quarter or later, and it's 21-17 Pats. Carolina scores again and it's 24-21 Panthers. Pats come back and score and it 28-24 Pats. Delhomme milks the clock to about 30 seconds (which is what it would have been had they not called that silly ass timeout) and its 31-28 Panthers. I'll take my chance at a superbowl victory in that scenario. Oh well.
That's a lot of hindsight right there. I think that if you have the chance to tie the game in the 4th Q, you absolutely have to try it. In that situation, you have no idea if you'll be able to score again. The real problem here: It's the Super Bowl, and the Panthers don't have a good enough play to get two yards.
My contention on 2 point conversions is exactly the opposite. You can't foresee what scoring will go on in the game, and its premature to guess you need to go for 2 that early on. I complained about that right when it happened. And I certainly complained about the stupid timeout. That was braindead. But then again clock management is often bungled in the NFL time and time again.
