Sunday’s wild-card playoff game between the Chicago Bears and the New Orleans Saints was well controlled in the final seconds, when Bears was entering the field. Then, Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubisky launched a 19-yard strike to tight end Jimmy Graham to give Chicago their only touchdown in the competition.
Despite scoring a touchdown, the game ended at 21-9. This is a 9 for Bears instead of 10, because there was no attempt at an extra point after Graham’s score, which left many fans scratching their heads.
The reason for this is a three-year rule that states that teams do not need to kick the extra point if a team has an advantage of more than two points in the final play.
From Rule 4, Section 8, Article 2, (c) of the Official NFL Rules Book:
“If a touchdown is made on the last play of a period, the attempt of Try will be made (except during a period of sudden death, or if a touchdown is scored during a descent in which time in the fourth period expires, and a successful attempt successful would not affect the outcome of the game). “
The rule change was made in 2018, after the Vikings beat the saints in the playoffs on a Ave Maria with no remaining game time.
Upon receiving the impressive pass for a touchdown, Graham immediately ran off the field and entered the locker room. Although the touchdown had no bearing on the outcome of Sunday’s wild card contest, many punters had a big bet on a potential point-after attempt.
The spread was +11 points on some sportsbooks and +11.5 points on others. Of course, if the Bears had to kick the extra point, the Saints would probably have won 21-10. Or, if the Bears opted for two, they would have covered both numbers and won some money from the Bears bettors.