Ben Roethlisberger wants to go for two points after every touchdown. Drew Brees is confident the Saints would convert more than 50 percent of their tries, and Mike McCarthy says he'd have no issue with the Packers going for 2 after each touchdown. Bold words.
Roethlisberger can talk big, considering Pittsburgh was successful on nearly three-quarters of its two-point attempts last season. They attempted more than twice as many two-pointers (11) as any other team, and converted 8 of them (73 percent). Green Bay was actually even better, converting 4 of 5, or 80 percent. So fair play to Rodgers and McCarthy.
Note: The NFL (and the linked article) indicates Green Bay went 4 of 6. That's technically correct, but it includes a play against Detroit where Green Bay simply took a knee after a game-winning touchdown. That wasn't an actual attempt, although the NFL counts it as one, so we're removing it from the ledger, as it skews the success rate of actual attempts. On plays where they actually tried to convert, they were 4 of 5.
Maybe the Saints can convert more than half, although last year, they didn't. They went just 1 of 3, so 33 percent.
Collectively, teams were a combined 41 of 85 last year (48 percent), or just under half. NFL attempt figures are a little higher, but they include plays like the Green Bay one that weren't actual attempts -- bad snaps on extra point tries, and a couple of plays where teams took a knee rather than go for 2.
Team-by-team results from last season are shown below.
| TWO-POINT CONVERSIONS, 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Att | Conv | Pct |
| Minnesota | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Cincinnati | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Dallas | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| Green Bay | 5 | 4 | 80% |
| Pittsburgh | 11 | 6 | 73% |
| Houston | 3 | 2 | 67% |
| Washington | 3 | 2 | 67% |
| San Diego | 3 | 2 | 67% |
| Tennessee | 5 | 3 | 60% |
| Cleveland | 4 | 2 | 50% |
| Miami | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| San Francisco | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Indianapolis | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Atlanta | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| St. Louis | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| NY Giants | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Chicago | 5 | 2 | 40% |
| Buffalo | 5 | 2 | 40% |
| New Orleans | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Kansas City | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Oakland | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Tampa Bay | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Baltimore | 3 | 1 | 33% |
| Seattle | 4 | 1 | 25% |
| Jacksonville | 5 | 1 | 20% |
| Detroit | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Denver | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| NY Jets | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Philadelphia | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| New England | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Arizona | 0 | 0 | 0% |
| Carolina | 0 | 0 | 0% |
--Andy Richardson