Ben Roethlisberger wants the Steelers to attempt more two-point conversions. Do we? Initially, we shouldn’t.
The final score is the singular item that matters to the spread, and breaking the tried-and-true patterns of teams scoring – generally – in bundles of threes and sevens should have adverse impacts on how the spread is interpreted. We must keep this in mind throughout the season, but, especially for Week 1.
The obvious assumption is that the Steelers will only go down this road because they have a level of confidence surrounding its success rate. If they can continually increase their score by multiples of eight, imagine the power. Three touchdowns now yield 24 points, forcing, most likely, four scores from an opponent to match them – three touchdowns and one field goal. But, if Pittsburgh were to fail, the team would certainly be chasing points for the rest of the game.
Think about how often we utter the phrase, “That missed extra point is going to come back to haunt them.” Does it always? No. Does it throw off the balance of the score? Yes.