(670 The Score) The Bears' proposed change to penalty enforcement on point-after touchdown tries has been passed by the NFL, the league announced Wednesday.
The amended rule deals with the application of penalties and the spot of the ball when a foul results in a PAT retry. Under the new policy, all penalties on PATs that are accepted will be enforced, even on later snaps.
As the NFL termed it, the new rule will "ensure the enforcement of all penalties committed by either team during successive try attempts." Previously, the location of the football for a PAT retry might not have all prior penalties factored into the new spot.
The Bears' request stemmed from their 16-14 win against the Broncos back in 2019, which illustrates what has changed. Late in the game, the Broncos scored a touchdown to cut their deficit to 13-12 against the Bears. The Broncos lined up for a two-point conversion but committed a delay-of-game penalty, which then moved the ball from the 2-yard line back to the 7-yard line for a potential two-point try.
Given the new circumstances, the Broncos instead elected to kick the extra point with the snap from the 20-yard line (instead of the 15-yard line). The extra point missed, but Bears defensive back Buster Skrine was flagged for offsides.
The Broncos then decided to go for the two-point conversion again, as under the rules in place at that time, they had the option to snap the ball from the 1-yard line. That represented half the distance to the goal from the original two-point conversion spot of the 2-yard line. The Broncos converted the two-point try to take a short-lived 14-13 lead.
Had the original five-yard delay-of-game penalty by the Broncos been carried over -- as it will be now -- the spot of the ball on the two-point conversion would've been from the 3 1/2-yard line, which would've represented half the distance from the 7-yard line, with the five-yard penalty enforced from the 2-yard line.
