Why some NFL coaches are struggling with late-game decisions — SkimNews
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- NFL kickoff rule changes moved touchbacks from the 25-yard line (before 2024) to the 30 (2024) and then to the 35 (2025), giving receivers 10 additional yards of field position and helping drive a 50%+ increase in final-minute drives ending in scoring attempts.
- Field goal attempts of 50+ yards jumped from 168 in 2020 to 266 in 2025 — a more than 60% increase — and the 2026 season is on pace to exceed 300 such attempts, per ESPN Research cited in the article.
- NFL kickers are converting 50+ yard attempts at a 67.7% clip since the K-ball rule change, up from 64.9% in the prior five years, even as attempt volume has surged.
- The 2025 K-ball rule change rescinded limits on team ball preparation, freeing equipment staffs to manipulate kicking balls throughout the week; three of the seven longest field goals in NFL history have been kicked since that change.
- Last season produced 49 game-winning drives in the final two minutes of regulation — the most since 2000 — and 12 field goal conversions of 60+ yards, an NFL record that included Cam Little's 68-yarder, the longest in league history.
- Through four weeks of the 2026 season, 11 game-winning drives have already occurred in the final two minutes, putting the year on pace to match or exceed 2025's total.
- The Cowboys' Week 3 loss to the Ravens illustrates the stakes: Dallas kicked a touchback after a tying field goal, Lamar Jackson hit Zay Flowers for 27 yards, and Tyler Loop drilled a 56-yard game-winner as time expired in Rio de Janeiro.
Why it matters: NFL teams have lost the defensive safety net of a touchback — the ball now starts at the 35 — contributing to 49 game-winning drives in the final two minutes last year (most since 2000) and a 60% jump in 50+ yard field goal attempts since 2020, turning formerly conservative coaching calls, like Dallas' choice to kick deep against Baltimore, into potential game-losing decisions.
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