Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
Sorry, but I don't see how a FG that goes wide and out of the endzone, resulting in a point is somehow tactically brilliant. The no-yards penalty on punts is also a stupid rule. I get people don't like fair catches but punting in the NFL is much more strategic than the CFL. It also doesn't make any sense that a rouge is worth the same as a successful PAT.
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See, this demonstrates my point. There's no tactics in the above scenario, and I as far as I know that's the tactical situation on every missed field goal in the NFL, right? No real decisions or potential of decisions to be made by the receiving team beyond attempting to block and defending against a fake. But on the majority of missed field goals in the CFL, there are far more possible outcomes: the returning team has the decision to concede a single in exchange for field position; or they have the option of returning it out of the endzone (or even, in desperate, end-game situations, open-field-kicking it out of the endzone).
Long field-goal attempts create more likelihood of a big return, making it a more complex risk-reward decision for the kicking team.
The outcomes could be 3 points, a single and good field position for the receiving team, zero points and a poor field position (when a player attempts to run it out but is downed quickly), or zero points and good or great field position for the other team. This requires all members of both teams to be thinking about any of these possibilities (in addition to the block/faked kick type scenarios that exist in both leagues).
As well, the single creates far more diversity in score situations. In the NFL, games decided by less than 3 points are relatively rare (less than 7%), while 3 point games are by far the most common margin in the NFL at nearly 16%. This means that the NFL has relatively few situations where an end-of-game field goal is a win/lose proposition. Instead, end of game field goals are usually win/overtime propositions. In the CFL, the rouge means that there are far more non-3-or-7 scoring plays, meaning more diversity in scores, and hence it's much more common to have win/lose field goal situations. Again, much more tactically interesting.