Brian Kelly has no good explanation for two-point conversion

Sep 28, 2019; South Bend, IN, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly waves to fans as he enters Notre Dame Stadium before the game against the Virginia Cavaliers. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

A curious decision by Brian Kelly to attempt a two-point conversion with just under 10 minutes in all likelihood cost Notre Dame against Northwestern on Saturday.

The Fighting Irish scored with 10:34 left in the game to make it 40-29. Instead of kicking an extra point to make it a 12-point game — meaning Northwestern would have had to score two touchdowns to beat them — they went for. They failed on the conversion attempt, and you know what happened next.

Northwestern scored, went for two and got it, then kicked a field goal with 19 seconds left to tie the game at 40. Again, the extra point probably would have been the difference.

After the game, Kelly was asked what advantage going up by 13 instead of 12 would have presented

“In retrospect, there’s no advantage (to being up 13 instead of 12 points),” Kelly said (1 min mark in video). “We felt at the time with the struggles in the kicking game that we would have a good opportunity in the two-point play that we picked. And we felt very confident that we would be successful.

“If it pans out the way it does, then no, there’s very little percentage-wise that it’s a higher percentage.”

Let’s look at the context for a second: kicker Kyle Brindza missed both field goal attempts and was 4-for-5 on extra points during the game. Maybe Kelly felt like an extra point wasn’t a sure thing, and he felt so confident in his offense to get the two, that he didn’t really think about how he was making things easier for Northwestern.

This was clearly a poor decision by Kelly that cost his team, but credit Northwestern for doing their part, too. The Wildcats got the 2-point conversion stop, then scored, got a two, forced a turnover, drove and made a long field goal … and then they won in overtime. They did a lot right in order to get the win.