FOXBOROUGH — Here’s a riddle: What’s worth 2 points and is better than a field goal?
The answer is a play that is typically unexpected, random, and often penalizes bad decision-making as much as it rewards good play: the safety.
The Patriots have two of them this season, scored in consecutive games for the first time in team history.
The first came in Cleveland, when Browns quarterback Cody Kessler fumbled the ball out of the end zone; the second was last Sunday against Cincinnati, when linebacker Dont’a Hightower sacked Andy Dalton in the end zone. Both times, the Patriots scored on the ensuing drive.
That’s what makes a safety worth more than the 2 points it initially provides. It is the only play in football where the scoring team gets the ball back (free kick from the 20-yard line), allowing for quick swings in momentum.
“That’s why the turnovers are so important, because they aren’t always point plays but they usually result in points, especially if you get them in good field position, then you’re already in the scoring zone,’’ said coach Bill Belichick. “But a safety is part of that.
“Yeah, it’s definitely part of that conversation because even though it’s only 2 points, it is possession, so it’s a little bit of an added benefit.’’
They got touchdowns after the safeties from Martellus Bennett (against the Browns) and Rob Gronkowski (against the Bengals). The Patriots trailed, 14-10, in the third quarter of the Cincinnati game when Hightower sacked Dalton; 125 seconds later, they led, 19-14.
Dalton pointed to the play as the moment when the game got out of control for the Bengals.
“Yeah, we had the safety and then they went down and scored right after that,’’ he said. “It shouldn’t have been that way. We should have had, I guess, 21 at that point.
“We were down there on the 1-yard line and weren’t able to get it in, so yeah, then they took advantage of the safety and then they scored afterward.’’
It’s an important play, but not something teams game plan for.
“I think when you look statistically, to me, I would kind of put that into the bonus points category,’’ Belichick said. “You go into a game and you think, ‘All right, well how many points are we going to score offensively? How many points are they going to score offensively?’ And that’s, you know, kind of the way the game normally flows.
“When you get points from a defensive score, points from a special teams score, whether it be a blocked kick, or a safety, or a defensive return, something like that — I mean you can’t count on those points.’’
The safety rule originated in collegiate football during the 1880s.
The New York Times reported that, in an 1882 rule book, the play was called a “safety touchdown.’’ A team that scored four or more of them would win a game, assuming there were no other scoring plays — implying that safeties were much more common then.
Safeties were more common, too, in the earlier days of the NFL when defense was vogue. This Sunday’s opponent, Pittsburgh, scored its first points as a franchise on a safety in a 23-2 loss to the Giants in 1933.
Still, there were 18 safeties during the 2015 season, including the playoffs.
Safeties are often remembered for the wrong reasons. In 2008, making the first start of his NFL career, Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky inadvertently ran out of the back of his own end zone during the first quarter of a game against the Vikings. The 2 points ended up being the difference in the 12-10 loss; without the safety, the Lions might have avoided their infamous 0-16 season.
Though they are often flubs, safeties can be used strategically. In 2003, Belichick himself deliberately chose to take a safety with the Patriots trailing the Broncos late in the fourth quarter of a Monday night game.
Belichick told Lonie Paxton to snap the ball out of the end zone for an intentional safety that put the Patriots down, 26-23, but allowed them to punt from the 20 instead of their end zone. It worked; the Broncos went three and out, the Patriots got the ball back, and Tom Brady hit David Givens for a touchdown with 30 seconds left.
In Super Bowl XXV, Bills defensive end Bruce Smith sacked the Giants’ Jeff Hostetler in the end zone, nearly forcing a fumble. Hostetler was able to hold on, however, and the difference between allowing a safety and a defensive touchdown saved the game for the Giants, who won, 20-19, on a missed field goal by Scott Norwood.
There have been nine safeties in Super Bowls, two involving the Patriots. The resulting safety from an intentional grounding call on Brady in the end zone got New England off to a bad start in Super Bowl XLVI against the Giants. In Super Bowl XX, Bears defensive lineman Henry Waechter sacked Steve Grogan in the end zone as part of a 46-10 dismantling.
Those aren’t happy memories for Patriots fans, but they illustrate the point that, by functioning as a combination defensive score and turnover, teams that score on safeties benefit in multiple ways, even if the play itself is random.
“Just the normal team, the normal stats on it, you get two or three of those a year, so you can’t really count on those,’’ said Belichick. “So when you get those in a game, then that’s pretty significant.
“I think the overall statistical advantage to scoring a non-offensive touchdown is pretty heavily — that team is going to win more games.’’
So next time you see multiple Patriots raising clasped hands above their heads, count it as a good sign.
Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.
