Even if the tests are weighted the same. Mathematically they affect your grade the same, but failure at the start of the semester leaves a lot of time for recovery and adjustment. Failure at the final just means you lose.

Mathematically, the calls have congruent effects of 7 points if they cost a TD regardless of timing. But in this case it isn't just that the Saints had OT, etc. It was the fact that the lack of a penalty PROLONGED a game that shouldn't have been prolonged. It's like a professor extending a semester to give another student a chance in a class that is graded competitively. A penalty in the first quarter doesn't have that effect. A penalty in the 4th quarter does.