Pat Shurmur might not be Christopher Columbus, but he challenged conventional wisdom even as the results of his plan went off course.

The Giants employed analytics researchers in their personnel department since before he was hired in January, but the organization gained a possibly unfair reputation for rejecting new-age thinking when general manager Dave Gettleman mocked numbers-crunchers earlier this year.

"I think a lot of that stuff is nonsense," the old-school Gettleman said while pounding keys on an imaginary keyboard in response to metrics saying the Giants should not draft running back Saquon Barkley at No. 2 overall. "I think it is someone who had had this idea and got into the analytics of it and went through all these running backs and whatever."

So Shurmur, Gettleman's hand-picked coach, probably was the least likely coach to call The Two-Point Conversion Attempt Heard 'Round the World with the entire NFL watching in a 23-20 loss to the Falcons on Monday Night Football.

And yet there he was, sending his offense back onto the field in the final five minutes of the game with an eight-point deficit when conventional wisdom says to kick the PAT and trail by seven.

It's a move Shurmur wouldn't have made during his first stint as a head coach, with the 2011-12 Browns, when analytics were not nearly as popular in the NFL as they had become in MLB.

"At one point, we all thought the world was flat, and then you learn," Shurmur said. "At one point, nobody would allow the players to drink water. In the old days, hydration wasn't an issue, or it wasn't a concern. Same thing. As we go forward, there's new things added to our game. Analytics is certainly part of that, intuition is the other."

Here's Dave Gettleman's response when asked about the positional value of RBs: "a lot of that's nonsense [...] someone who had this idea and got into the analytics of it" pic.twitter.com/8s23UQfoFE — Ben Baldwin (@benbbaldwin) April 27, 2018

By going for two, Shurmur increased his team's chances of winning by about 15 percent when including 60 percent had the defense been able to get a stop, according to ESPN.

If the Giants converted — Odell Beckham dropped a pass in the end zone — they would not have gone for a second two-point conversion. When they failed, they still could have tied the score (if the defense got a stop) and been no worse off than kicking two PATs by converting the second time.

The Eagles have an analytics-driven front office that helped lead the team to its first Super Bowl last season. Coach Doug Pederson made the same decision Shurmur did just a few weeks earlier, but it didn't gain as much attention on an action-packed Sunday.

So, will Shurmur, who has proven to be an aggressive-minded coach, embrace other forms of analytics in his decision-making? It is unclear how much he has changed the way analytics are used by the Giants compared to predecessor Ben McAdoo.

"Whether you go for two or not, that's part of it. Whether you go for it on fourth down or not," Shurmur said. "There's some really smart people that express the percentage of doing things and how it relates to winning. That's why you make educated decisions.

"Sometimes you do things on a hunch. But, in that case, the numbers support going for it there."

Shurmur initially sent his kicking unit onto the field but changed his mind with extra time to think as officials reviewed Barkley's touchdown run. Consider it proof of collective thinking on the headset.

"We discussed it prior to it, and then we finally decided not to (kick)," Shurmur said. "I like to think that we try to have shared situational awareness, so there's conversation going on.

"Whether I choose to do it or not, at least I'm armed with that information, much like the (replay) challenge (turning a Falcons incomplete pass into a turnover) we had the other day. There's people upstairs trying to see stuff, and then people on the field see things."

Ryan Dunleavy may be reached at rdunleavy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rydunleavy. Find our Giants coverage on Facebook.