Oregon taking a knee on a 2-point conversion made total sense. Here’s how.

Oregon’s win against No. 12 Utah on Saturday was dramatic. Ducks receiver Darren Carrington caught a 17-yard touchdown with two seconds remaining, giving Oregon a 30-28 advantage with almost no time left.

Then Ducks coach Mark Helfrich made a unique call. He didn’t kick a point-after, and he didn’t even try for a two-point conversion. He simply had his quarterback take a knee, leaving the score 30-28. The clock continued to read 0:02.

Oregon was about to kick off from its own 35-yard line. Two seconds wasn’t nearly enough time for Utah to receive a kickoff and get into even semi-plausible field goal range. As long as Oregon’s kick traveled more than five yards and stayed in bounds, it was always impossible that Utah would wind up trying a field goal.

That meant the difference between a two-point and three-point lead was, for Oregon, zilch. There was nothing to be gained by kicking an extra point.

But there was a lot to lose. College kicking units are generally not the most reliable bunches, and a few of them have gotten bitten this year on blocked-extra point returns. Here’s one Notre Dame put on Texas in September, for instance:

If there’s a defensive touchdown on a two-point conversion, the defense gets two points. If Utah were to somehow make up its deficit, that had to be the way.

Oregon’s kicking team isn’t bad. Aidan Schneider entered the day 36 of 37 on extra points and 7 of 9 on field goals. Things likely would’ve been fine.

But there was no sensible reason for Helfrich to chance it. One or two more points were nothing to Oregon, which only could’ve lost on a preposterous touchdown anyway. So Helfrich left points off the board on purpose, and it was the right move, 100 percent.