Getty Images

One of the reasons Chip Kelly was such an interesting coach at Oregon was that he’d go for two at times when most coaches would kick the extra point without even thinking about it. Kelly loved to line up his extra point team in a “swinging gate” formation, and if the opposing defense didn’t adjust to it, he’d run a trick play to try to pick up two points.

Kelly tried that once early in his first year as the Eagles’ head coach, but it didn’t work, and Kelly never tried it again.

This year, there was some talk that Kelly might buck the trends and try going for two more often: The league’s new extra point rule makes kicks harder, the Eagles have a shaky kicker, and Kelly always seems confident in his offense. And yet the Eagles haven’t gone for two at all this year, and Kelly said he has given no thought to going for two unless the score of the game dictates it.

“Not right now, no,” Kelly said. “The [placement of the two-point conversion] hasn’t moved. My whole opinion was that they were asking you to go for two, but they never enticed you. They didn’t move it to make going for two [easier]. Going for two is difficult.”

Eventually, some NFL coach may decide to make going for two the “default” option for his team, and only kick the extra point when the score of the game makes that the obvious choice. But that coach will not be Chip Kelly, who’s a lot more cautious in the NFL than he was in college.