Ahmad Bradshaw hatches the winning touchdown in the Giants 21-17 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. The Patriots had decided to allow him to score in order to conserve time for the offense to mount a comeback. As Bradshaw was running in, Eli Manning was yelling “Don’t score! Don’t score!”, hoping to run more time off the clock and to force the Patriots to use their last time out. My question is, How was it that Coach Coughlin did not make his wishes in this matter clear?
After watching countless field-goal kickers miss “chip shots” (like the Ravens kicker did in the AFC championship game), I’m glad that Bradshaw choose to score the TD. Was there time on the clock? Sure. But the Giants defense was giving Tom Brady and his receivers the same headaches it gave the Packers’ high-powered offense–and it certainly wasn’t going to let up on the final drive. The TD also meant the Patriots needed a touchdown to win–a much harder objective to accomplish in a minute’s time.
The Patriots let-them-score strategy worked as well for them as it did for the Packers in their Super Bowl defeat against the Denver Broncos.