Super Bowl Dilemma

With around a minute left in the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots were leading the New York Giants by two points. The Giants, however had the ball on the Patriots' 6 yard line. The Giants were well within field goal range, which, if successful, would have put the Giants up by one point. Understanding this, Bill Belichick, the head coach of the Patriots, instructed his team to allow the Giants' running back, Ahmad Bradshaw, to score a touchdown and allow his team one final chance of scoring with one minute left.

This put the game in an unusual situation, as it seemed the Patriots were trying to let the Giants score, however, the Giants weren't so willing to accept the touchdown. On the next play, Ahmad Bradshaw took the ball, and although it looked like he tried to fall down before the end zone, he ended up scoring the touchdown. This gave the ball back to the Patriots with 57 seconds, and a chance to win the game.

This outcome, although maybe not instructed by the Giants' coach, was desirable for both teams. The Patriots figured that because the ball was inside the 10 yard line, which as Belichick says makes the chance of conversion 90%, they'd rather a chance to win the game than watch the ball go through the uprights with no time left to respond. That 90% seems very likely from the Patriots' perspective. However, from the Giants perspective, this play also makes sense. Taking the 6 points in that situation is much safer than risking a 10% chance of losing the Super Bowl. They especially didn't want to risk it after the Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl after a missed field goal by the Ravens' kicker two weeks earlier. Ahmad Bradshaw ended up making the smart play in that situation, and his team ended up winning the Super Bowl.