It should have been the perfect moment to be in New England. Tonight the New England Patriots met the New York Giants in the Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis to see who would be the 2011 season National Football League Champion. Each team had won the Super Bowl three times, and there was a healthy New York-Boston rivalry. The match, which the Giants came from behind to win 21-17, was full of characters, incidents, brilliant athleticism and, from the commentators, superlatives. I won’t pretend I know all the ins-and-outs of the game but I found a bar with plenty of atmosphere and watched pretty much the whole match, including the famous funny ads and Madonna’s much-discussed half-time show. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Maybe Hugo of New York could demonstrate his learning and explain, in a comment, why in the last minute or so of the match the Patriots let Bradshaw run into the end zone uncontested (actually, he appeared to pull up, turn around and sit down). The streets were very quiet as I walked home… Postscript: Hugo has since obliged and now all is clear. It was truly a cliffhanger!
Bradshaw was about to score a touchdown with just over a minute left, putting the Giants ahead 21-17. Had he stopped before getting into the end zone, as he tried to do, the Giants would have been able to run the clock down to a couple of seconds, then kick a field goal, and win the game by an 18-17 score without the Patriots ever having a chance of coming back. Now the Patriots had one minute to score a touchdown and win the game, and if Tom Brady’s ‘hail Mary’ pass would have been caught by one of his receivers in the end zone they would have won.
Of course the Giants would have taken the risk of never scoring that field goal and lose the game, if Bradshaw had not scored the touchdown. Chances of making a close field goal are 9-1, so there is always a 10% chance that the shot is blocked or misses the goal. I don’t know what the chances are of the Patriots scoring a touchdown with one minute left, but I like the odds in favor of scoring the touchdown, which is what Bradshaw did. Clearly the Patriots though they had a better chance of scoring a touchdown than of blocking a field goal, that’s why they let Bradshaw through.