The 46th Super Bowl on Monday threw up the most bizarre piece of television in recent memory – and no I don’t mean Madonna’s lip-synced geriatric attempt to promote her back catalogue.

No, the astounding vision occurred during the game. One minute from fulltime the New York Giants trailed the New England Patriots 15-17. The Giants had reached 2nd and goal (second tackle of four with 7 yards to the goal line).

The mercurial Eli Manning handed the ball off to Ahmad Bradshaw who amazingly seemed to have a clear run to the line. He stopped short of the goal line and attempted to ground his knee but failed and backed his way into the end zone for a touchdown which took the score to 21-17 for a Giants lead.

There was a mild celebration for this go ahead score but in reality the general consensus of players, coaches and commentators was that it was a major tactical blunder. That’s right. Scoring wasn’t the preferred option.

The ideal situation for the Giants would have been for Bradshaw to ground the ball at the one yard line and for the Giants to use their last two downs (tackles) to land a field goal while also running down the clock.

The tactical play would have deprived the Patriots Tom Brady the opportunity to launch a comeback drive and score a touchdown in the remaining fifty seven seconds.

The head in hands despair of Bradshaw on the sideline as he watched the New England Patriots receive the ball from the restart, and drive down field in the final seconds. Bradshaw’s body-language certainly reinforced the perceived blunder.

If the Patriots had not been somewhat complicit in clearing a path for Bradshaw to score it would have had somewhat of a whiff of an underarm problem.

All this in a sport where unsportsmanlike conduct is a penalisable offence. The most recent example of similar behavior that springs to mind in Australian sport is Hawthorns 11 rushed behinds in the 2008 AFL Grand Final which forced a rule change.

It seems denying the opposition time in possession is the best strategy. The strategy not only applies on the sporting field with a ball but in Madonna’s case on stage with an audience.