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When is not scoring a touchdown the right thing to do?

In last season’s Super Bowl, the Giants almost found out too late when Ahmad Bradshaw scored on a 6-yard run with 57 seconds remaining. (Bradshaw tried to stop himself at the last moment but couldn’t). The score gave the Giants, who had been trailing, 17-15, a 21-17 lead. But it also gave the Patriots almost a full minute for Tom Brady to operate, and he almost pulled off a comeback. Had the Giants elected not to score right away — draining more of the clock and then trying to kick a field goal — they would have virtually eliminated any chance of a Patriots rally.

With two minutes remaining in the Jets’ 7-6 victory Sunday, Shonn Greene and the Jets were faced with a second-and-3 from the Cardinals’ 6-yard line.

Hanging in the balance was whether the Jets could finish off Arizona and preserve a Greg McElroy-inspired comeback victory while also keeping the Jets’ faint playoff hopes alive.

Thanks to a heads-up play by Greene, who is most known for his road-grading running style, the Jets didn’t have to wait long to achieve both goals.

When he broke through the line on the first play after the two-minute warning, he got all the yardage he needed for a first down when he reached the Arizona 3. Greene remained on his feet and appeared to be in position to score, which would have given the Jets a 14-6 lead, assuming the extra point.

Instead, Greene went into a soft slide and collapsed at the Arizona 1. Since the Cardinals were out of timeouts, the Jets’ first down meant they could run out the clock without running another meaningful play.

Game over.

Doing the math in this instance was simple: the 40-second play clock starts as soon as the previous play ends.

Greene’s first encounter with such a situation occurred in the Jets’ 28-21 victory over New England in an A.F.C. divisional round game in 2011. The final two minutes of the victory became more harrowing after Greene scored with 1 minute 47 seconds remaining to give the Jets a 28-14 lead. Greene could have avoided the late game drama by sliding down at the Patriots’ 1, which would have enabled the Jets to run out the clock. When Brady led the Patriots down the field to a touchdown that narrowed the deficit in the final minute to 28-21, the Jets were forced to recover an onside kick to preserve their victory.

On Sunday, Greene’s slide avoided any drama that could have resulted from giving the ball back to the Cardinals on a kickoff return.

(The Jaguars’ Maurice-Jones Drew pulled a similar move against the Jets in 2009.)