[dfwgator]

If Bradshaw could have gotten a first down without scoring, then it would have made sense to stop short of the goal line, since the Giants could basically run down the clock from there.

I believe it would have been third down, and New England would have taken a timeout, so that guaranteed that no matter what, they still would have gotten the ball back with at least 30 seconds left, so at the point, he might as well have scored.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Correct--it would have been third down. The Giants would run another play, placing the ball in the middle of the field. Then, with no more New England timeouts left, they could have let the full 40 seconds of the play clock run down before attempting the go-ahead field goal. See my timeline here. New England would have about 5 seconds on the clock when they received the kickoff. And no timeouts.