For those interested: 1981 Giants vs Eagles Wild Card Game

Of course, a la Giants' style we wound up hanging on 27-21..

that was after being loyal to the Giants through all of those dark years.

so welcomed after all those years

got me excited after so many lousy years. :) thanks for the memory. :)

after Wilbert Montgomery called the Giants a "dirty team."

I was 19 when that game was played, so given their history in that era, to have the Giants even in the playoffs was like NASA getting to Mars in a VW Beetle.

To have them win a playoff game? NASA makes Jupiter.

with the game called by Summerall and Madden

I noticed the 2nd Eagles play was actually a Jaworski fumble which replay today would have given the Giants the football.

Watching the OL shift to the set position sure does demonstrate how the game has changed.

were almost laughable. Carpenter and....

I remember Earnest Gray as being a pretty good receiver (by the Giant standards) and he had 22 receptions for 360 yards and 2 TDs that season. Over his seven year career he had 246 for 3790 yards and 27 TDs. Contrast that to OBJ - 91 receptions for 1,305 yards and 12 TDs in 12 games.

How the game and the talent has changed.

As a Giant fan in a long long time. Rob Carpenter was a savior because we had a crappy qb. I believe it was Scott Bruner.

The Dallas win was more enjoyable the way it happened. Hanging on to beat Phiily was nerve racking.

In comment 12107489 Phil in LA said:

Quote:

after Wilbert Montgomery called the Giants a "dirty team."

Watching it now, it is a great upload, good Giants history and before my time...Harry Carson put a few good hits on Montgomery that day

Is the that youtube site one would go to that you posted to get those games?

This guy is new, I found him a few weeks back. What I've noticed over the past few years is that around playoff time, people start posting tons of full game footage on youtube, especially older games. Sometime in the late winter/early spring, the NFL will do a sweep and shut them down.

The guy who I go to to get most of my old games is the one who posts those LT videos. He and I have traded emails and he has sent me his copies of games that I rip and send back to him, and if I have something, I'll do the same or put it on dropbox.

In the case of this guy, Richard Waldrup, he seems to be pretty active, posting a few times a day. My suggestion if you want a game is to rip them off youtube and keep them locally. There are several sites that do it, my current favorite is the one linked below. I then store it on an external HD and will burn it to a DVD as a failsafe.


http://www.clipconverter.cc/ - ( New Window )

that showed Rob Carpenter 748 yards rushing, most by a Giant since 1973 is telling. In a rush first era to go 8 seasons without a 750 yard rushing back is amazing. Williams had that this year as a part year starter in a pass first league.

So if I go to clip converter I can get some of those old full game videos?

that game was heaven on earth.

yes, cut and paste the url in there and then pick the format you want it, and download.

parts of it. Also looked up the 1981 season. Surprised how much I had forgotten about the game and the season.

I had remembered this game mostly as a gift from Wally Henry and that the Eagles were still a notch above the Giants at this point. Probably not true. The Giants had beaten the Eagles a few weeks earlier in Philly 20-10. And this game was well in hand most of the way.

Was raining at the beginning and this probably played a role in Henry's fumbling - the TD for sure as he slipped in trying to recover the loose ball.

With 6 minutes left at 27-14, the Giants drove into FG range and Danelo missed a 32 yarder that would have iced it. Add this to a blocked XP(too low) and his misses against Dallas the week before and you have to say this guy almost cost us big time.

The Eagles had a 4th and 10 with 3 min left. Jaworski heaved one up off his backfoot to the end zone and DPI was called on Mike Dennis. Only one replay but this looked like a very dubious call. It kept the Eagles alive. They scored on the next play to make it 27-21.

Giants got the ball back and ran the clock out. Just jammed it down the Eagles throats. Carpenter was a beast.

Madden said Bill Walsh wanted to play the Eagles not the Giants. This was supposedly because he didn't want to play the same team twice. I looked it up and had forgotten the Giants had played the 49ers close a few weeks earlier in SF. 17-10. Interesting. Even then Walsh may have been leery of LT and the Giants 'D'.

Brunner wasn't very good. His numbers for the season - 41.6% completion pct, 5/11 TD to INT, 42.8 QBR. Yet there were lots of folks who hailed him as a "winner" and thought he should start over Simms in '82.

A few observations from watching a 34 year old game.

Kickoff from the 35 comes down around the 20, and the announcers don't even mention that it looks short.

Players are Slooww.. Brunner scrambles to his right and looks like he's wearing stone shoes. And the defense doesn't run him down.

LT lined up as the left gunner on the punt coverage. And he caused a fumble on the punt return.

I need to watch more of this game to see what else seems really odd watching an old game...

I remember being stunned we had a 20-0 lead. After nothing but losing for my entire rooting life, it was amazing to not only be in the playoffs but be way ahead.

Poly grip. Love the big blue wrecking crew.

In comment 12107500 Giants2012 said:

Quote:

I noticed the 2nd Eagles play was actually a Jaworski fumble which replay today would have given the Giants the football. Watching the OL shift to the set position sure does demonstrate how the game has changed.

And isn't it funny how the Giant players react? They make a bit of a fuss, but then return to the huddle. No instant replay!! Today players would be jumping around to throw the challenge flag.

In addition the OL shift, you also see the WR's (some of them) starting in a three point stance.....which seems amazing to me. I noticed this in a Giants/Dallas game in 1987 too........

And thought that the Eagle returner had left the opening kickoff in the end zone, rather than picking it up and kneeling for a touch back, recovered by the Giants. That was a college rule then. I know that happened in some big game during that era. Anyone remember what it was?

In comment 12108008 Mike in Boston said:

Quote:

And thought that the Eagle returner had left the opening kickoff in the end zone, rather than picking it up and kneeling for a touch back, recovered by the Giants. That was a college rule then. I know that happened in some big game during that era. Anyone remember what it was?

Mike, that actually happened in 1984 on the opening kickoff against the Rams in LA. The returner let the ball bounce into the end zone and Phil McConkey fell on it for a TD. The Giants would get killed the rest of the way, and allowed an NFL record 3 safeties and lost 33-12. But the Giants got them back later in the year, beating them in the Wild Card round.

for that game. What a wallop.

Thank you for that, a few years before my time.

The game has changed a lot.
1) I liked it when they mentioned Charles Johnson as being built for the nose tackle position at 6 feet 260! Yikes.

2) I was curious if there were a lot of Giants fans there, on one hand Philly must have been at their high just coming off at SB run, on the other, it had been 18 years and the Giants were only 90 miles down the road.
Sounded and looked like we definitely had a good amount, very impressive!


3) So how big a deal was this in NY, first the Giants AND Jets in the playoffs, then the Giants win? Was this a big upset? How pumped were you all?