For this game review, I went a little deeper in the archives for the 1984 Giants @ Rams Wild Card game. This would be Bill Parcells' first playoff game as the Giants' head coach. The Giants essentially backed into the playoffs with a 9-7 record and needed a loss by the Cardinals at Washington (who missed a late FG to win) and a loss by the Cowboys at Miami on a Monday Night to clinch the spot.
The Giants would go to Los Angeles, which was an earlier horror show as the Giants lost 33-12 in a game that featured an NFL record 3 safeties recorded by the Rams, 2 blocked punts, and punt return TD.
The Giants special teams was so bad that Parcells put LT in on the coverage team. And this game also served notice of what happens in the playoffs when a team comes out flat. The Rams looked lifeless throughout the game, didn't take the Giants seriously and they got burned. The Giants were also fortunate on a TD saving tackle by Terry Kinard and an all time horrible call made by John Robinson down by the goal line. In the end, the game was won on an LT sack and fumble.
The next game review is the 1993 Giants vs. Cardinals, which was won on a late 54 yard Brad Daluiso field goal into a strong wind.
http://bigbluevcr.blogspot.com/2015/06/1984-giants-rams.html - (
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Thanks Matt
Everett as well
Except there were no safeties in that game..
Quote:
I uttered the phrase "What the Fuck?" for the first time about a Giants game. My grandfather was impressed.
Except there were no safeties in that game..
There were in the regular season matchup that Matt mentioned in the OP.
Don't ask me how the Rams loss factored in but it had something to do with tie-breakers.
As I was a Giants fan only since 1980, and only 16 at the time of this playoff game, seeing a runnning back on the Giants do that was very rare.
But those back-to-back cardiac attack games between the Cardinals and Redskins on Sunday and the cowboys and dolphins on Monday night were unbelievable in how they both came out in the Giants favor. I felt like the Giants were a team of destiny after that (and they were for at least a week anyway.)
Rewatching this game, you could see the growth of this young defense that was going to end up turning into a monster. And a guy who unfortunately got hurt before the 1986 season, but played a great game in this Wild Card round was Curtis McGriff. He consistently stuffed the much bigger Rams offensive linemen and didn't give Dickerson anywhere to run.
Yup, USC is traditionally the "NFL" team in LA