After skipping last week with the holiday, this week's old review was from the final game of the 2000 season. It was a cold Saturday game, with the Giants about to push the final chips into the table for Jim Fassel. With a win the Giants would get home field advantage through the playoffs and ultimately force a high powered Viking offense to come to play outside of their dome. They were going up against a Tom Coughlin led Jags team, who were having a disappointing year with nothing to play for.
As was TC's way, the Jags were ready and gave the Giants a battle in a low scoring game early, until a late, frantic shootout where the Giants held on, and featured one of the shortest kickoff returns for a TD in Giants history, thanks to Jason Sehorn, who 2 years earlier saw his career change returning a kickoff.
Enjoy
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Was it the 4th qtr? If so, my bad
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I was on the sideline cheering him on. For a minute it looked like we were going to blow that game.
Was it the 4th qtr? If so, my bad
Yeah, it happened late during an onside kick. I wrote about it in the review, and you had to almost admire what Larry MacDuff (who was hated more than Quinn as Special teams coach on BBI at the time) did. Going up against Coughlin's special teams coach, Frank Ganz, who was one of the best special teams coaches in the NFL for many years (he took over as head coach of the KC Chiefs in 1987 after they made the playoffs the previous year thanks to his special teams scoring tons of TDs on blocked kicks). Basically, at the kick, rather than have a "hands" team wait for the bouncing ball, the Giants front line rushed forward to create a pile on the onrushing Jags. Once the ball cleared that pile, it bounced to Sehorn, who only had to beat the kicker and jogged in for a TD.
And I also remember the Giants nearly capping off a 99 yard drive that failed when Amani Toomer couldn't come up with a Kerry Collins pass in the endzone.
And I also remember the Giants nearly capping off a 99 yard drive that failed when Amani Toomer couldn't come up with a Kerry Collins pass in the endzone.
I was at that game too, pretty sure Shaun Williams blew up Jimmy Smith. Would probably have been flagged for that hit now, but it set the tone for a physical game.
Good job. I'm still waiting to see the '95 December game at Dallas (the Dave Brown plows over Deion Sanders incident). Such a frustrating loss!
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..by Shaun Williams early in the game on a pass over the middle.
And I also remember the Giants nearly capping off a 99 yard drive that failed when Amani Toomer couldn't come up with a Kerry Collins pass in the endzone.
I was at that game too, pretty sure Shaun Williams blew up Jimmy Smith. Would probably have been flagged for that hit now, but it set the tone for a physical game.
Yup it was Shaun Williams decleating Jimmy Smith. Sitting in the back of the EZ upper tier you could see that hit coming from a mile away. We all reveled in that moment a bit too much...Smith got wiped out.
Good day to be an NYG fan.
There are four or five places that helped build the NFL TV behemoth into what it is today: Giants Stadium, Cowboys Stadium, Mile High, Soldier Field, Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, and Lambeau Field. I might be missing one or two others, but those places looked and sounded incredible on TV back before the atmosphere changed to what it is today. I think it's a big reason the sport has grown to be such a behemoth on TV.
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I was on the sideline cheering him on. For a minute it looked like we were going to blow that game.
Was it the 4th qtr? If so, my bad
Yep, I remember this game well. He was returning an onside kick.
There are four or five places that helped build the NFL TV behemoth into what it is today: Giants Stadium, Cowboys Stadium, Mile High, Soldier Field, Cleveland's Municipal Stadium, and Lambeau Field. I might be missing one or two others, but those places looked and sounded incredible on TV back before the atmosphere changed to what it is today. I think it's a big reason the sport has grown to be such a behemoth on TV.
Arrowhead deserves mention with those other stadiums. Candlestick had a shitty field, but for some reason I always dug the infield track being there as a child watching games on TV.
It was never easy except for one memorable exception a few weeks later. In some ways to me the debacle in SF or something like it was the inevitable climax for Fassel in NY.
Again it's somewhat unfair because we clinched home field with this win but there it is, something always not quite right with the Fassel teams even when they did good things.
Ha, you are right, you forget this game was 17 years ago.
It was never easy except for one memorable exception a few weeks later. In some ways to me the debacle in SF or something like it was the inevitable climax for Fassel in NY.
Again it's somewhat unfair because we clinched home field with this win but there it is, something always not quite right with the Fassel teams even when they did good things.
Fassel's teams somehow pulling defeat from the jaws of victory was a staple of his time here. Started early in his first year in week 4 against the Ravens (we somehow lost a game in the last minute that we pretty much had won, even Dave Brown had played well) and ended with the 2003 SanFran Meltdown aka The Game That Shall Never Be Mentioned. The Fassel era was good for a heart condition because we always won when we weren't expected to and lost when we were. Every. Single. Time.