I know there have been many, but this one is up there for me.
Giants @ Rams week 5 2001. The Giants entered StL with a healthy 3-1 record although they were dealing with everything going on after the events of 9/11. This loss was followed up with another TV breaker the next week with a 1 point loss to Philly that helped derail what could have been a promising season.
Watching the highlights linked below a few things stand out.
The original Fox broadcast with Madden and Summerall is the height of football watching enjoyment for me as a fan. It is sad that those days are gone. Those old NFC matchups with those 2 guys in the booth and the Fox NFL music which has always been the best, is it for me.
I think that game was one of the most dominant individual performances I've ever seen by a player. Strahan was literally camped in the StL backfield all day and there was nothing they could do about it.
Ron Dayne looked good and pretty thin in a few of his highlighted carries, lol.
I forgot that Faulk fumbled twice in this game.
I miss Jessie Armstead and having a LB of his quality.
Kerry Collins was a very good Giant. I know that the SB leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth, but I appreciate the mini/mildly successful run we had with him.
I always remembered that last pick by Wistrom was bad luck but I had forgotten we were basically in FG range when it happened. I was 18 years old and a senior in HS when this game was played and I remember being sick over it for a full week, this was a reminder of why.
Link - (
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This, or the Playoff collapse to San Francisco
Thread asked for regular season losses though
The Kiwanuka/Vince Young game had me furious. The Jay Feely in Seattle game pissed me off to no end. The blowout loss in the final game at Giants Stadium.
I've/We've been through a lot of shitty losses.
We had a house full of my DW's Pennsylvania relatives that day, because we did Christmas a little early for those carpet-baggers -- the only weekend they could drive to Jersey for a free meal. That 4th Quarter was a Living Hell on Earth as the Iggles scored 28 friggin points, climaxed by Jackson's return. My BIL was cackling about that score. I reminded him that I would be carving a Turkey with a very sharp knife....and it could easily slip out of my hands and across the table. The look in my eyes told him I wasn't kidding.
11/4/79 vs Dallas - Giant splayed their hearts out, lost on a Staubach led drive for winning FG with seconds left.
12/15/85 at Dallas - a nauseating loss where the Giants could have clinched the NFC East in Texas Stadium. Mental errors and a fluke tipped interception return were the difference.
12/18/88 at NY Jets - the Giants completely blew a win-and-in against an inferior team. McConkey fumbled two punts and the normally dependable OL allowed Simms to be sacked 8 times - and the Jets were without Gastineau!
1/2/94 vs Dallas - I still say the Giants would have made it to the Super Bowl this year had they won this game and had the bye week with home field advantage.
12/19/10 vs Philadelphia - already mentioned above several times. At least this game served as a catalyst for the 2011 Super Bowl run.
Larry, good point about the 8 sacks without Gastineau in 1988. Some nobody named Ken Rose had three sacks for the Jets in that game. He had 3.5 sacks total for the rest of his career, 104 games.
Westbrook was a Giants killer. Hated playing against him. Duce Staley, Brian Westbrook...and that other guy. Forgot his name.
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was the Brian Westbrook punt return at the end of regulation I believe.
Westbrook was a Giants killer. Hated playing against him. Duce Staley, Brian Westbrook...and that other guy. Forgot his name.
Correl Buckhalter
This. I was there and the silence afterwards was crazy. I was in the upper deck and leaving the stadium everyone has their head down and nobody said a word. Was one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had a stadium
Buckhalter?
You could basically assume that any time they were playing a bad team or a team with a backup QB, there was a good chance they were going to lose that game. Always playing down to the competition
1/2/94 vs Dallas - I still say the Giants would have made it to the Super Bowl this year had they won this game and had the bye week with home field advantage.
That was a brutal, brutal loss. The stars were aligned that day - division on the line, at home, record crowd, cold, Hampton playing, Smith got hurt, etc.
After having a dreadful first half - Simms was atrocious - reeled off 13 unanswered points to send the game into OT.
Then that f-cking bullsh-t chop block call on Williams in overtime was a killer...
IIRC, it was the first time Jones had ever given up more than one sack to a player in a single game in his career. That game was frustrating as hell. I also forgot about Shockey's catch in overtime when he could have just gone to the ground in easy field goal range but switched hands and it got knocked loose and they ruled it incomplete on review.
The effect of Desean Jackson was enormous. Packers don't even make the playoffs if we win that game. Instead, they win the Super Bowl.
Then that f-cking bullsh-t chop block call on Williams in overtime was a killer...
Ugh - I remember that! Completely tilted the game toward Dallas.
The other thing I clearly remember from this game (I was there in my end zone seats) was that Jumbo Elliot played his ass off despite being in tremendous back pain. We walked to the huddle after every play stiff as a board, he could barely move. But once he got into his stance he fired off like he was playing SB XXV against Bruce Smith. Emmett Smith got all the accolades for playing the game with the shoulder injury, while Elliott's was completely ignored. Truly unfair.
Not an onside kick - Bryant kicked it out of bounds. Also part of the 2003 experience. That season was something else.
Jerry Rice TD with 42 seconds left pulls out a win at Giants Stadium.
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but the night where the Cowboys beat the Giants after recovering an onside kick and having Quincy Fucking Carter beat us.
Not an onside kick - Bryant kicked it out of bounds. Also part of the 2003 experience. That season was something else.
That’s right. I knew a kickoff was involved.
And that was the ONLY time the Giants’ franchise ever lost back to back 1 point games
97 and 02 Playoffs obviously.
StL and Philly 01 as noted above.
Philly and Dallas 03.
Tennessee 02.
He sure did and Jones being considered one of the best at his position of all time makes it stand out even more.
Toughest ever regular season loss for me, bar none. The worst ever playoff loss was the 1997 Vikes meltdown game
Jerry Rice TD with 42 seconds left pulls out a win at Giants Stadium.
We've written about this so many times, 1988 was the gut punch. They had those 2 losses and the horrible Jets loss, which I still maintain was the worst regular season loss for the Giants the past 35 years.
1988 was a wide open season to win the Super Bowl in an era where you had a dominant team that got on a roll and was unstoppable. And that 1988 season, the Giants started to get hot late, with the win at New Orleans (the LT injury game) and then they blew out the Cardinals and Chiefs going into that Jets game. There is a reason the 49ers "laid down like dogs" in that loss to the Rams, they wanted no part of the Giants, no matter how much Ronnie Lott took it personally. They make it in 1988, I think Parcells has 3 rings, not 2.
https://www.newsday.com/sports/football/giants/simms-recalls-dog-days-of-88-1.3402156 - ( New Window )
I agree with you. The 1989 team would have given the Niners a fight, but I don't think they would have won. That Niners team was one of your typical 1980s teams that got on a roll and was too good. 1988 they were a much more vulnerable team.
There were so many ridiculous losses in 2003 before the injuries piled up and the players just gave up. They lost 17-6 to the eventual champion Patriots despite holding them to 220 total yards, because of 5 turnovers. Lost to the Dolphins 23-10 despite holding them to 280 yards because. again, four turnovers. Somehow were blown out by the shitty Falcons 27-7 in a game where the immortal Kurt Kittner threw a whopping 65 yards against them on 9-23 passing.
Seeing Parcells celebrate was disgusting
LOL. The OP listed it.