Well, it's that time again...the offseason is here. And my hope this offseason is that I'll be able to crank up more old game reviews for our viewing pleasure (or at least to have something else to look at rather than watch another playoff season without the Giants).
I've been lucky enough over the years in doing this that I've had so many game collectors reach out to me and trade games, so I now have over 600 old games. (You can see the list here:
http://bigbluevcr.blogspot.com/2015/09/updated-game-inventory.html )
Anyway, I tried to find a random game that encapsulated looking for some hope during a lost season. And the last stretch before the post 2012 world in which there was not much going on for the Giants came in the 1990s, when the Parcells team had run it's course and the Giants slogged through the end of the Dan Reeves years.
Well, in looking back at the Reeves era, there was actually a bright spot in hindsight. And he was brought in as an offensive coach (remember, he was a running back in Dallas, and actually became a player/coach under Landry, and then went to Denver where he went to 3 Super Bowls with Elway ..some would say held him back, probably including Elway). Anyway, he was brought in to manage the Simms transition and ended up bungling it with Dave Brown, Kent Graham, and just for the hell of it, that Tommy Maddox game vs. the Eagles in 1995.
But one thing Reeves did help, was nurture the development of a new defensive core. The Giants dominant unit from the 1980s was gone. LT, Marshall, Banks, etc. But during the really bad years of 1995 and 1996, Reeves helped develop several young defensive players who took their lumps but would eventually become the new group that won the NFC East in 1997 and made the Super Bowl run in 2000. Strahan, Hamilton, Harris, Wooten, Sehorn, etc. All guys who became an underrated and at times dominant unit.
This review is about how the Giants played a game against the equally disappointing Arizona Cardinals in what would be their 2nd and final year under Buddy Ryan. And that the Giants would find a way to win thanks to another young defender who would break out from being considered nothing more than an undersized coverage linebacker in Jesse Armstead. And maybe give us fans hopes that we can see development of young guys on the current roster (Barkley, Hernandez, Carter, Hill, Engram, Tomlinson, etc) can take their lumps and be ready to make their own Super Bowl run.
As before, if you have any game requests, let me know. I already have 1 more pretty much ready to go, and a 2nd in the works.
Enjoy!
https://bigbluevcr.blogspot.com/2019/01/1995-giants-vs-cardinals.html - (
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I actually plan on doing the 1999 game in Buffalo this offseason. That was one of my random favorites. Cary Blanchard winning it vs. a good Bills team.
and a great game from a bad era of Giants football. rob moore beasties if i recall...
and a great game from a bad era of Giants football. rob moore beasties if i recall...
Rob Moore actually got hurt early in the game, sprained his ankle. It was the rookie WR on the other side, Frank Sanders who killed them.
Hershal Walker was an amazing athlete but didn't do squat as a Giant. I used to work with a fellow Giant fan who didn't even remember Walker was on the team one season when I referenced him in a converstation
Hershal Walker was an amazing athlete but didn't do squat as a Giant. I used to work with a fellow Giant fan who didn't even remember Walker was on the team one season when I referenced him in a converstation
This was probably his best game as a Giants (not saying much). The only other play I remember him making was when he ran downfield to make a block on Thomas Lewis' kickoff return TD vs. Washington.
Herschel always fascinated me in how he didn't look fast at all how he ran. He was this burly/thick guy who had these choppy steps. But you don't realize how fast he was until you saw everyone else on the field hauling ass to catch him and they'd be running like hell and he would pull away.
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These old games really take me back to my college era in the mid 90s. And how much the games have changed. The old graphics, the announcers, that big red emblem in the middle of the old field. Seemed like such a simpler time.
Hershal Walker was an amazing athlete but didn't do squat as a Giant. I used to work with a fellow Giant fan who didn't even remember Walker was on the team one season when I referenced him in a converstation
This was probably his best game as a Giants (not saying much). The only other play I remember him making was when he ran downfield to make a block on Thomas Lewis' kickoff return TD vs. Washington.
Herschel always fascinated me in how he didn't look fast at all how he ran. He was this burly/thick guy who had these choppy steps. But you don't realize how fast he was until you saw everyone else on the field hauling ass to catch him and they'd be running like hell and he would pull away.
I recall at the time Reeves didn't seem to know how to use Walker in his stone age offense.
You made a great point in your game notes that Dave Brown was an underrated scrambler with the ball always willing to put a shoulder down and bowl a defender over for a TD or extra yards. In his 15 years as a Giant I only saw Eli do that ONCE because he and most of the other QBs are coached to slide to avoid taking hits . Say what you will about the rest of his game but Brown was a tough gutsy player who deserved a little more respect than he got for his efforts on bad teams
I know. Poor bastard was overdrafted and in over his head with what he had to work with around him.
That 99 bills game still has me excited for the 2000 season! Every now And then I get one right... I loved that game. They struggled after that game some but they did get things right in 2000.
that's the OT game if I remember. Yes, I can do that one too.
the conditions and situation a young qb enters is a huge difference maker-i actually think he may have been decent if he had started in a better setup.
Yes, I can do that one. We talk about LT's speed, but look how fast Andy Headen was when he returned that Hogeboom fumble. Crazy. He'd have started for pretty much every other team in the NFL, except the Giants and maybe the Bears.