My high school buddies and I played back yard football in the morning prior to the game. My friend Finch, from Bridgeport CT, was the dreaded local Cowboys fan. I knew the Giants could win that game but they had to play well, which they did. I wanted it BAD!! Phil and LTs likely last eventual post season hurrah. Win the NFC East during the Cowboys hey day? Come on. Home field advantage in the NFC too, if I recall.
Pierce fumbles after the perfect throw from Phil in the first drive of the game for the Giants. My heart fell through the floor. I remember telling Finch that play would probably be the reason the Giants lost. He just laughed in my face.
Man.
The Cowboys dominated the first half, leading 13-0 at the half. The game-changer was early in the third quarter. If I recall, the Giants had a punt partially blocked, but it went 15-20 yards past the line of scrimmage. A Cowboys touched the ball ("Was that Leon Lett?") and the Giants recovered. Given new life, the Giants got into the end zone on that drive, added a field goal to make the score 13-10, and drove for the game-tying field goal to force overtime (and yes, Reeves was absolutely playing for overtime).
The Giants got the ball first, but a chop block wiped out any hope of a drive and they punted the ball back to the Cowboys. We never saw the ball again.
Contrast that with the drive in Dallas in Jan 08 with 47 seconds before the half, when TC and Gilbride went for it. That TD sucked the air out of Jerryworld and gave us hope. In that situation, at best, Reeves might have tried to get into FG range, but maybe not even that. Take a knee, don't want to risk turning it over right before halftime..
No doubt that was a back breaker early in the game when Giants could have gotten the jump on them and with the crowd amped up who knows? What bothered me more was on that last drive of regulation when we had them on their heels Dan Reeves played it conservative and settled for the game tying field goal instead of going for the win. I said to my son then, If they are going to win this game, it has to be now. If they settle for OT, they'll lose. Guarranteed
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I will never forget that senseless turnover. We never replaced Bavaro.
No doubt that was a back breaker early in the game when Giants could have gotten the jump on them and with the crowd amped up who knows? What bothered me more was on that last drive of regulation when we had them on their heels Dan Reeves played it conservative and settled for the game tying field goal instead of going for the win. I said to my son then, If they are going to win this game, it has to be now. If they settle for OT, they'll lose. Guarranteed
That's a great point. An older team like the Giants should not have been expected to survive in OT against a team like that.
You're about right. It was a deep seam pass (classic Phil) but as Aaron caught it, the defender got under him and stripped it one step later. All happened pretty fast. In all fairness, it was a tough spot to be in.