I say it was. I was too young for '89 vs. Rams & while we've had a bunch of terrible regular season-'10 vs. Eagles comes to mind-those were regular season losses. Also, I wasn't born yet for The Fumble.
because Plax shot himself, although that's a convienant excuse.
The defensive line was running on fumes because they didn't have the depth they did in 2007. Osi was out of the year in the preseason and that killed the Giants down the stretch.
They lost because they threw the ball 29 times when they were running the ball successfully with Jacobs and Ward.
The wildcard game vs SF mentioned would be my #1.
The "don't punt it to Desean Jackson" would be my #2.
The loss to the WTF's this year would be my #3.
I say "would" because I try to eradicate terrible losses from my mind and there may have been worse losses that I have successfully forgotten.
RE: Fred Robbins breaking BOTH of his hands in '08 was big too
Big Fred was the most underrated played on that team. He was really, really good, and tough as hell for playing through it, but that rendered him fairly ineffective.
I remember his knees being more of an issue than anything else. He had microfracture surgery after 2008.
Up 38-14 in the third Q and San Fran rattles off 25 pts to win. Ugh. Giants lose WC to Niners - ( New Window )
They rattled off 25 points, but we actually did win - except for the refs sabotaging our last minute save. Though by getting to that point in the first place, we deserved to lose.
I’ve become borderline obsessed with that ‘08 loss.
Things that stand out to me, that have been lost over the years:
- Bradshaw retired the opening kick to like the 30, the Giants got in the redzone, but then settled for a field goal
- Manning had a terrible pick that was returned to the goal line, on a throw where he was fading back and threw into double coverage way over Hixon
- Carney was 5/7 that year on kicks 40-49 yards, but missed 2 that day
- On 4th and short Giants went to QB sneak instead of handing the ball to Brandon Jacobs
Manning was really bad that day and Coughlin did the team no favors resting against Minnesota and having 3 weeks between meaningful games.
I’ve become borderline obsessed with that ‘08 loss.
Things that stand out to me, that have been lost over the years:
- Bradshaw retired the opening kick to like the 30, the Giants got in the redzone, but then settled for a field goal
- Manning had a terrible pick that was returned to the goal line, on a throw where he was fading back and threw into double coverage way over Hixon
- Carney was 5/7 that year on kicks 40-49 yards, but missed 2 that day
- On 4th and short Giants went to QB sneak instead of handing the ball to Brandon Jacobs
Manning was really bad that day and Coughlin did the team no favors resting against Minnesota and having 3 weeks between meaningful games.
Eh, to your last point. He played the starters in the first half and rested them in the 2nd half and they still almost beat the Vikings who then lost to the Eagles the next week.
RE: RE: Jesus. I totally forgot this goddamned game
Up 38-14 in the third Q and San Fran rattles off 25 pts to win. Ugh. Giants lose WC to Niners - ( New Window )
They rattled off 25 points, but we actually did win - except for the refs sabotaging our last minute save. Though by getting to that point in the first place, we deserved to lose.
The Giants still would have needed to successfully execute a FG attempt, which was no guarantee at that point.
I don't remember too many specifics from that '08 loss
They were indeed leading at the time, 11-10 (what an odd score). It was 3rd and 20 from the Eagles 15. Eagles ended up kicking a FG to take a 13-11 lead.
I had forgotten that they were stuffed on 4th and 1 and 4th and 2 on consecutive drives in the 4th.
Eh, to your last point. He played the starters in the first half and rested them in the 2nd half and they still almost beat the Vikings who then lost to the Eagles the next week.
The passing game was getting stale the last quarter of the year (what impact missing a subpar Burress had on it is another question).
I didn’t see the value of getting David Carr reps in the Vikings game, when Manning was having a bad stretch.
The October 2001 15-14 loss to the Greatest Show on Turf sticks out.
True that it was an early regular season game without "playoff implications" so to speak but from a pure competitive standpoint that was one of those games where you had a historically great team on the ropes and couldn't close out.
I was a little young for LT's dominance but this game by Strahan sticks out as the most dominant defensive performance by a NYG player that I've fully witnessed. I was crushed when we lost that game. Fucking Grant Wistrom.
Giants were driving for the winning FG, but Jurevicius effed up.
My memory of 2008 is Mike Patterson and Broderick Bunkley completely dominating the interior of the OL. That was a problem that was foretold by Shaun Rogers in Cleveland earlier in the season.
Nevertheless, there was enough juice left in that team to beat Arizona (I think that would have been a thrashing) in the NFCC and then Pittsburgh in the SB.
Eli v. Roethlisberger in a Super Bowl is something we would have gotten in a perfect world.
The October 2001 15-14 loss to the Greatest Show on Turf sticks out
True that it was an early regular season game without "playoff implications" so to speak but from a pure competitive standpoint that was one of those games where you had a historically great team on the ropes and couldn't close out.
I was a little young for LT's dominance but this game by Strahan sticks out as the most dominant defensive performance by a NYG player that I've fully witnessed. I was crushed when we lost that game. Fucking Grant Wistrom.
Giants were driving for the winning FG, but Jurevicius effed up.
I was at that game with my brother. Ron Dayne also had a stupid penalty in the game that was extremely costly if I remember correctly.
followed by "Junkin snap" and "Flipper td"..all brutal
That Viking loss on an onsides kick that goes off Calloway who was as sure handed as they come was brutal. We all were talking about getting flights to go to Green Bay. I remember just sitting in my chair with the snow falling for 20 minutes after the game. We could not believe what had just happened.
The home loss to Philly at the end of '08 is still horrifying. There's a good argument to be made that that was a Super Bowl thrown away. I have never been so pissed off over a loss.
to the Dog-Ass Jets. Yeah, I know, but it wasn't just a loss, it was the NFL and the Giants v. the upstart Jets, a chance to restore order in NY and the rest of the known universe and the Giants didn't just lose, they were humiliated, whipped physically and mentally, abused, laughed at. It was like Ali taunting Sonny Liston while beating the hell out of him. It handed NY, the back pages, and the region to the Jets. It was worse than giving up 72 points to Washington, worse than the Fumble, worse than Flipper Anderson, worse than Try Junkin, worse than Plax, even worse than DeSean effin' Jackson. They should have declared the Yale Bowl a toxic superfund site after that game.
There have been a number of threads about the 2008 team through the years and lots of hyperbole about Burress.
Burress had a terrible season in 2008 prior to his arrest. The Giants had some of their best performances without him in the lineup earlier in the year.
The Giants defense was struggling and Manning had a bad game against Philly.
The myth of Burress as the lynch pin of that season is based on Jim Johnson saying the Giants were easier to game plan against without Burress.
I wish a reporter would have clarified if that includes the version of Burress who was banged up, getting himself suspended, and loafing it. Because that was Burress in 2008.
I always said the biggest loss of 2008 happened in the summer when Osi was lost for the year. The defense wore down and the giants played a poor game at the worst moment. Fg attempts were missed. I think if the giants played that game ten times, as worn down as they were they win it 7 times. Earlier in the year they were practically unbeatable. Not that day.
We lost a super star passrusher for the year. We win it all if that doesn’t happen, never mind plax.
89 and 08 were so different yet so similar at the same time. Weird parallels and differences.
It was brtual. From my nose bleed seats you saw the whole thing unfold. The stadium was compeltely silent as everyone just turned and walked out. I was at most of the game son the list - all the brutal Eagle losses, Vikings etc, Flipper was the worst for me.
1/5/03 WC loss and Ravens SB loss are about about the same in terms of
Since the NFL annexed the AFL in 1970, the New York Giants have made the playoffs a total of 14 times. Three of those campaigns ended in Super Bowl victories, one ended at the Super Bowl and the rest are indelibly etched in the far horizons of my brain as events that I would like to receive a refund for.
Not included in the below list of suicidal moments are pre-1985 games plus every playoff loss in the Tom Coughlin era. Also missing is the forgettable 44-3 bodyslamming by San Francisco in January of 1994—Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor’s final game as Giants (I’m pretending it didn’t happen).
The rest are all the usual suspects, mostly games the Giants should have—or could have—won but for some reason or another, did not. Enjoy.
Like I said, I was there in Arizona when he played his last game with the Giants.
All the Giants fans were surprised to see him on the field, as he was hobbling around. He caught one pass, on the first play of the game, and he was done. As I recall, he'd been playing through a lot of pain, for several games, previously.
Sure he pulled a stupid a couple of days later, but come the Philly game, I don't think he was in shape to be the Eagles killer he'd always been before
And on a really nice note sounds like Burress is having a positive life after football. He’s had really nice things to say about Jones and the Giants. He also went back to college.
Because we were good enough to have a strong playoff run AND we never really lost, officially. When the league apologizes and says the Giants should have had one more snap, which would have been a field goal attempt from inside the five, we shouldn't have been eliminated.
I'll never fully get over that game.
Also it was the game I turned on Fassel. I blame him for letting the team leave the field. I never would have left the field without a much bigger argument.
Been a Giants season ticket holder for 44 years and I believe the Flipper Anderson game was the worst by far. Never walked out of our stadium with 80,000 fans in complete silence.
As the 1st seed. That team was done once placed shot himself. 1-3 after play went down. Only win was when our 3 backs ran all over Carolina. Sad. That 07 team winning against an undefeated team, then going 11-1 the following year (only loss to a horrible browns team on Monday night)… then Plac shot himself and it was gone. That team has an argument of being the best in any 16 game span. Including 07 playoffs they were 15-1. Beating Tampa, Dallas and Green Bay all on the road. Then the 16-0 pats in the super bowl. Just incredible run of football. And what could have been.
Yeah, also Steelers on the road. Ran a train on the Ravens, also.
The ‘97 loss to the Vikings as also top 3, but I think I have to put the 34-7 drubbing by the Ravens in 2nd place because I was actually at that game. Only SB I’ve ever been to and it was not only the worst super bowl ever but also one of the most painful Giants losses in history— and I had to fly to Tampa FL to experience this nonsense smh.
The only highlight was that I met Dick Vitale walking out after the game though. I was 13 at the time, and actually blanked on his name lol. I was like “hey! You’re…. You’re …. “ . He goes “”Dick Vitale how ya doin?” Then he saw my Giants hat and said in the most Dick Vitale way ever “Giants Giants— not today!” Good to at least know he’s the same off camera as he is on lol.
Over the years I’ve become slightly less convinced it was entirely because of Plax’s absence. For a few reasons. I mean for one we did dominate the Skins 23-7 on the road like the day after Plax shot himself. Also the Eagles really beat us pretty good that day so would just the addition of Plax really made the needed difference? Philly had TC/Eli’s number in general Im not convinced we would’ve had a guaranteed victory over them with Plax.
But also— You can go back in history and find a ton of teams who carried momentum over from a SB win into the next year but then eventually sputtered out in the playoffs. We were the beneficiaries of it with GB in 2011. It makes sense that often the hottest team to start the year is often the super bowl winner from the previous year, but in this era it’s just very difficult to maintain that for an entire season + postseason and repeat as champs. Regardless of whether you won the year before or not it just seems to be increasingly harder than it was like 30+ years ago to maintain being the best/hottest team in the league from the beginning of the year to the very end.
That loss was top 5 worst for me in terms of how awful it felt. Such an incredibly anti climactic ending to a great season. And to lose to the Eagles no less.
I still feel worse about that one than the 2010 Eagles comeback over us. Believe it or not, for some reason at the end of that 2010 game, I was in shock for about 10 min, then for some reason a strange calm came over me and I just said “hey there are worse things in the world, I’m just gonna be grateful for the things I have in life.” Lol I never had that feeling after any of our heartbreaking losses but for some reason I took that loss incredibly well. The funny thing is, it’s one of the few awful losses that we know led directly to the mindset/approach that won a super bowl the following year: “Finish.”
Christian ... So what's your point? I'm not being snarky but what are you getting at? Are you saying Philly was the better team that day in January 2009 and would've lost anyway WITH Plaxico? They were the better coached team and were coming in hot anyway? What's my attention going toward here?
With Burress on the field in that 2008 game away at Philly on SNF you mentioned, the Giants scored 36 or something points with Burress on the field and he did score. I think.
I was at that January 2009 game and I'm not going to break down schemes and everything but Philly's defense didn't fear the Giants offense at all that day. They looked as if they could do whatever they wanted to.
I think if he was there that day he would've definitely at least created a presence and I hate to say decoy but something along the lines of Super Bowl 42.
Eli did play a bad game but maybe 5% of that game was on the defense's fault.
The San Fran wild card one stung the most. Not that it
was likely a "lost ring" type of year but that meltdown could have prevented in by so many different players and plays. And then to have the bad FG snap and incorrect ref call was just salt in the wound to finish it.
The 2008 Giants ran out of steam as the season went about a month too long for them. Of course the Plaxico loss had an impact on the field as the offense was far more efficient when he was on it, even if he wasn't catching a lot of passes that year. But the Giants were showing cracks on both the Offensive and Defensive Lines as the season ended, even despite that big running night versus Carolina that made everybody feel good. Coughlin saw it and played it conservatively to finish the year out but that and the bye week off didn't prop them up at all.
Eagles and their coaches knew Eli well enough that they smelled blood. They no longer had to roll Brian Dawkins or Quintin Mikell over to Plax's side for the late regular season game and the playoff game, and Asante Samuel could free lance it a bit more and cause tough looks for Eli and passing game. And no surprise, the Giant offense sputtered in both. Season over.
- The Giants scored their most points of the year with Burress out
- The Giants had arguably their best rushing performance of the year, in a make or break game to decide the no. 1 seed with Burress out
- The Giants beat the eventual Super Bowl champs with Burress suspended half the game
- The Giants beat the eventual NFC champs with Burress playing one series (reportedly he suited up just to get his games played bonus)
- The Giants beat the Skins the weekend Burress shot himself and threw the team in disarray
The Giants were pretty damn good all year without Burress. I don’t doubt Burress as a decoy would have been a positive.
But the real answers lie in the question: what else was different between the games the Giants dominated without Burress and the playoff game?
it appears everyone knows where and what they were doing as detailed as a poster knowing they made chicken wings at halftime! These losses have an impact similar to a shocking death like JFK or John Lennon.
Been a Giants season ticket holder for 44 years and I believe the Flipper Anderson game was the worst by far. Never walked out of our stadium with 80,000 fans in complete silence.
Agree, I was at that game. We had beaten up Everett pretty well in the first half too so I had thought we were in good shape. Those were the days when there were no non-Giants fans at the game (particularly a Rams tea) so at the bitter end, it really was silent and just a slow, numb walk out to the parking lot and car.
it appears everyone knows where and what they were doing as detailed as a poster knowing they made chicken wings at halftime! These losses have an impact similar to a shocking death like JFK or John Lennon.
I was too young to remember the Flipper game, but I can recite every detail of my day against 9ers in 2003.
it appears everyone knows where and what they were doing as detailed as a poster knowing they made chicken wings at halftime! These losses have an impact similar to a shocking death like JFK or John Lennon.
I was too young to remember the Flipper game, but I can recite every detail of my day against 9ers in 2003.
It was brtual. From my nose bleed seats you saw the whole thing unfold. The stadium was compeltely silent as everyone just turned and walked out. I was at most of the game son the list - all the brutal Eagle losses, Vikings etc, Flipper was the worst for me.
I was nosebleed right above it. Flipper ran right under me.
are tough to top. 89 Flipper is in its own category with 08 as great teams that played poorly in a home playoff loss. I guess you could even sneak 05 in there...but 08 and 89 are different than 02 and 97. The latter has NO business losing those games while the former most certainly did.
I don't like hearing well those teams weren't going anywhere anyway, how does anyone truly know? 02 team was far from great, but it was far from harmless as well. It had something cooking on offense and the D wasn't bad despite crumbling in that game at the stick.
97 team might even be worse because that D was near dominant and the offense sort of knew what it was by December of that year. It wasn't going to score a bunch of points but it was actually pretty consistent down the stretch. They might have scored 23 pts in GB one week later and what if that D took advantage of Brett Favre? Sad that game never came to pass, maybe even more so than 02 team going to Tampa.
Hate wasting chances in the postseason. 02 and 97 left a lot of football on the field. Sucks we will never know.
Concerning the loss to SFO in the Ice Chip game 2002
- The Giants scored their most points of the year with Burress out
- The Giants had arguably their best rushing performance of the year, in a make or break game to decide the no. 1 seed with Burress out
- The Giants beat the eventual Super Bowl champs with Burress suspended half the game
- The Giants beat the eventual NFC champs with Burress playing one series (reportedly he suited up just to get his games played bonus)
- The Giants beat the Skins the weekend Burress shot himself and threw the team in disarray
The Giants were pretty damn good all year without Burress. I don’t doubt Burress as a decoy would have been a positive.
But the real answers lie in the question: what else was different between the games the Giants dominated without Burress and the playoff game?
The biggest difference on Offense I recall was Plax being gone, at least in the head-to-head Eagle games.
While his individual stats may not have been much in the first match-up, his presence had to have been the difference maker in how the Giants were able to execute on offense as well as how the Eagle defense played us. They were also far more familiar with our players and gameplans so the respective head-to-heads versus the Eagles presents a fairly compelling case in my view.
What else can you point to that caused such a material change to the NYG offensive results below? Other significant personnel changes or injuries on either side (not sure)...
8-Nov (with Plax)
first downs 26
total yards 401
points 36
TOP min 39
7-Dec (without Plax)
first downs 14
total yards 211
points 7
TOP min 25
11-Jan (without Plax)
first downs 16
total yards 307
points 9
TOP min 30
We were up by 13 when Tiki Barber fumbled on our 2-yard line and they score which changed the momentum and the Vikings went on to win. I could not sleep that night
The defensive line was running on fumes because they didn't have the depth they did in 2007. Osi was out of the year in the preseason and that killed the Giants down the stretch.
They lost because they threw the ball 29 times when they were running the ball successfully with Jacobs and Ward.
The "don't punt it to Desean Jackson" would be my #2.
The loss to the WTF's this year would be my #3.
I say "would" because I try to eradicate terrible losses from my mind and there may have been worse losses that I have successfully forgotten.
I remember his knees being more of an issue than anything else. He had microfracture surgery after 2008.
They rattled off 25 points, but we actually did win - except for the refs sabotaging our last minute save. Though by getting to that point in the first place, we deserved to lose.
Things that stand out to me, that have been lost over the years:
- Bradshaw retired the opening kick to like the 30, the Giants got in the redzone, but then settled for a field goal
- Manning had a terrible pick that was returned to the goal line, on a throw where he was fading back and threw into double coverage way over Hixon
- Carney was 5/7 that year on kicks 40-49 yards, but missed 2 that day
- On 4th and short Giants went to QB sneak instead of handing the ball to Brandon Jacobs
Manning was really bad that day and Coughlin did the team no favors resting against Minnesota and having 3 weeks between meaningful games.
Things that stand out to me, that have been lost over the years:
- Bradshaw retired the opening kick to like the 30, the Giants got in the redzone, but then settled for a field goal
- Manning had a terrible pick that was returned to the goal line, on a throw where he was fading back and threw into double coverage way over Hixon
- Carney was 5/7 that year on kicks 40-49 yards, but missed 2 that day
- On 4th and short Giants went to QB sneak instead of handing the ball to Brandon Jacobs
Manning was really bad that day and Coughlin did the team no favors resting against Minnesota and having 3 weeks between meaningful games.
Eh, to your last point. He played the starters in the first half and rested them in the 2nd half and they still almost beat the Vikings who then lost to the Eagles the next week.
Quote:
Up 38-14 in the third Q and San Fran rattles off 25 pts to win. Ugh. Giants lose WC to Niners - ( New Window )
They rattled off 25 points, but we actually did win - except for the refs sabotaging our last minute save. Though by getting to that point in the first place, we deserved to lose.
The Giants still would have needed to successfully execute a FG attempt, which was no guarantee at that point.
I think we were winning at the time.
Yup. Which was near the Eagles goal line. SMH.
Quote:
But the 3rd and 25 sticks out in my mind. I still can't believe that happened.
I think we were winning at the time.
Reporting both these posts to Eric. :(
I had forgotten that they were stuffed on 4th and 1 and 4th and 2 on consecutive drives in the 4th.
The passing game was getting stale the last quarter of the year (what impact missing a subpar Burress had on it is another question).
I didn’t see the value of getting David Carr reps in the Vikings game, when Manning was having a bad stretch.
True that it was an early regular season game without "playoff implications" so to speak but from a pure competitive standpoint that was one of those games where you had a historically great team on the ropes and couldn't close out.
I was a little young for LT's dominance but this game by Strahan sticks out as the most dominant defensive performance by a NYG player that I've fully witnessed. I was crushed when we lost that game. Fucking Grant Wistrom.
Giants were driving for the winning FG, but Jurevicius effed up.
Nevertheless, there was enough juice left in that team to beat Arizona (I think that would have been a thrashing) in the NFCC and then Pittsburgh in the SB.
Eli v. Roethlisberger in a Super Bowl is something we would have gotten in a perfect world.
Quote:
The October 2001 15-14 loss to the Greatest Show on Turf sticks out
True that it was an early regular season game without "playoff implications" so to speak but from a pure competitive standpoint that was one of those games where you had a historically great team on the ropes and couldn't close out.
I was a little young for LT's dominance but this game by Strahan sticks out as the most dominant defensive performance by a NYG player that I've fully witnessed. I was crushed when we lost that game. Fucking Grant Wistrom.
Giants were driving for the winning FG, but Jurevicius effed up.
I was at that game with my brother. Ron Dayne also had a stupid penalty in the game that was extremely costly if I remember correctly.
That Viking loss on an onsides kick that goes off Calloway who was as sure handed as they come was brutal. We all were talking about getting flights to go to Green Bay. I remember just sitting in my chair with the snow falling for 20 minutes after the game. We could not believe what had just happened.
Now you just get excited when we lose.
The defense played well enough to win that day but the offense just wasn’t the same without Plax’s presence, even in a down season for him.
Burress had a terrible season in 2008 prior to his arrest. The Giants had some of their best performances without him in the lineup earlier in the year.
The Giants defense was struggling and Manning had a bad game against Philly.
The myth of Burress as the lynch pin of that season is based on Jim Johnson saying the Giants were easier to game plan against without Burress.
I wish a reporter would have clarified if that includes the version of Burress who was banged up, getting himself suspended, and loafing it. Because that was Burress in 2008.
I always said the biggest loss of 2008 happened in the summer when Osi was lost for the year. The defense wore down and the giants played a poor game at the worst moment. Fg attempts were missed. I think if the giants played that game ten times, as worn down as they were they win it 7 times. Earlier in the year they were practically unbeatable. Not that day.
We lost a super star passrusher for the year. We win it all if that doesn’t happen, never mind plax.
89 and 08 were so different yet so similar at the same time. Weird parallels and differences.
Both brutal.
Not included in the below list of suicidal moments are pre-1985 games plus every playoff loss in the Tom Coughlin era. Also missing is the forgettable 44-3 bodyslamming by San Francisco in January of 1994—Phil Simms and Lawrence Taylor’s final game as Giants (I’m pretending it didn’t happen).
The rest are all the usual suspects, mostly games the Giants should have—or could have—won but for some reason or another, did not. Enjoy.
See the 5! - ( New Window )
The defense played well enough to win that day but the offense just wasn’t the same without Plax’s presence, even in a down season for him.
I’ve posted these numbers a few times over the years:
Hixon technically started 7 games, including the Pitt game where Coughlin sat Burress to start, and then brought him on.
- Hixon (7 starts): 26 Rec/414 Yds/15.8 YPC/2 TDs
- Burress (10 games): 35 Rec/454 Yds/13 YPC/4 TDs
Rush Yards:
With Burress: 156/game
Without Burress: 159/game
The Giants had a really solid game against Philly earlier in the year were Burress didn’t factor at all after an early TD catch.
If the reasoning is if Burress gets healthy and gets his head out of his ass, the Giants had a better chance of beating Philly, sure.
But all things equal, if he continues on the same trajectory that season, he wasn’t an impactful player.
If the Giants hadn’t been winning in spite of him, he would have gotten much more shit for how bad he was playing.
Like I said, I was there in Arizona when he played his last game with the Giants.
All the Giants fans were surprised to see him on the field, as he was hobbling around. He caught one pass, on the first play of the game, and he was done. As I recall, he'd been playing through a lot of pain, for several games, previously.
Sure he pulled a stupid a couple of days later, but come the Philly game, I don't think he was in shape to be the Eagles killer he'd always been before
He was without a doubt my favorite player from that era, despite all of the really dumb things he pulled.
I don’t doubt his arrest caused a major distraction. But he just wasn’t a big part of the success the Giants had earlier that year.
I'll never fully get over that game.
Also it was the game I turned on Fassel. I blame him for letting the team leave the field. I never would have left the field without a much bigger argument.
Yeah, also Steelers on the road. Ran a train on the Ravens, also.
The only highlight was that I met Dick Vitale walking out after the game though. I was 13 at the time, and actually blanked on his name lol. I was like “hey! You’re…. You’re …. “ . He goes “”Dick Vitale how ya doin?” Then he saw my Giants hat and said in the most Dick Vitale way ever “Giants Giants— not today!” Good to at least know he’s the same off camera as he is on lol.
But also— You can go back in history and find a ton of teams who carried momentum over from a SB win into the next year but then eventually sputtered out in the playoffs. We were the beneficiaries of it with GB in 2011. It makes sense that often the hottest team to start the year is often the super bowl winner from the previous year, but in this era it’s just very difficult to maintain that for an entire season + postseason and repeat as champs. Regardless of whether you won the year before or not it just seems to be increasingly harder than it was like 30+ years ago to maintain being the best/hottest team in the league from the beginning of the year to the very end.
I still feel worse about that one than the 2010 Eagles comeback over us. Believe it or not, for some reason at the end of that 2010 game, I was in shock for about 10 min, then for some reason a strange calm came over me and I just said “hey there are worse things in the world, I’m just gonna be grateful for the things I have in life.” Lol I never had that feeling after any of our heartbreaking losses but for some reason I took that loss incredibly well. The funny thing is, it’s one of the few awful losses that we know led directly to the mindset/approach that won a super bowl the following year: “Finish.”
With Burress on the field in that 2008 game away at Philly on SNF you mentioned, the Giants scored 36 or something points with Burress on the field and he did score. I think.
I was at that January 2009 game and I'm not going to break down schemes and everything but Philly's defense didn't fear the Giants offense at all that day. They looked as if they could do whatever they wanted to.
I think if he was there that day he would've definitely at least created a presence and I hate to say decoy but something along the lines of Super Bowl 42.
Eli did play a bad game but maybe 5% of that game was on the defense's fault.
The 2008 Giants ran out of steam as the season went about a month too long for them. Of course the Plaxico loss had an impact on the field as the offense was far more efficient when he was on it, even if he wasn't catching a lot of passes that year. But the Giants were showing cracks on both the Offensive and Defensive Lines as the season ended, even despite that big running night versus Carolina that made everybody feel good. Coughlin saw it and played it conservatively to finish the year out but that and the bye week off didn't prop them up at all.
Eagles and their coaches knew Eli well enough that they smelled blood. They no longer had to roll Brian Dawkins or Quintin Mikell over to Plax's side for the late regular season game and the playoff game, and Asante Samuel could free lance it a bit more and cause tough looks for Eli and passing game. And no surprise, the Giant offense sputtered in both. Season over.
- The Giants had arguably their best rushing performance of the year, in a make or break game to decide the no. 1 seed with Burress out
- The Giants beat the eventual Super Bowl champs with Burress suspended half the game
- The Giants beat the eventual NFC champs with Burress playing one series (reportedly he suited up just to get his games played bonus)
- The Giants beat the Skins the weekend Burress shot himself and threw the team in disarray
The Giants were pretty damn good all year without Burress. I don’t doubt Burress as a decoy would have been a positive.
But the real answers lie in the question: what else was different between the games the Giants dominated without Burress and the playoff game?
Agree, I was at that game. We had beaten up Everett pretty well in the first half too so I had thought we were in good shape. Those were the days when there were no non-Giants fans at the game (particularly a Rams tea) so at the bitter end, it really was silent and just a slow, numb walk out to the parking lot and car.
I was too young to remember the Flipper game, but I can recite every detail of my day against 9ers in 2003.
Quote:
it appears everyone knows where and what they were doing as detailed as a poster knowing they made chicken wings at halftime! These losses have an impact similar to a shocking death like JFK or John Lennon.
I was too young to remember the Flipper game, but I can recite every detail of my day against 9ers in 2003.
I believe that 100%.
I was nosebleed right above it. Flipper ran right under me.
I don't like hearing well those teams weren't going anywhere anyway, how does anyone truly know? 02 team was far from great, but it was far from harmless as well. It had something cooking on offense and the D wasn't bad despite crumbling in that game at the stick.
97 team might even be worse because that D was near dominant and the offense sort of knew what it was by December of that year. It wasn't going to score a bunch of points but it was actually pretty consistent down the stretch. They might have scored 23 pts in GB one week later and what if that D took advantage of Brett Favre? Sad that game never came to pass, maybe even more so than 02 team going to Tampa.
Hate wasting chances in the postseason. 02 and 97 left a lot of football on the field. Sucks we will never know.
When asked how long it would take to get over that loss Accorsi responded and I quote-
"I'll take it to my grave"
Steve Mariucci- when asked about the Giants not getting a pass interference call at end of the game- officials let it go
No loss in human history was worse than that loss. I too will take it to my grave
The DeShaun Jackson moonwalk TD was just a regular seasons game as I recall
"Bummer"
- The Giants had arguably their best rushing performance of the year, in a make or break game to decide the no. 1 seed with Burress out
- The Giants beat the eventual Super Bowl champs with Burress suspended half the game
- The Giants beat the eventual NFC champs with Burress playing one series (reportedly he suited up just to get his games played bonus)
- The Giants beat the Skins the weekend Burress shot himself and threw the team in disarray
The Giants were pretty damn good all year without Burress. I don’t doubt Burress as a decoy would have been a positive.
But the real answers lie in the question: what else was different between the games the Giants dominated without Burress and the playoff game?
The biggest difference on Offense I recall was Plax being gone, at least in the head-to-head Eagle games.
While his individual stats may not have been much in the first match-up, his presence had to have been the difference maker in how the Giants were able to execute on offense as well as how the Eagle defense played us. They were also far more familiar with our players and gameplans so the respective head-to-heads versus the Eagles presents a fairly compelling case in my view.
What else can you point to that caused such a material change to the NYG offensive results below? Other significant personnel changes or injuries on either side (not sure)...
8-Nov (with Plax)
first downs 26
total yards 401
points 36
TOP min 39
7-Dec (without Plax)
first downs 14
total yards 211
points 7
TOP min 25
11-Jan (without Plax)
first downs 16
total yards 307
points 9
TOP min 30