1989 Giants v. Raiders

Week 16


The Setup


This game was a redemption game for the Giants.  In 1988, the Giants went into the final week of the season with a 10-5 record, a one game lead on the Eagles (who swept the season series with the Giants and held the tie breaker).  They were playing a "road" game against the Jets, playing out the string with a 7-7-1 record.  A win and the Giants were NFC East Champs.  Even with a loss, an Eagles loss at Dallas, would give the Giants the division crown.  If the Giants lost, and Eagles won, then the Giants would still make the playoffs if the 49ers beat the visiting Rams on a Sunday Night ESPN game.  Well, December 18, 1988 was a Sunday that would live in infamy.  Parcells suffered arguably the worst regular season loss in his 8 year Giants coaching career, falling to the Jets 27-21 on a last minute pass to Al Toon over Tom Flynn (filling in for starter Perry Williams who was injured his neck and was carted off earlier in the game).  Meanwhile, in Tom Landry's final Head Coaching appearance, his Cowboys fell at home to the Eagles 23-7, which gave the Birds the NFC East.  The Giants last hope was their rival 49ers (who in Week 2 of the season beat the Giants, at Giants Stadium, on a miracle 78 yard TD to Jerry Rice late in the game) to beat the Rams and put the Giants in as a Wild Card to play Minnesota.  Well, as Phil Simms would say (and backed up by other Giants like OJ Anderson), the Niners "laid down like dogs", and were blown out 38-16.  The Giants were left with a 10-6 record and no playoffs.

The Giants were given a second chance in 1989.  Again with a game at Giants Stadium (though this time as the traditional home team) against an AFC team.  Unlike 1988 though, the Giants had clinched at least a Wild Card spot, after their 15-0 win over the Cowboys the week before.  But to win the NFC East, the Giants needed to stay 1 game ahead of the Eagles, who again swept the season series in 1989.  Going into Week 15, both the Giants and Eagles had 10-4 records.  The Giants, as noted, beat the Cowboys to go to 11-4.  The Eagles, playing a Monday Night game on the road against the Saints lost control of the division title when they were beaten by former a former Arena League QB named John Fourcade 30-20.  With the Eagles playing at home against the Phoenix Cardinals, the Giants realized they had to win their game to win the NFC East, go to 12-4 on the season, and clinch the #2 seed and a first round bye in the playoffs.  A loss, and they likely would have to travel to LA to play the Rams, who blew them out 31-10 in Week 10.

Their opponent was the Los Angeles Raiders.  The Raiders, as per usual under Al Davis, were a circus show going into the Giants game.  The 1989 Raiders started the season with Mike Shanahan as their head coach.  Shanahan, who came from Denver in 1988, was not part of the Raider family, so he was a strange hire for Davis to begin with.  And Davis clashed with him almost immediately, having Shanahan keep some assistants on that he wanted on the staff, rather than letting him have the full say.  After a 1-3 start, Shanahan was fired by Davis, and promoted one of his assistants, and a Hall of Fame player, Art Shell to the position. Shell became the first African American head coach in the modern era of football.  Shell turned the Raiders around winning 4 or his first 5 games and got them in the Wild Card hunt with an 8-7 record entering the Giants game.  It also helped that Shell had Bo Jackson rejoin the Raiders, or his football "hobby", after spending the first month+ as an outfielder with the Kansas City Royals.  Jackson was terrifying, a 235 pound RB with sprinter speed, who averaged 91 yards a game, 5.6 per carry, he had 915 yards entering the game while playing in only 10 games.  Giants Defensive Coordinator Bill Belichick had this to say about Bo:

''He's the best runner I've seen, and I've coached against OJ Simpson, Earl Campbell, James Wilder and Eric Dickerson. He has size and speed and vision and quickness and explosiveness.''

 That wasn't just Belichick throwing verbal bouquets at Jackson.  Bo was that good.  In 3 seasons up to that point, Jackson already had 2 90+ yard TD runs, and he had a 73 yard TD against the Redskins earlier in the season as well.  Jackson was a game breaker and the Giants had to be ready for him in order to win.

The Game Highlights


First thing to mention about this game was the weather.  It was Christmas Eve and it was brutally cold.  According to the reports that I was able to find, it was 14 degrees out, with a 17 mph wind and a wind chill of -2 degrees.  From my own personal standpoint, sitting in my seats in Section 120 with my dad, it was cold enough that the fog from our breath hit our glasses and froze on them.  The general thoughts in this being a 1:00 game in frigid temperatures, was a warm weather team from the West Coast should roll over when faced with these conditions.

On to the game.  The Giants took control, just after the opening kickoff


So much to go through here.  LT starting off the game with a sack, nailing 2nd year QB Steve Beuerlein.  LT was still making his way back from a broken ankle suffered by a dirty block by Wesley Walls in a Monday Night loss to the Niners a few weeks before.  And then watching the Giants come at Bo Jackson in waves, including great run support by Mark Collins, who was one of the best corners in the league (but never made a Pro Bowl).  That set up rookie Dave Meggett to finally break a punt return for a TD.  All year he'd been threatening to break one, but it didn't happen until Week 16.  Meggett famously muffed 3 punts in his first pre-season game at Kansas City earlier in 1989.  But Parcells, who decided to upgrade from "steady" Phil McConkey at punt returner in favor of a player who could make a bigger impact in the return game, stuck with Meggett.  Meggett repaid Parcells with a long TD in the opener in Washington on a short pass, and now this time on a punt return in Week 16.

After a Bjorn Nittmo kickoff, the Raiders again did nothing with the ball and punted.  However, Meggett giveth and Meggett taketh away.


When we say that McConkey was "steady", that generally meant you knew exactly what you were going to get from him.  McConkey would field every punt that came his way, helped maintain field position by not muffing punts or letting them get by him, he'd go about 6 or 7 yards, get drilled by someone, and then he'd jump up and yell that it didn't hurt him.  He did this for 5 years with the Giants.  Meggett however, while a threat to break a long return or TD, also had misplays (ie- the Cunningham 91 yard punt against the Eagles a few weeks prior, which Meggett misplayed and let it get past him) and fumbles, such as this one, gave the Raiders the ball on the 41 yard line.  After a Johnie Cooks sack and Pepper Johnson snuffing out a screen to Bo, the Raiders converted a third and long, hitting WR Mike Alexander down to the 25 yard line.  The Raiders kept rolling, with a pass to Marcus Allen to the 11 and a Steve Smith (the Raiders fullback...not the former Giant/Eagle/Ram nor the Panther) run down to the 1, set up first and goal for the Raiders

A perfect playfake was bit on by Steve DeOssie (yes, #99 is current Giants long snapper Zak's dad) and former Chiefs first round pick (as a RB), converted TE Ethan Horton had an easy TD from Beuerlein and a 7-7 tie.  And yes, that #87 shown celebrating with the last name Junkin was that Trey Junkin, made infamous in the 2002 Wild Card game against the 49ers as a long snapper as a member of the Giants.

A game that looked like a blowout, was suddenly anything but.  Ingram was hit on the subsequent kickoff and fumbled.  The Raiders knocked the ball around, but it was recovered by Meggett at the 11.  The Giants offense did nothing with the ball and punted, which the Raiders returned to the Giants 45.  A 28 yard pass from Buerelein to "Swervin" Mervyn Fernandez got the ball to the 15.  But on this cold day, the Giants defense stepped up to stop the Raiders

Fernandez had the ball stripped by Carl Banks and rookie Myron Guyton came out of the pile with the ball. It was a close play to be called a fumble, but probably would have stood up to 2012 replay standards as a fumble (there were replays in 1989, but they were done in the booth by another official and the process was arduous and confusing).

Another 3 and out for the Giants offense, which finished with a Scott Davis sack of Simms at the 4 yard line.  A poor punt by Landeta and return put the ball on the Giants 23 yard line.  The Raiders drive started poorly, Buerelein was hit in the stomach as soon as he threw by Pepper Johnson and got the wind knocked out of him, and was replaced for 1 play by former Redskins QB Jay Schroeder.  A Raiders first down was wiped out by a holding call, setting up 3rd and 17 on the Giants 30

A perfectly thrown ball by Beurelein to Fernandez for a 30 yard TD, despite pretty good coverage by Sheldon White made the score 14-7.  What looked like a Giants blowout was now becoming a big worry that they were going to blow the division title a second straight year.

Ingram returned the kickoff to the 15 and the Giants came back out on offense down a TD.  A couple of runs by Anderson and Carthon, and a big conversion of a 3rd and 9 to Meggett (when Simms dropped the ball and it bounced right back up to him).  After missing a deep throw to Baker, the Giants had a 3rd and 1 and handed off to Carthon, who was stuffed at his own 45.  Enter the Gambler, Bill Parcells, with a 4th and 1 at the Giants own 48.

In almost any game, at any time, when it's 4th and 1, the fans in the crowd would always scream for the coach/team to go for it.  Most times coaches would ignore these pleas of the fans.  As former NBA coach/executive Frank Layden used to say "the moment you start listening to the fans as a coach, is when you end up sitting next to them".  Well, Parcells found himself going for 4th downs quite a number of times.  For a coach who wasn't overly imaginative in his offensive gameplanning with the Giants, he'd be very aggressive on 4th downs.  It was really him sticking to his principals that the Giants were a power/running team with a strong defense, so they could go for it.  Carthon barely made it.  The Giants then got aggressive, a 27 yarder down to the 25 to rookie "blocking" TE Howard Cross and another to TE Zeke Mowatt put the ball at the 1, where OJ Anderson finished it off, and a 14-14 tie.  Parcells' gutsy call worked.

A muffed kickoff return by the Raiders put the ball at the 20.  But the Raiders were in business on a questionable pass interference call on Perry Williams on 3rd down which put the ball at the 33.  Side note, in those situations, depending on how poor the call was against the home team, the crowd usually gets up enough ire and coordination to begin a "bull****...bull****" chant.  Sometimes that makes it on air and the announcers try to pretend no one can hear it, I love that.  After Jackson first down run, and a broken play, set up classic LT

For those who never saw LT play, this was a small indication of what this guy could do.  Mind you, he's playing with a broken bone in his ankle, but LT had enough power to bullrush an NFL starting left tackle and shove him into the QB and get a sack.  When LT was healthy and determined, he was damn near unstoppable.  In this case, even an unhealthy LT got his 2nd sack of the first half with a division title on the line. However, on 3rd and long, Beurelein came back from this and hit Mike Alexander for 34 yards down to the Giants 31 at the 2 minute warning.  The Raiders stalled, Buerelein missed Willie Gault for a TD and Jeff Jaeger hit a tie breaking 43 yard FG to make it 17-14.

With under 1 minute left, the Giants got the ball back.  A 43 yard return by Meggett got the ball in Raiders territory.  A crazy Simms scramble and lateral to the late Stacy Robinson was negated by a hold on Brian Williams, which made it 1st and 20 with :43 to go.  A dump off to Meggett and a first down pass to Lionel Manuel got the Giants going again.  And this time, the refs intervened to help the Giants

Whether this was an early Christmas present or a make up call on the Williams interference, is unclear. Back in 1989, defensive backs had much more leeway in jostling receivers than they do today with the league putting a greater emphasis on QB play and the passing game.  But this was not interference on McDaniel.  The Giants were happy to take it, and after Simms threw the ball away taking one shot at a TD, Nittmo came in to nail a 28 yarder to tie the game at 17 going into the half.

Bill Parcells would later say he didn't rip into his team.  He didn't dump garbage on them, as he did to the defense in 1986 when they were struggling at home in the season finale to the Packers with home field advantage on the line.  Parcells said he simply told the team that they have 30 minutes to decide if they want to win the division or not.  All that work done in the offseason was on the line for the next 30 minutes.  The team took him seriously as the second half would show.

Ingram returned the second half kickoff to the 33, which he actually nearly broke for a TD if not for a saving tackle.  But the Giants did nothing from there, Simms just missed Robinson for a long TD and set up a big Landeta punt.  Landeta boomed the ball down inside the 5.  Raiders return man Stefan Adams made a mistake in fielding it, and it was compounded by a Raiders penalty and they had the ball starting at their own 4 yard line.  Another mistake by the Raiders on a holding call negated a decent run by Bo, and they were forced to punt from their end zone and Meggett fielded a tough hop to keep the ball at the Raiders 40.  Meggett again made a big play on offense, turning a 3rd down into a 13 yard catch to the 21 yard line.  Parcells decided to pound in OJ, with 3 straight runs and set up another 4th and 1.  Parcells again passed up the go ahead FG and OJ converted, putting the ball at the 10.  2 more OJ runs set up the Giants at the 1 yard line.

Anderson 2nd TD made the score 24-17, a lead the Giants would not give up.

Another Raiders 3 and out, thanks to 2 incomplete passes to Gault and a Leonard Marshall pressure forced another punt.  Meggett had another big return for 23 yards down to the Raiders 36.  Simms hit his new favorite TE target, going to Cross for 24 yards down to the 10 yard line.  After getting the ball to the 4 yard line, Simms missed Ingram for a TD, and settled for a 21 yard Nittmo FG and a 27-17 lead.

At this point, things started spiraling for the Raiders.  A Nittmo kickoff out of bounds put it at the 35.  The Giants defense continued to hold against the high powered Raiders, and Bo in particular

Bo was stuffed by Reasons and the Giants gang tackled him all game, never let him get on tract.  And with the temperature dropping, the fans were reveling in the Southern California team falling apart.  More pressure from Leonard Marshall and Greg Cox on a 3rd down blitz resulted in another punt by the Raiders.

And it was time for more love for OJ

There are so many things to enjoy about this clip.

• Anderson's completely unexpected production in 1989, when he was forced into action due to a Joe Morris broken foot in the pre-season which ended his year.  
• The appreciative Giants crowd giving a standing ovation to a warrior who stepped up to help save the Giants season with his gutty comeback and give the team a much needed running game
• That awesome monochrome scoreboard, which if memory serves me was replaced in 1990 with better video capability, but I"m not 100% sure.  

After OJ's milestone, the Giants continued to march.  A 3rd down conversion to Baker got the ball to the 35 to close out the 3rd quarter.  A few Lewis Tillman runs, another first down pass to Robinson, and the Giants were moving again.  A hold on Bart Oates was a minor set back, but another Simms pass to Mowatt put the ball on the 12.  An OJ catch and run, featuring a big stiff arm on Raiders' Jerry Robinson, and another Carthon run to the 3 set the Giants up for the knockout

Fleet of foot Simms, got behind Eric Moore and plowed into the end zone.  34-17.  Announcer Don Criqui was saying it was all over, which meant that

• He had faith in the Giants defense/offense to keep it up
• He had no faith in the Raiders in the cold to come back on the round down 17 in the 4th quarter
• He just wanted to go home because it was cold and Christmas Eve

The game slipped into serious garbage time at this point.  The Raiders were allowed to move the ball and the Giants gave up yards for clock.  Though they reached the 30, the Giants defense turned the Raiders over again on Perry Williams' pick

The Giants took the ball and ate up more clock, finally giving it up to the Raiders with 4:31 left in the game, and again, playing a prevent defense, the Giants still managed to get yet another turnover

Now, the refs had a rough game.  A weak pass interference call on Perry Williams, an even worse make up call on Terry McDaniel.  And now Sheldon White mugs the receiver and no call, and Kinard was there to make the one handed INT.  I guess the refs were also cold and just wanted to go home on Christmas Eve, like Don Criqui.

Lewis Tillman got the carries the rest of the way in place of OJ, and the Raiders has one last hurrah, but to no avail

The gatorade bath, started by Jim Burt of all people, identified with Harry Carson in the 1986 season.  But it was 2 of the old guard linebackers, the heart of the defense, LT and Gary Reasons that did the honors, dunking Parcells in the frigid weather, though he was too busy yelling at the press to notice, trying to see the final play of the game (which was also missed by NBC cameras) in a 34-17, NFC East clinching win.

Interesting Tidbits/ the Post Mortem

• The Giants needed to win this game to win the NFC East.  The Eagles ended up beating the Cardinals 31-14 at the Vet to finish 11-5.  Which actually turned out to be the best record in the Buddy Ryan era for the Birds.  Throughout Parcells career, there were 2 teams which gave him a ton of problems.  Buddy Ryan Eagles (who had won 4 straight vs. the Giants by this point in 1989) and John Robinson's Rams under Jim Everett.  While Parcells' knocked the Rams out of the 1984 playoffs, with a road win in LA in the Wild Card, the Rams changed their offense from a running team behind Eric Dickerson, to a passing team behind Jim Everett.  The Giants defense had terrible matchup problems with these Rams, giving up 45 points in a home loss in 1988 and 31 points in a blowout loss earlier in 1989.  As fate would have it, the Eagles faced the Rams in the 1989 Wild Card at the Vet.  An Eagles win would mean that Philly would travel to SF to face the Niners, and the Giants would host the Vikings (since in 1989, you couldn't play a team from your same division in the 2nd round of the playoffs).  The Rams ended up dominating the Eagles, winning 21-7.  That set up the infamous 1989 playoff game, where the Giants blew a 6-0 lead and lost in OT on the Flipper Anderson TD while being covered by Mark Collins, who was playing with a broken bone in his ankle and didn't know it.  If the Eagles had won that game, the Giants would have faced the Vikings (whom they beat earlier in 1989) and would have set up another showdown in SF for the NFC Championship.  But that match up would have to wait until 1990.
• Parcells would call this game "probably our best overall game of the year." And, as was Parcells' wont, he liked to play up the underdog card. "We were picked to finish third in the preseason.  We were supposed to be an 8-8 team.  We were in transition...This was one of the 3 or 4 biggest wins we've had here.  I don't think we're the most talented team, but we got 12 wins.  I'll take that every year in this league and take my chances."
• OJ Anderson, an 11 year veteran at age 32, finished with 1023 yards on the season.  It was his 6th 1000 yard campaign (he had 5 with the Cardinals, including a career high 1605 in his rookie year).  It would be the last time that Anderson would go over 1000 yards in his career, as the Giants drafted Rodney Hampton in 1990 and shared more of the workload among Hampton, Tillman and Meggett.
• Anderson also scored 14 TDs, which would be his career high.  The 14 TDs would be the most by a Giant since Joe Morris also got 14 in 1986.  And would later be matched by Rodney Hampton in 1992. That number would not be bested until Brandon Jacobs scored 15 in 2008
• Meggett had a monstrous game.  In all, Meggett accounted for 182 total yards (114 punt return, 43 kick returns, 25 receiving) and his TD.  The TD return was the first by a Giant since Bobby Hammond in 1977.  As it would turn out, the 76 yard return would be the longest of Meggett's 10 year career and 1989 would be his only Pro Bowl appearance with the Giants (he was named to the 1996 Pro Bowl as a member of the Patriots.)
• Meggett also broke Emlen Tunnell's record for return yardage with 1159 total yards in punt and kick returns.
• Terry Kinard's INT would end up being his final one as a member of the Giants.  Kinard, then 30, a former first round pick out of Clemson was left unprotected as a Plan B free agent and signed with the Houston Oilers in 1990.  The Giants had planned for former 2nd round pick Adrian White to take over as safety in 1990.  However, White tore his ACL in the pre-season in a game at Houston and the Giants handed the spot to 2nd year man Greg Jackson.
• LT's 2 sacks gave him 15 on the season.  That made it 3 out the past 4 years where LT had at least 15 sacks in a season.
• Johnie Cooks registered his only sack of the season for the Giants in this game.
• This would be the first and only time the Raiders played the Giants at Giants Stadium while they were in Los Angeles from 1982 - 1994.  The Raiders played the Giants 3 times out in the Coliseum, going 2-1, with their only loss coming in 1986.
• This would also be Steve Beuerlein's final game played as a member of the Raiders.  Al Davis constantly would tinker with his roster, and especially QBs.  Buerelein split time with former Redskins' QB Jay Schroeder in 1988 and 1989, after Schroeder was traded for Pro Bowl LT Jim Lachey.  Buerelein would hold out of camp in 1990 and Schroeder never gave up the position, leading the Raiders to a 12-4 season, an AFC West Championship, and an appearance in the AFC Title Game, where they were summarily destroyed 51-3 at Buffalo.  Beuerlein was traded in the 1991 offseason to the Cowboys to back up Troy Aikman.  He would end up having a nice 15 year career, which included a Pro Bowl season in 1999 with the Panthers and 4436 yards and 36 TDs.
• This would also be Bo Jackson's only appearance vs. the Giants.  Bo needed 85 yards to go over 1000, and he would only gain 35 on 10 carries.  At a pedestrian 3.5 yards per carry, it was well below his career average of 5.4 yards per carry.  Jackson suffered a career ending injury in the 1990 post-season against the Bengals.  A dislocated hip eventually led to decreased blood supply in his hip joint and forced him to have hip replacement surgery.  He would never play in the NFL again, and though he did come back to play Major League Baseball, joining the White Sox and his former Auburn football teammate Frank Thomas, he was never the same player again.  
• In 1989, AFC broadcast rights were owned by NBC, and NFC broadcast rights were owned by CBS.  In interconference matchups, the home team would broadcast on the road team's network.  So in this case, the NFC Giants were broadcast on NBC.  That meant we got Ahmad "Mr. Clair Huxtable" Rashad, before he became one of the voices of NBC's NBA coverage (and Michael Jordan's best friend).  We also had, in studio, "The Juice", OJ Simpson, in with Bob Costas.  Needless to say, things changed for Simpson dramatically in June 1994.
• I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this game was the also the only real life matchup of true legends, LT and Bo.  However, both players were larger than life in video games as well, particularly Super Tecmo Bowl on the Nintendo.  It is generally accepted that the 2 most dominant players in this game were Bo on offense and LT on defense.

For your consideration:

Bo

LT

And no, no cheat codes were used, this is how that game used to play and how those 2 dominated.