Tag: Bill Parcells

Throwback Thursday: Randall Cunningham’s 91-yard punt vs. Giants in 1989

In the latest Giants Wire Throwback Thursday, we head to 1989 when Eagles QB Randall Cunningham unleashed a 91-yard punt against the Giants.

In 1989, the rivalry between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles was at a fever pitch. The Giants, led by head coach Bill Parcells, had won the Super Bowl three years earlier and were a top contender again after two disappointing seasons.

The Eagles, under head coach Buddy Ryan, had become a force in the NFC, winning the NFC East in 1988, and had designs of repeating when they invaded Giants Stadium on Dec. 3.

The Giants were in first place by a game with a 9-3 record. Philadelphia came in at 8-4. A win would give the Eagles sole possession of first place since they had already beaten the Giants, 21-19, at home in Week 5.

The showdown was on. The Eagles were ready. The Giants were not.

Philadelphia took an early 14-0 lead on two defensive touchdowns. The first was on a strip-sack by Reggie White and the second was when defensive lineman Clyde Simmons snatched a Phil Simms pass out of the air and then rumbled 60 yards to daylight.

The Giants narrowed the score to 14-7 on a 41-yard strike from Simms to Mark Ingram in the first quarter. Simms would get picked off again in the second quarter, which led to a field goal and a 17-7 halftime lead for the Eagles.

The Giants scored the first 10 points in the second half to tie the game at 17. Then this happened, as recounted by Frank Litzky of The New York Times:

Early in the fourth quarter, the Giants almost broke the 17-17 tie when Erik Howard sacked Cunningham and drove him into the Eagles’ end zone. The officials spotted the ball on the 2-yard line, making it fourth down and 33 yards to go for a first down.

Usually, Max Runager would have punted for the Eagles. But Cunningham, an outstanding punter in college, told Coach Buddy Ryan of the Eagles he wanted to punt, and Ryan let him.

It was a good decision. The ball sailed to the Giants’ 39 and bounced to the 7 before an apparently baffled (Dave) Meggett picked it up and returned it 9 yards.

Two plays later, the Giants gave up the ball again. (Mike) Golic sacked Simms and stripped the ball, and Mike Pitts recovered for the Eagles on the Giants’ 7-yard line. Three plays later, from the 2, (running back Keith) Byars squirmed into the end zone for the winning touchdown.

The Giants lost, 24-17, and sank to second place in the division. They wouldn’t lose another game the rest of the season. Not as much could be said for the Eagles, who lost to New Orleans in Week 15 to fall one game behind the 12-4 Giants at 11-5.

Notes

  • Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor did not play the second half of the game due to a “nondisplaced hairline fracture at the base of the right tibia,” an injury originally thought to be a sprained ankle.
  • Randall Cunningham’s punt officially went for 91 yards and is still the third-longest punt in the history of pro football. The longest punt ever was a 98-yarder by Steve O’Neal of the Jets back in 1969. That is followed by the 93-yarder off the foot of the Patriots’ Shawn McCarthy in 1991.
  • Only two other punts have gone for 90 or more yards. Don Chandler of the Packers blasted a 90-yarder back in 1965, and the Giants’ Rodney Williams punted a ball 90 yards in a game in 2001.

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Throwback Thursday: Rams, Flipper Anderson stun Giants in 1989 playoffs

In the latest Giants Wire Throwback Thursday, we head back to the 1989 playoffs when the Los Angeles Rams stunned the New York Giants in OT.

In 1989, the New York Giants were back in the playoffs for the first time since their dominant, Super Bowl-winning season three years before.

In 1987, they opened at 0-2 before the players went on strike. The owners continued the season with replacement players, something the Giants did not stock up on, and before you could blink an eye, they were 0-5. They recovered to finish 6-9, but it was not enough to qualify for the postseason.

In 1988, the Giants finished 10-6 but failed to secure a postseason berth when they lost to the Jets, 27-21, in the final game.

The 1989 season would be the year the Giants rose back to prominence. They opened the season with an 8-1 record and went on to win the NFC East with a 12-4 record. As a division winner, they drew a bye in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

On Jan. 7, 1990, Bill Parcells’ crew hosted John Robinson’s Los Angeles Rams at Giants Stadium in the NFC divisional round. The Rams had disposed of the Philadelphia Eagles the week before in the wild-card round and came into New Jersey as three-point underdogs.

The Rams were one of the teams that managed to beat the Giants during the regular season, knocking them off, 31-10, in Anaheim on Nov. 12.

In this game, however, L.A. had to come 3,000 miles to play a Giants team that had lost just once at home that season. On a typical blustery Meadowlands afternoon, the feeling in the air was that the Giants were going to romp.

That didn’t happen. Instead, they were flatter than they had looked in weeks.

The over/under on the game was 39 points because, well, it was a Giants game with Parcells at the helm. As predicted, the game was a low-scoring one.

The Giants defense was putting in their typical home cold-weather defensive performance, and New York was up, 6-0, with 17 seconds to go in the first half. That’s when Los Angeles quarterback Jim Everett caught the Giants napping and hit wide receiver Willie “Flipper” Anderson for a 30-yard touchdown strike.

That would not be the last the Giants would see of Anderson on the day.

The Giants regained the lead in the third quarter on a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Ottis Anderson. The Rams would hold the Giants scoreless in the fourth quarter and tie the game at 13 with two short field goals by Mike Lansford, sending the game into overtime.

Fans were getting antsy, groaning about the Giants offense being put in dry dock in the second half by Parcells. An earlier interception that led to a Rams touchdown may have been the reason.

In overtime, the Rams won the coin toss and marched down the field on the stunned Giants. It took only 1:06 for the visitors to score the winning touchdown, a 30-yard reception by Anderson over Giants cornerback Mark Collins that ended with Flipper running straight through the back of the end zone, through the tunnel and into the locker room.

“When I came into the lockers, I was here by myself,” said Anderson, whose only two catches that Sunday were the Rams’ only touchdowns. “I didn’t know what to do.”

Neither did any of us who were watching in the stands. Was that it? Is the game over? Does that count?

It sure did. And it still stings.

The Giants would bounce back from this devastating loss and win the Super Bowl the next season, but it was another long offseason for Giants fans in 1990.

In retrospect, fans still cringe when they think about that day, and when they hear Flipper Anderson’s name, but they shouldn’t. Anderson only caught two passes on the day — both went for touchdowns — but was a well-known deep threat.

They should have been more aware of Anderson, who set a single-game NFL record for receiving yards (336) six weeks before against New Orleans. That record still stands.

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Bill Parcells backs Tony La Russa amid heavy criticism

Retired New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells has come to the defense of Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa.

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Old school coaches stick together. They have to in this era of changing sports norms and practices. Baseball is no longer recognizable (or even enjoyable) to the middle-age fan and when players breach the long-standing ‘unwritten rules’ of the game, the purists come out of the woodwork to protest.

Such is the case of Yermin Mercedes of the Chicago White Sox, who recently ignored a take sign on a 3-0 pitch in the ninth inning of a 15-4 game, swinging away and hitting a home run off a position player the opposing Minnesota Twins were using as a mop up man.

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“Big mistake,” La Russa said, per ESPN. “The fact that he’s a rookie, and excited, helps explain why he just was clueless. But now he’s got a clue.

“I was upset because that’s not a time to swing 3-0. I knew the Twins knew I was upset. … He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that’s just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent.”

La Russa, a Hall of Fame manager who came out of retirement at age 76 to take the reins of the White Sox this season, was lambasted by the new age thinkers who are ruining the national pastime with their excessive analytics and disrespect of the norms that once made the game great.

Not to mention his players weren’t happy either. The White Sox are 26-18 thus far this season, good enough for first place in the AL Central, so La Russa must be doing something right.

That criticism was met by another old school coach, former New York Giants head coach Bill Parcells, who stood up for LaRussa in a recent interview.

“I understand why he did what he did,” Parcells told the New York Post. “He’s not trying to rub the other team’s nose in it. That’s what that’s about…Whatever he did, I’m sure he thought it was in the best interest.”

Parcells went on to explain that he has a lot of respect for the way La Russa handles his clubs.

La Russa is a former four-time Manager of the Year recipient and has won three World Series. He is one of only two managers to the win the World Series in both the AL and the NL (Sparky Anderson is the other).

“He’s very meticulous,” Parcells said of La Russa. “I’ve seen the things that they work on, some of the details, some of the situational stuff. I’ve seen a lot of baseball and not everybody does it like he does it. He covers all the bases. … He’s a very, very astute, intelligent guy.”

Parcells has been known to retire only to return to coaching, but at age 79 he’s not entertaining a comeback like La Russa has done at 76.

“It didn’t surprise me,” Parcells said. “It surprised me that he did at that age, but I know how much he loves the game and he wants to be on the field. That’s where he belongs. That’s where he’s at his best.”

Ian Book passed all seven of Bill Parcells’ franchise QB benchmarks

Sean Payton’s mentor Bill Parcells set rules for drafting a franchise quarterback. The Saints picked Notre Dame QB Ian Book, who passed them

It’s news to no one that New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton leans on his mentor Bill Parcells for guidance and advice, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see Payton applying the legendary coach’s rules for finding a franchise quarterback.

The Saints selected Notre Dame prospect Ian Book in the fourth round of the 2021 draft, and Book met all seven thresholds Parcells worked with. Some of these benchmarks may seem outdated or arbitrary, but they worked for Parcells. Let’s run down the list.

Report: Ex-Cowboys TE now frontrunner for Lions’ HC job

Dan Campbell played tight end for three seasons in Dallas, overlapping with Jason Witten. Now he may be the next Detroit Lions head coach.

The Detroit Lions may be zeroing in on their man, according to reports. He has a ton of Cowboys connections, and he may have beaten out another Cowboys alum for the job.

Current Saints assistant head coach and tight ends coach Dan Campbell is said to be the leading candidate for the Lions’ head coaching job. Campbell played tight end for Dallas for three seasons, leaving for Detroit after the 2005 season once it became clear that Jason Witten would be an immovable fixture in the Cowboys’ starting lineup at the position.

Now according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero, the 44-year-old Campbell may be returning to the Motor City as the man in charge.

Campbell was a third-round pick by the Giants in 1999. The Texas A&M product appeared in Super Bowl XXXV as a rookie.

When Bill Parcells took over as Dallas’s coach in 2003, Campbell was one of the first free agents signed. But the immediate splash made by the rookie Witten relegated Campbell to, primarily, a blocker.

In 2004, Campbell played in three games before going on injured reserve with a foot injury. The following season, he missed just ten days of practice following an appendectomy and came back to start all four preseason games. During the season, he started 12 games alongside Witten in the two-tight end set run by the Cowboys offense.

Over his three seasons in Dallas, the gritty and hard-nosed Campbell played in 35 games. He caught 25 balls for 235 yards and two touchdowns.

Campbell played three seasons with Detroit before heading to New Orleans, where he was signed by his former Cowboys offensive coordinator Sean Payton. Despite spending the year on IR, Campbell earned a championship ring for the Saints’ win in Super Bowl XLIV. He retired after the 2009 season.

After progressing through the coaching ranks in Miami (under former Dallas assistant Tony Sparano) and even acting as interim head coach there in 2015 (when current Cowboys offensive line coach Joe Philbin was ousted by the Dolphins), Campbell was reunited once again with Payton in New Orleans, where he’s been since.

Detroit, having just hired a new executive vice president/general manager on Thursday, was expected to interview Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator- and Cowboys secondary coach from 2005 to 2007- Todd Bowles for the head coach position Friday. The two sides have decided to cancel that interview, though, as per NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

Despite not even having had a face-to-face meeting, the Lions gig appears to be Campbell’s to lose.

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Throwback Thursday: Giants lose heartbreaker to Browns in 1985

In the latest Giants Wire Throwback Thursday, we go back to 1985 when the New York Giants lost a heartbreaker to the Cleveland Browns.

The New York Giants and the Cleveland Browns were once fierce NFL rivals. Going back to the 1950s, players such as Jim Brown, Sam Huff, Frank Gifford and Lou Groza were fixtures at two iconic venues, Yankee Stadium and Municipal Stadium.

As part of a merger, Paul Brown took his powerful Browns team from the All-America Football Conference to the NFL in 1950 along with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts and made an immediate impact on their new league, winning the NFL championship in their first season and then playing in the championship game in six of the next seven years, winning two more titles.

After a five-year playoff drought, the Browns returned to the playoffs in 1964, winning their last NFL championship to date. The Browns remained relevant throughout the 1960s under new owner Art Modell, making the playoffs in each of the next eight seasons, but never got back to the championship game.

When the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, the Browns were one of the three NFL teams (along with Baltimore and Pittsburgh) to join the AFC in order to even out the conferences at 13 teams apiece. That’s when the Giants and Browns, who had played 41 times over the 20 years since Cleveland joined the NFL, became estranged. And both franchises went into the tank for the better part of the next decade and half.

But in the mid-1980s, both clubs were ascending. In 1985, the Browns were in their first full season under head coach Marty Schottenheimer and the Giants were beginning their run as an NFC heavyweight under Bill Parcells. Both teams entered the game vying for first place in their respective divisions.

In Week 13, the 8-4 Giants hosted the 6-6 Browns at Giants Stadium. The calendar had turned to December that day, and it was a typical North Jersey afternoon with temperatures in the mid-30s and winds whipping in all directions.

The Giants opened the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run by Joe Morris. Cleveland answered with a 42-yard touchdown run by Kevin Mack. Giants quarterback Phil Simms was picked off by Hanford Dixon, leading to another Cleveland score, a 2-yard dive by Earnest Byner. Al Gross returned an interception 37 yards for a touchdown, giving the Browns a 21-7 lead in the second quarter.

The Giants then scored 14 unanswered points — on a 58-yard touchdown run by Morris and a 29-yard touchdown strike from Simms to Bobby Johnson — to narrow the score to 21-20 at halftime.

The Giants opened the second half by scoring 13 points on two Eric Schubert field goals and Morris’ third touchdown of the game. Those drives were set up by an interception by safety Terry Kinard and a fumble recovery by linebacker Byron Hunt.

The Giants had a 33-21 fourth-quarter lead, and with their defense, the game seemed over. But Cleveland wasn’t done. They rallied behind their powerful running game and rookie quarterback Bernie Kosar, who was dealing with a shoulder injury.

The Browns scored two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter to pull ahead, 35-33 (Kosar was replaced by veteran Gary Danielson in the third quarter but then was reinserted in the fourth when Danielson was injured).

The Giants had one last drive in them and ended up attempting a 34-yard field goal to win the game in the final seconds. But Schubert’s line-drive attempt went wide to the left, sealing the Browns’ victory.

The Giants went on to finish the season 10-6. They defeated the 49ers, 17-3, in the wild-card game before getting embarrassed by the Bears in Chicago, 21-0, in the divisional round the next week.

Cleveland won the AFC Central with an 8-8 record. They lost in the divisional round, 24-21, to Miami.

In 1986, the Giants steamrolled through the NFC and into the Super Bowl. The Browns went 12-4 and had the top seed in the AFC. They beat the Jets in overtime in the divisional round and then were victimized by John Elway and the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game by “The Drive” — or they would have faced the Giants in Super Bowl XXI.

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Improving Giants, Joe Judge have Bill Parcells ‘fired up’

Bill Parcells had praise for New York Giants head coach Joe Judge, quarterback Daniel Jones, and the team’s defense.

The New York Giants seem to be moving in the right direction after winning three of their last five games, which has led to head coach Joe Judge’s squad owning second place in the NFC East after a dreadful 0-5 start.

And legendary former Giants head coach and Hall of Famer Bill Parcells has taken notice. He recently told Bob Glauber of Newsday that the 2020 team has him “fired up” and he appears to be a big fan of Judge.

“I’m fired up about them,” Parcells said. “They’re getting better. They’re improving. I like their coach. I just know he has established some law and order, and I think that’s a good thing.”

One thing that has remained constant with the Giants this season has been their defense, which is no doubt an underrated unit. Parcells sees the improvement the team is making in that area as well.

“Defense is improving,” Parcells said. “That’s good coaching. They seem like they know what to do. They’re certainly behaving better and they’re getting more things done and they’re playing with confidence. That’s all good. I like what I’ve been seeing.”

Quarterback Daniel Jones’ athleticism is another thing that stands out to Parcells.

“I like [Jones] athletically,” he said. “Big son of a gun runs around there. I like him.”

Judging from the enthusiasm with which Parcells speaks about Judge and Co., it’s clear the Giants are doing something right.

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Flashback Friday: Giants, Rams finally meet in 1984 playoffs

In our latest Flashback Friday, we travel back in time to 1984 when the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams met in the playoffs.

The New York Giants and the Los Angeles Rams have been playing one another since the Rams entered the NFL as the Cleveland Rams in 1938. The Rams played in Cleveland from 1938-45, wining the NFL Championship their final season there before heading to Los Angeles in 1946.

The Giants and Rams both had many successful seasons after the war and played each other many times during the regular season over those years (nine to be exact), but by the time the NFL merged with the AFL in 1970, the two had never faced one another in the post season.

The Rams qualified for the postseason each year from 1973-80, finally going to the Super Bowl in 1979. The Giants, as we know, did not appear in the postseason during that time, but by 1984, were an NFL power on the rise.

In 1984, the Rams — coached by former USC icon John Robinson and led by running back Eric Dickerson (who set the NFL single season rushing record with 2,105 yards), finished second in the NFC West behind the 15-1 San Francisco 49ers, earning a wild card berth with a 10-6 record.

They would host the New York Giants (9-7), who finished second in the NFC East under second-year head coach Bill Parcells and a (finally) healthy Phil Simms at quarterback.

The game took place in Anaheim Stadium, where the Rams moved in 1980 to avoid the television blackout rules that had dogged them while playing in the cavernous, 92,000-plus seat L.A. Coliseum, which was impossible to sell out.

The two teams had met in Week 5 in Anaheim with the Rams winning easily, 33-12, buoyed by their defense which sacked Simms five times and tied a record for safeties in the game with three. The Giants were able to rush for only eight yards on the day while Dickerson rambled for 120 on 22 attempts.

This game would be different. The Rams came into the game having clinched the playoffs in Week 14 while the Giants had to hold on to gain their spot after losing their final two games of the regular season.

Dickerson rushed for 107 yards in the game, but the result would be very different thanks to the Giants’ own resident Hall-of-Famer, Lawrence Taylor.

“The Giants were 5-point underdogs against the Rams, and their offense gained only 192 yards, only 40 on the ground,” wrote the New York Times’ Frank Litzky. “Almost all of Phil Simms’s passes were short, and he completed 22 of 31 for only 179 yards.”

“But the Giants took leads of 10-0 in the first quarter and 13-3 in the third and held on. Bill Currier’s recovery of Dickerson’s first-quarter fumble set up Rob Carpenter’s 1-yard touchdown run, and Ali Haji-Sheikh made his three field-goal attempts – from 37, 39 and 36 yards.

Dickerson’s fumble and Jeff Kemp’s fourth-down fumble with two minutes left in the game resulted from crushing tackles by Lawrence Taylor, the Giants’ all-pro outside linebacker.”

The Giants won, 16-13, and would go on to lose to the 49ers in the Divisional Round the next week. It was beginning of the Giants’ ascent under Parcells that would lead to two Super Bowl championships over the next six seasons.

”You can’t back us in the corner,” said Parcells after the game, ”and not expect us to fight.”

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Long Game: Ladouceur spans eras of coaches, holders, kickers, punters

LP Ladouceur bridges into new era of Cowboys history in 2020.

Bill Parcells. Wade Phillips. Jason Garrett. Mat McBriar. Sam Paulescu. Chris Jones. Brian Moorman.  Jose Cortez. Billy Cundiff. Shaun Suisham. Mike Vanderjagt. Martin Gramatica. Nick Folk. David Buehler. Dan Bailey. Mike Nugent. Brett Maher. Kai Forbath. Tony Romo. He’s been integral for all of them.

The Dallas Cowboys will enter a new era in 2020, but they’re bringing with them a bridge to their past. Longtime long snapper L.P. Ladouceur will return for a 16th season, bringing back much more than a key special teams role.

Originally a 2005 UDFA signing who was later cut by the New Orleans Saints, Ladouceur caught on with Dallas during Week 4 that year, and has remained entrenched ever since. New head coach Mike McCarthy will be the fourth regime he’ll play under, twice as many as any other player.

The 39-year-old Ladouceur has appeared in 236 consecutive games, second-most in team history. He’s the last remaining player to have stepped onto the field at Texas Stadium. He’s the last to have been yelled at by Bill Parcells. He’s the team’s elder statesman, and most veteran. And though the Dallas bias caught up with him in a 2018 game, he’s been literally perfect the entire time, batting 1.000 on snaps for his career, earning Pro Bowl honors in 2014.

Amidst so much organizational change, having Ladouceur back will be huge this season. For him, it’ll be mostly business as usual, but the start of the season might be a little different, as it’ll mark the one-year anniversary of Ladouceur becoming an American citizen.

Hailing from Montreal, Ladouceur is one of three Canadian-born Cowboys players (Tyrone Crawford and 2019 rookie Neville Gallimore). Football first brought him to America, on a scholarship to play at the University of California. He played for the Cowboys on yearly work permits for eight seasons, first beginning the naturalization process in 2013. Said Ladouceur of his citizenship journey,  “To me there is a sense of accomplishment because I have spent 19 years in this country. I’ve spent half my time on earth here in this country. My wife is American. Our kids are American, and I wanted to be able to complete that. There is pride in that I stuck this out and I got it done and I am an American. I will always be a Canadian at heart but I’m also an American.”

On March 17, Ladouceur signed a 1 year, $1,187,500 contract which included a $137,500 signing bonus. Of that $887,500 is guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $1,187,500. Because of the veteran minimum salary benefit, only the $887,500 works against the Cowboys’ salary cap.

A 2020 Super Bowl run would certainly cap off a wonderful career for the French Canadian American, especially validating for a Cowboys player who’s been a part of so much modern team history.

This is part of our Countdown to the Regular Season player profile countdown. With 90 days remaining until the NFL’s first game, up next is defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.

| Antwaun Woods | Tyrone Crawford | Trysten Hill | Jalen Jelks |
| Dontari Poe | Randy Gregory| Gerald McCoy | Dorance Armstrong |

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