1993 was a new era for the New York Giants. The short-lived Ray Handley era was over and the Giants had hired long-time rival Dan Reeves as their head coach. Phil Simms was reinstalled as the starting quarterback as Jeff Hostetler left to sign with the Raiders via free agency.
The Giants still had some remnants of their 1990 Super Bowl championship team, Simms and future Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor being two of the big names along with most of the offensive line. Two rookies on the roster would also go on to become Giants legends: defensive end Michael Strahan and linebacker Jesse Armstead.
The Giants began the Reeves era with three straight victories before dropping a 17-14 decision at Buffalo in Week 4. The next game would be against the Washington Redskins at RFK Stadium in DC.
Washington was just two years removed from their last Super Bowl win and were no coached by Richie Petitbon. The Redskins were past the days of the Hogs and the Three Amigos. They had lost three of their first four games coming into their meeting with the Giants and the game did not have the same feel it had for the past decade when Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells were the opposing coaches.
Simms and Taylor were both in the final seasons of their careers and Taylor felt it could be his last hurrah at RFK.
“Now that I think about it, Lawrence seemed pretty sentimental,” Simms recalled. “He wanted it pretty bad, and I can’t remember him ever being like that. Maybe because this might be his last season, I don’t know. I wasn’t so sentimental. I wasn’t, because I plan on bringing my butt back here at least one more time.”
He wouldn’t. Simms was released the next offseason and then joined Taylor in retirement.
As for the game, it wasn’t much of one. Washington was banged up on defense but their offense still had Mark Rypien at quarterback, Ricky Ervins at running back and Art Monk, Ricky Sanders, Desmond Howard and Tim McGee at wide receiver.
The Giants rolled to an easy 41-7 victory, scoring the first 27 points of the game. Led by an odd trio of running back Lewis Tillman, tight end Howard Cross and wide receiver Mike Sherrard on offense, Simms hit on 14-of-17 for 182 yards and three touchdowns for a 150.9 rating.
Tillman had his second best game as a Giant, rushing 29 times for 104 yards and a touchdown. Cross and Sherrard caught two touchdowns apiece (one of Sherrard’s was a 42-yard option pass thrown by running back Dave Meggett) and the final was scored by fullback Kenyon Rasheed to further illustrate the point in history this game took place.
“It was one of those games where we wanted to come out immediately and establish ourselves,” said guard William Roberts. “At one point, I think it was maybe the second quarter, you could tell they were starting to have doubts in themselves and were getting tired. They just didn’t have the personnel this game to keep up with us.”
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