The New York Giants season was the franchise's 54th season in the National Football League. In their first ever season that had a sixteen-game schedule, the Giants looked to improve on their 5–9 record from 1977. The season saw the Giants get off to a hot start. They beat newcomer Tampa Bay in Tampa 19–13, despite being a 1 point underdog. After a close loss to the rival Cowboys 34–24 the next week, the Giants beat the Kansas City Chiefs 26–10 and the San Francisco 49ers 27–10 to start the season 3–1, their first 3–1 start since 1969. However, the Giants then started to struggle, losing to the Atlanta Falcons 23–20 and the Cowboys again 24–3.

Following wins at home against the Buccaneers and Redskins, the Giants went on a downfall, which saw them lose their next 6 games and 7 of their last 8. In week 12, the Giants played their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia Eagles, in a crucial game that saw the Giants fumble away the game on Joe Pisarcik’s fumble and Herm Edwards fumble recovery for a touchdown that won the game for Philadelphia, 19–17. The play was dubbed the Miracle at the Meadowlands. The Giants never recovered from this game, getting pummeled on the road to the Bills, 41–17, despite having a 10 point lead in the 3rd quarter. In their final game, a rematch with Philadelphia, the Giants lost 20–3 to end the season 6–10.

Offseason Draft

The Football Database. Retrieved 2016-Nov-01.

Roster

Regular season

The Miracle at the Meadowlands is the term used by sportscasters and Philadelphia Eagles fans for a fumble recovery by cornerback Herman Edwards that he returned for a touchdown at the end of a November 19, 1978 NFL game against the New York Giants in Giants Stadium. It was seen as miraculous because it occurred at a point in the game when the Giants were easily capable of running out the game's final seconds. The Giants had the ball, and the Eagles had no timeouts left. Everyone watching expected quarterback Joe Pisarcik to take one more snap and kneel with the ball, thus running out the clock and preserving a 17–12 Giant upset. Instead, he attempted to hand it off to fullback Larry Csonka and botched it, allowing Edwards to pick up the ball and run 26 yards for the winning score.

Schedule Week Date Opponent Result Record Attendance 1 September 2 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers W 19–13 1–0 67,456 2 September 10 Dallas Cowboys L 24–34 1–1 73,265 3 September 17 Kansas City Chiefs W 26–10 2–1 70,546 4 September 24 San Francisco 49ers W 27–10 3–1 71,536 5 October 1 at Atlanta Falcons L 20–23 3–2 47,765 6 October 8 at Dallas Cowboys L 3–24 3–3 63,420 7 October 15 Tampa Bay Buccaneers W 17–14 4–3 68,025 8 October 22 Washington Redskins W 17–6 5–3 76,192 9 October 29 at New Orleans Saints L 17–28 5–4 59,807 10 November 5 at St. Louis Cardinals L 10–20 5–5 48,820 11 November 12 at Washington Redskins L 13–16 5–6 53,271 12 November 19 Philadelphia Eagles L 17–19 5–7 70,318 13 November 26 at Buffalo Bills L 17–41 5–8 28,496 14 December 3 Los Angeles Rams L 17–20 5–9 62,629 15 December 10 St. Louis Cardinals W 17–0 6–9 52,226 16 December 17 at Philadelphia Eagles L 3–20 6–10 56,396 Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game summaries

Week 4 Television Network: CBS Announcers: Don Criqui and Tom Matte Joe Pisarcik threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Al Dixon early in the game and Bobby Hammond set up two other touchdowns with long runs as the Giants are so far surprising the football world with a 3-1 record with a win over winless San Francsico. New York's Larry Csonka became the sixth player in NFL history to rush for 7,000 yards and he himself scored a 1-yard touchdown run in period 1 while Willie Spencer of the Giants scored a 1-yard touchdown run in period 3 while Joe Danelo kicked two field goals of 28 and 52 yards to provide the Giants scoring that day.

Week 12

Week 13

Standings

See also List of New York Giants seasons

References

External links New York Giants at Pro-Football-Reference.com Giants at jt-sw.com