Greatest Giants' All-time Single Game Performance vs. 2021 Opponents

This week we take a look back at the greatest all-time performances by a Giants player against each of the teams on the Giants' 2021 schedule.

Author:
John Gidley
Publish date:
Jul 16, 2021 8:00 AM EDT

In case you've missed it, we've launched our 2021 New York Giants regular-season opponent previews this week. In keeping with that theme, this week, we're going to look back at Giants games against their 2021 opponents in which a Giant player put forth the greatest single-game performance against each team.

Once again, there will be two listings for each of the NFC East teams: one for home games and another for the road, and we'll include postseason where applicable.

Denver Broncos: Phil Simms, Super Bowl XXI

Any time you’ve thrown as many touchdown passes as incompletions, you’ve had yourself a good day. That’s exactly what Phil Simms accomplished in the Giants’ first Super Bowl appearance in January 1987 at the Rose Bowl.

Simms went 22-of-25 with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He was an easy selection for Super Bowl MVP and, as part of a promotional tie-in with a certain theme park, was also the first player ever to look into the cameras postgame and say, “I’m going to Disney World!”

at Washington: Tiki Barber, December 30, 2006

On a Saturday night at FedExField to close out the 2006 regular season, Tiki Barber, in what turned out to be the final regular-season game of his career, single-handedly lifted the Giants into the playoffs.

Barber broke his own franchise record by rushing for 234 yards and three touchdowns which were 15, 50, and 55 yards in length. The Giants edged Washington, 34-28, enabling them to reach the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time since 1989 and ‘90.

Atlanta Falcons: Hakeem Nicks, 2011 Wild Card Round

Hakeem Nicks embarked on his incredible 2011 playoff run in this Wild Card game against Atlanta at the Meadowlands. After falling behind 2-0, Eli Manning found Nicks for a four-yard touchdown pass to give the Giants a 7-2 halftime lead.

Late in the third quarter, Manning and Nicks teamed up again, this time on a 72-yard scoring strike that padded the Giants’ lead in an eventual 24-2 victory. Nicks finished with 115 yards, and two touchdown catches on six receptions.

New Orleans Saints: Eli Manning, November 1, 2015

Three hundred fifty passing yards, six touchdowns, and no interceptions--that’s the stat line of a winning quarterback, right? Well, not exactly, at least not in Week 8 of the 2015 season at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

Despite a stellar performance from Eli Manning, the Giants were on the losing side of one of the highest-scoring games in NFL history. Since both teams had terrific offenses and woeful defenses, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the game ended with a 52-49 final score.

And as great a game as Manning had, Drew Brees was even better--aside from two interceptions, Brees threw for 505 yards and a record-tying seven touchdowns.

at Dallas Cowboys: Jason Pierre-Paul, December 11, 2011

Both offenses came out firing in a must-win game for both the 6-6 Giants and the 7-5 Cowboys. Eli Manning threw for 400 yards and two touchdowns, while Tony Romo notched four touchdown passes on 321 passing yards.

However, the star of the game for the Giants was on the other side of the ball. Jason Pierre-Paul sacked Romo twice, forced a fumble, and most importantly, blocked Dan Bailey’s attempt at a game-tying field goal to preserve a huge 37-34 win.

Los Angeles Rams: Rodney Hampton, September 19, 1993

When I say that the Giants’ offense of the mid-1990s relied on a steady diet of handoffs to Rodney Hampton, this game is one of my key pieces of evidence. Twenty carries for a running back is pretty standard for a single game.

Every once in a while, he’ll get the ball 30 times. But forty carries? Talk about pounding the rock. Hampton got the carry 41 times in this 1993 matchup with the Rams and turned in 134 yards and a touchdown in the Giants’ 20-10 win.

Believe it or not, he only had the second-most carries in a single game in Giants franchise history. That record belongs to Butch Woolfolk and his 43 rushing attempts in week 12 of the 1983 season at Philadelphia.

Carolina Panthers: Brandon Jacobs & Derrick Ward, December 21, 2008

I’m going to bend the rules and spotlight two players from this game since both played their own roles. In this Week 16 matchup that looked to be a preview of the 2008 NFC Championship Game, Derrick Ward ran for a career-high 215 yards while Brandon Jacobs, despite only 87 yards, punched in three touchdowns, including the game-winning two-yard plunge in overtime to give the Giants a 34-28 victory over the Panthers.

This was a night that belonged to the ground game on both teams, as Carolina’s DeAngelo Williams tacked on 108 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

Kansas City Chiefs: Tiki Barber, December 17, 2005

Speaking of spotlighting the rush, look no further than this Week 15 interconference battle between the playoff-bound Giants and the playoff-minded Chiefs.

When a running back reaches the age of 30, he’s considered up around the bend. Amazingly, the best years of Barber’s career came in his late 20s and early 30s.

On this night, his 220 yards and two touchdowns were significant contributions to the Giants’ 27-17 win. Hats off to Kansas City running back Larry Johnson, who ran for 167 yards and two scores.

Raiders: Tiki Barber, December 31, 2005

Two weeks after winning against the Chiefs, Barber turned in another outstanding performance in the Giants’ 30-21 victory at Oakland.

A good chunk of his 203 rushing yards came on a 95-yard touchdown run, the longest in Giants history, halfway through the first quarter.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Pepper Johnson, November 24, 1991

The 1991 season was a letdown for the Giants. After winning 13 games and defeating Buffalo in Super Bowl XXV, New York could only manage an 8-8 season in Ray Handley’s first of two years as head coach.

Things aren’t in very good shape when you have to pull out all the stops to beat a 2-9 Tampa Bay team by just a touchdown, 21-14. A shaky offensive performance was bailed out by an aggressive defense led by Pepper Johnson, who sacked Buccaneers quarterback Vinny Testaverde 4.5 times.

At the time, this was a Giants single-game record, a record held for 15 years, until it was broken in coincidentally our choice for the next greatest all-time individual performance.

Philadelphia Eagles (home): Osi Umenyiora, September 30, 2007

While the Giants did lead the league in sacks in 2007 with 53, how bad does an offensive line have to be to surrender 12 in one game, six of them by one player alone? Just ask the Eagles. In this Week 4 Sunday-night matchup at the Meadowlands, Donovan McNabb was dropped a dozen times.

Osi Umenyiora accounted for half of these in one of the greatest single-game efforts not just in Giants history but also in NFL history. He came just one shy of tying Derrick Thomas’ record of seven sacks in one game.

Miami Dolphins: Eli Manning, December 14, 2015

Manning’s circumstances in this game were far different from Phil Simms’ circumstances in Super Bowl XXI. The latter was the biggest game of the year, the game that decided a champion. The former was a bad Monday-night matchup between two 5-7 teams.

The outcomes, however, were the same. Just like Simms, Manning’s number of touchdown passes matched his incompletions: four. Two of his scoring passes went to Odell Beckham Jr, who had a typical Beckham game: One of his touchdown catches went for 84 yards, while the other came on a six-yard strike in which he miraculously kept both of his feet in bounds.

Chargers: Scott Brunner, October 2, 1983

Giants fans with long memories, this one’s for you. The starting quarterbacks in this game were Dan Fouts and Scott Brunner. If I told you that one of them went 31-of-51 for 395 yards and three touchdowns, while the other went 15-of-28 with 215 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions, you'd probably say the Hall of Fame quarterback had the better stat line, right?

Ah, but that was not the case in this game, as Brunner put up the Air Coryell-type numbers, while Fouts was merely pedestrian. And believe it or not, despite their respective numbers, Fouts and the Chargers won the game thanks to Chuck Muncie’s three rushing touchdowns that contributed to a 41-34 win.

Dallas Cowboys (home): Joe Morris, November 2, 1986

Through the first half of the 1986 season, there was a three-way tie for first place in the NFC East. New York, Dallas, and Washington all stood at 6-2. To kick off the second half of the year, the Cowboys and Giants met at the Meadowlands in the hopes of breaking the logjam.

The Giants’ hopes were aided by a defense that sacked Steve Pelluer and Danny White six times and by Joe Morris, who ran for 181 yards and two touchdowns. The Giants beat the Cowboys, 17-14, sending Dallas on a downward spiral in which they lost seven of their last eight games.

at Philadelphia Eagles: Victor Cruz, September 25, 2011

The Giants’ first of two 2011 meetings with the Eagles came in Week 3 at Philadelphia. This was a game New York needed to win as they continued to exorcise DeSean Jackson's ghost.

Late in the first quarter, already leading 7-0, Eli Manning found an undrafted second-year receiver out of UMass for a 74-yard touchdown. Halfway through the fourth, with the Eagles now leading, they teamed up again for a 28-yard score.

The receiver’s name was Victor Cruz, and this can go down in history as the day New York learned to salsa.

Chicago Bears: Ken Strong, 1934 NFL Championship

In the match known as “The Sneakers Game,” the Giants’ indisputable hero was Ken Strong. I would list his position, but it’s a long story.

You see, in this game, Strong completed a 20-yard pass, ran nine times for 94 yards and two touchdowns, caught two passes for 17 yards, returned three kickoffs for 66 yards, returned three punts for the same total, punted six times, kicked a field goal, and kicked two extra points.

The final tally was 263 all-purpose yards (if you count the kicking and punting yardage, it adds up to almost 600) and 17 points. (Too bad they didn’t have fantasy football back then, right?).

The Giants won, 30-13, but Strong’s point total still would have beaten the Bears.

Washington: Y.A. Tittle, October 28, 1962

Finally, we come to Yelberton Abraham "Y.A." Tittle. They say the passing game is more prevalent now than it used to be and that games in this era were almost exclusively played on the ground.

Tell that to Tittle, who threw for 505 yards--at the time, the second-most in NFL history--and seven touchdown passes, which tied a record.

While Joe Walton caught three of those touchdowns, Del Shofner was Tittle’s main target in this game, catching 11 passes for a whopping 269 yards. But, you know, all they did back then was run the ball.