The New York Giants are 1-4 and in free fall as we approach Week 6 of this 2023 NFL season.
Many fans are disappointed as they came into this season with high hopes. After all, the Giants are coming off a 9-7-1 season in which they qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They did not expect the team to collapse right out of the gate this year.
Buy Giants TicketsBut this is nothing new with the Giants. They have let their fan base down before in their nearly 100 years of existence. Like in 1928, when they followed up their first NFL Championship with a 4-7-2 record.
In 1957, they went 7-5 and missed the playoffs after rolling to the NFL title the year before. In 1964, they went 2-10-2, ending a stretch of 10 winning seasons.
Since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, the Giants have been both up and down but this season feels much more painful to the fanbase than those other years. Maybe it’s because we live on social media and can’t escape the news any longer. Or, maybe it’s just really that painful, period.
I put together a list of the five most disappointing seasons since 1970, as I remember them.
1971
The Giants went 9-5 in 1970, their first winning record since 1963. They lost the NFC East title — and the Wild Card — by a single game.
1971 was looking bright for Alex Webster’s crew as they opened the schedule with a 2-1 record. A leg injury to star running back Ron Johnson and the unhappiness of quarterback Fran Tarkenton hung heavy over the team and they lost nine of their next 11 games, including the final five, to finish 4-10 and in last place in the NFC East.
The team would not compile a winning record again until 1981. 1971 was the beginning of an odyssey of losing in which they would play in four different stadiums across three different states until they finally found a home in the New Jersey Meadowlands.
1982
The Giants made the playoffs in 1981 for the first time in 17 seasons and appeared to be on their way under head coach Ray Perkins and general manager George Young.
But 1982 was not a normal season. After the Giants opened the season 0-2, the players went on strike for 57 days. When they returned, the season was shortened to nine games. The Giants went 4-3 but finished at 4-5 and out of the postseason tournament.
They lost consecutive road games to Washington and the St. Louis Cardinals by a total of four points, which sunk them in the standings.
Big Blue, although going home for the winter, was for sure a contender in the NFC but Giants fans, who had waited way too long for a winner, would have to wait a little longer.
After the season, Perkins left to coach at his alma mater, Alabama, giving way to defensive coordinator Bill Parcells. You know the rest.
1991
In 1991, the Giants were coming off their thrilling last-second victory over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV but they would do so without head coach Bill Parcells, defensive coordinator Bill Belichick and wide receivers coach Tom Coughlin.
Young selected running backs coach Ray Handley to be the team’s head coach. The choice was a franchise-killer. Handley was introverted and uninspiring, not to mention unsuited to handle the New York media.
He chose Super Bowl hero Jeff Hostetler to be the team’s starting quarterback over Phil Simms, which was seen as a questionable move. The Giants finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs. Many felt they underperformed without the guidance of Parcells and his key assistants. There would be no dynasty.
2001
2001 would be remembered for many things, mainly the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11.
The Giants were the defending NFC champions under head coach Jim Fassel and were 3-1 after four games after losing the Monday night opener in Denver on the eve of the attacks.
They went 4-8 the rest of the way to finish 7-9 and out of the playoffs after a 12-4 finish in 2000. It was truly a letdown as the Giants lost in the final seconds of their Week 16 game in Philadelphia, which eliminated them from the postseason.
The fans, who were hoping the Giants would redeem themselves after a 34-7 whitewashing at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens in the Super Bowl in January, were left wanting more — much more — after the 2001 season.
2017
2016 was a new beginning for the Giants as Ben McAdoo took over as head coach after a 12-year run by Tom Coughlin. McAdoo led the Giants to an 11-5 record in his first year and led them to the playoffs.
That playoff game, though, was overshadowed by the ‘boat trip’ incident where the Giants’ receivers went to party in Miami before their playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. They were crushed, 38-13, in that game.
2017 was supposed to be a season in which they built on their success from the year before. Not so. McAdoo lost the team after getting caught up in the Eli Manning ‘benching’ in favor of Geno Smith and was fired in Week 13 along with general manager Jerry Reese.
Instead of dwelling on the positives of an 11-5 season, the Giants followed it up with a dismal, dysfunctional 3-13 season. The fans lost again.
