Ladies and Gents, we have made it.
It is the last week of what has been a dreadful year of Giants football. One more game before the Giants hopefully make the changes needed to get back on track as one of the NFL’s flagship franchises. Before that, the Giants have to deal with the Washington Football Team coming to town. To get ready for Sunday’s game, let’s take a look back to the Giants and Washington Football Team’s New Year’s Eve 2017 matchup.
The easiest and most recent comparison to the current Giants, is their 2017 team. That was the last time where it felt like everything fell off the rails for the Giants. Entering the season as Super Bowl contenders, the Giants dealt with a heap of injuries, debacled the benching of Eli Manning, and fired long time General Manager Jerry Reese and second year Head Coach Ben McAdoo in the middle of the season in route to a 3-13 record. Despite all of this, people still say the current iteration of the Giants is worse than that team. It’s a tough debate, that quite frankly, I don’t want to have! With all that being said, lets take a look at the last season finale matchup between Washington and the Giants.
When you look at the guys suiting up for the Giants in this one, it’s easy to see why 2017 was such a tough year for the Giants. The two stars of this game for the Giants were running back Orleans Darkwa (who actually wasn’t a bad player at all) and linebacker Kelvin Shepard. Darkwa ran for 154 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown to start the game. Darkwa’s 2017 touchdown celebration is also criminally underrated:
Shepard had two picks off of Washington QB Kirk Cousins and 6 total tackles. The Giants other touchdown score was from receiver Hunter Sharpe off of a 16 yard pass from QB Eli Manning. The Giants defense was also able to generate some pressure on Cousins that included 3 sacks. Although Eli Manning didn’t play very well in this game (10-28, 132 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception), the game ended with the Giant great taking a knee in victory formation as the Giants defeated Washington 18-10.
The Giants have just one more left. Many fans are rooting against the Giants for draft pick purposes and/or so that the chances of Joe Judge being fired increases. I’m not that guy, I’ll be rooting for a win against a team the Giants have actually had a ton of success with over the past 10 years. Although the Giants overall record since Super Bowl XLVI is among the league’s worst, they have gone 13-6 against Washington in that time.
To the Giants:
End this Terrible Season with a Win Against a Team You’ve Dominated, and Let’s Get Started on Fixing this Mess.
Highlights to this Classic:
(Photo: Getty Images)
