NFL Recap (Arizona-NY Giants)
Posted: Sun October 18, 1998 at 6:01 p.m. EDT
NY GIANTS 34, ARIZONA 7
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Facing the Arizona Cardinals at
the Meadowlands is the closest thing the New York Giants have to an
automatic victory.
Embattled quarterback Danny Kanell threw for a
career-high 259 yards and tied a career best with three touchdown passes as
the Giants continued their home mastery of the Cardinals with a convincing
34-7 victory.
New York (3-4) has won 14 of its last 15 contests against Arizona at
Giants Stadium since 1984, the only loss during that span coming in 1995.
The Cardinals (3-4) fell into a second-place tie with the Giants in the NFC
East.
"It feels great," said Kanell. "I just feel like the weight has been
lifted off the offense's shoulders at least for a couple of weeks."
The Giants, who entered the game ranked 29th in the league in rushing,
finally established a ground game as Gary Brown rushed for a
season-high 108 yards on 24 carries.
Playing without three regulars on defense, the Giants compensated for
a decimated secondary with a strong pass rush, sacking Arizona quarterback
Jake Plummer seven
times and intercepting him twice.
"Jake was just among a lot of people that did not play as well as we
needed today," said Arizona coach Vince Tobin. "Jake was under some
pressure and we have to be able to take some pressure off him to be able to
make plays and run the football."
New York also had a sack against former Giant Dave Brown, who made his
first appearance of the season for the Cardinals when he replaced Plummer
with six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Giants have recorded
16 sacks in their two last games against Arizona, dropping Plummer eight
times in the Cardinals' last visit to Giants Stadium on November 16th,
1997.
"It was a good performance all around," said Giants coach Jim Fassel,
who improved to 3-0 against the Cardinals, for whom he served as offensive
coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 1996. "I thought it was about getting
our mental edge. I've got to hand it to these guys. We had our back to the
wall but they never lost their focus. I'm very proud of them."
The Giants, who scored touchdowns on only three of their previous 29
drives entering today's game, reached the end zone on two of their three
possessions to open a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter. Kanell then
executed the two-minute offense to near perfection, resulting in Brad Daluiso's 27-yard
field goal that gave the Giants a 17-7 halftime lead as time expired.
"I was struggling, I'll be the first to admit it, but I think it says
a lot about this team's character that we were able to come back," said
Kanell.
"We executed," added wide receiver Chris Calloway, who had six
receptions for 97 yards. "That's it. Their offensive line did a good job.
The running backs did a good job and the wide receivers ran great routes."
New York, which snapped a two-game losing streak, drove 66 yards on 11
plays to take a 7-0 lead on Kanell's one-yard TD pass to fullback Charles Way with 4:14 left
in the first quarter. The Giants chewed 5:08 off the clock, their longest
possession of the season.
After forcing the Cardinals to punt, New York marched 79 yards on 11
plays to take a 14-0 lead on Gary Brown's one-yard TD run around left end
with 11:17 left in the first half.
"Any guy will tell you that the longer you're in there, the better
groove you get into," said Brown. "We just played well and got into a good
flow. I think we (running backs) are a solid group. We never lost
confidence. We're never going to lose confidence, no matter what is said."
The Giants took advantage of two crucial interference penalties on
their first two scoring drives. The first was kept alive when cornerback J.B. Brown interfered with
Amani Toomer on a
third-and-5 at the Cardinals 15.
After two plays resulted in a loss of four yards, Kanell hit Ike Hilliard for a 10-yard
gain to the 1. Fassel set the early tone by electing not to kick the field
goal and Kanell coverted the fourth down, finding Way open in the end zone
after rolling to the right.
It appeared the Giants would have to settle for a field goal on their
next possession as Kanell's pass to Hilliard was incomplete on 3rd-and-goal
from the 8. But an interference call against cornerback Aeneas Williams gave the
Giants another 1st-and-goal at the 1 and Brown scored on the next play to
make it 14-0.
Plummer, who completed 12-of-21 for just 139 yards, got Arizona (3-4)
on the board with a 14-yard TD pass to tight end Johnny McWilliams with
7:27 left in the half. But Kanell completed four passes after the Giants
took possession on their 20 with just 1:02 left in the half. His 27-yard
completion to running back Tiki Barber set up
Daluiso's field goal on the final play of the half.
Safety Percy
Ellsworth intercepted Plummer on Arizona's first possession of the
second half, leading to Daluiso's 34-yard field goal with 9:27 left in the
third period. The Giants turned it into a rout as Kanell tossed 19-yard TD
passes to Calloway and Amani Toomer for his first three-touchdown game
since last December 12th at Philadelphia.
"Danny did a good job," said Fassel. "When he threw the ball, really
rifled it, he was good. I thought the protection was good, except for a few
miscues that did not cost us."
The Giants churned out 26 first downs while outgaining Arizona,
390-194. The Cardinals were held to just 62 yards rushing.
"There was not any one phase that I was happy with," said Tobin "We
were beaten in all areas. We did not run consistently, we could not protect
consistenty, we could not stop their run consistently and we gave them a
lot of big plays passing the football."
The loss prevented Arizona from moving over .500 for the first time
since November 24th, 1996, when it was 6-5 en route to a 7-9 finish.
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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