Face mask to face mask.

Some of my favorite Giants games include a loss. This is one of them.

The Giants and 49ers were both 10–1 when they met on Monday night at Candlestick. San Francisco won 7–3. A whole evening of football, and that was all the scoring either team could get.

The picture that stays with me is Phil Simms and Ronnie Lott right in each other’s faces. Face mask to face mask. Both men standing their ground.

Phil was our guy.

I already had fourth-and-seventeen. I had the Super Bowl. I had years of watching Simms become the quarterback I believed in.

Now there he was in the middle of this rivalry, standing there with Lott. I loved that. I still do.

There is respect in remembering who the other man was. Ronnie Lott mattered. San Francisco mattered. Beating them meant something because of the players and the team you had to get past.

That night they got us. Seven to three tells you how hard our offense had to work. I remember how fiercely those teams competed.

We would have to go back.

The Giants returned for the NFC Championship Game with Jeff Hostetler at quarterback after Simms broke his foot. The season had changed. The place and the opponent were familiar.

That time it ended 15–13, with Matt Bahr putting the last kick through. San Francisco’s chance at a third straight Super Bowl was gone.

I love the ending of the 1990 season. I want this loss kept inside it, too. Phil and Lott belong in the telling. So does the night we had to carry a loss home from Candlestick.