We had them after three quarters.
The Giants came back for a rematch and took a lead into the fourth. Baltimore scored twenty-four points before the afternoon was over.
GEORGE GUNSHEFSKI · THE GRATEFUL HEAD1 min read · 1959 season- Game date
- December 27, 1959
- Regular season
- 10–2
- Where it happened
- Memorial Stadium, Baltimore
The year after the famous overtime game, the Giants won ten of twelve regular-season games and went right back to the championship. Same opponent. This time, Baltimore had the home field.
I like that part of the story before the ending gets in. Losing a championship can be the last time a team gets that close. These Giants earned another trip.
They had another chance at the Colts, and for three quarters they were ahead.
Three field goals, then the turn.
Pat Summerall kicked field goals from twenty-three, thirty-seven, and twenty-two yards. The Giants led 9–7 going into the fourth quarter.
Then Baltimore put up twenty-four points. Johnny Unitas scored on a short run and threw a touchdown to Jerry Richardson. John Sample returned an interception forty-two yards for another score.
The final was 31–16. Baltimore built that margin in the fourth quarter.
New York had spent three quarters getting itself into position to win. Then one quarter changed the whole telling.
The 1958 game gets the books and documentaries. The 1959 Giants deserve more than a footnote saying they lost again. They went 10–2. They got back to the final. They took a lead into the last quarter.
That is a second hard ending for a team that was good enough to make its fans believe again.
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