Who, IYO, is the best pre-SB era Giants team?

[74_75_78_79_]

Of course there are the ’27, ’34, ’38, and 1956 squads that actually won the NFL Championship. But there arguably may be even better ones that came up just short like those who had to run into Ewbank/Unitas’s Colts back-to-back years along with those that had to face Lombardi’s Pack back-to-back and then Halas’s Bears early the following decade. The 1950 installment, who did sweep the Browns in the regular season with that ‘umbrella’ D, also a worthy mention.

[TanksAndSpartans]

'30 comes to mind right away as one you didn't mention - I'll add the details later.

[JuggernautJ]

The 1927 Giants are probably the best defense no one has ever heard of (except maybe us, here).

They gave up 20 (T W E N T Y !) points in a thirteen game season en route to a 11-1-1 record and the NFL Championship.
The Giants opened the season with three shutouts then lost to the Cleveland Bulldogs 0-6. They then ripped off another five shutouts in a row before allowing a TD each to the Cardinals and Bears, then finished the season with two more shutouts.
They gave up points in only 3 of 13 contests...

11-1-1, 10 shutouts, 20 points on the entire season... surely one of the best defenses ever in the history of the NFL... makes this Giants team my favorite from the pre-super bowl era.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... g/1927.htm

Oh, and they finished second in point scored on the offensive side of the ball...

[TanksAndSpartans]

Good call on ’27.

In 1930, led by Benny Friedman’s 4th straight year topping 1,000 yards passing, the Giants dropped an early decision to Green Bay before winning 8 straight and then dropping a game to the Bears to run their record to 10-2. The Packers record was only marred by a loss to an Ernie Nevers’ led Cardinals team, so their record sat at 8-1 going into the big game (The headline emphasizes it was the Pro debut of former army star Chris Cagle):

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A long pass from Friedman to Badgro scored one New York touchdown, and an 84-yard run by Hap Moran set up Friedman’s one-yard plunge for the winning margin as the Giants defeated the Packers 13-6.

Unfortunately for the Giants, the rest of the season didn’t go as planned. They lost to Staten Island on future Giant’s star Ken Strong’s PAT, then dropped a second 7-6 game to Brooklyn with former Giant Jack McBride scoring all Dodger points, giving the Packers the title by just four percentage points.

Final Standings:

Green Bay Packers 10-3-1 .769
New York Giants 13-4 .765
Chicago Bears 9-4-1 .692

Footnotes:

(#1) On 12-14, the Giants defeated a group of Notre Dame All-Stars including the Four Horsemen coached by Knute Rockne by a score of 22-0 and raised $100,000 for the New York Unemployment Fund (remember this was during the Great Depression).

(#2) If modern winning percentage calculations are applied to the Giants and Packers records for the 1930 season, the Giants would be the champs! It's all about whether or not tie games are included in the calculation. And the Packers were pretty darn good, this was the middle year of a 3-peat for them.

(#3) If Benny Friedman hadn't hurt his knee against the Stapletons on Thanksgiving and then missed the subsequent game against the Dodgers on the following Sunday, things may have turned out differently. In my opinion, one of the weird things about the pre-32 NFL, is that sometimes the “defacto” championship would take place, but there were still a few games that followed it where teams could get tripped up by a trap game, or mental letdown, etc. In the pre-NFL era, those big games were often right at the end like we see in modern times.

[74_75_78_79_]

1927 pretty impressive (’30 as well)! I’d like to see how the ’27 squad fares against either of Guy Chamberlin’s 1922 or 1923 Canton Bulldog installments! Or how they’d stack up against the later championship game winning teams of the ’30s. Or would it be a case of not really being able to compare either way due to the maturation/progression of the game from the early to late-’20s/late-’20s to ’30s? Or did it really progress all that much in either case?

’34 is obviously the olden times version of the 2007 G-men! Each start out 0-2, each finish with a not-so-spectacular record, each upend an undefeated juggernaut led by a legendary coach albeit “sneakers” in the former’s case.

[Jay Z]

Read an interview with Emlen Tunnell in the Great Teams Great Years book about the Giants. He played on the 1956 and 1958 teams but picked the 1950 team as the best he played on.

The 1950 team went 10-2 and beat the champion Browns twice. Browns also went 10-2 so there was a tiebreaker game instead of the Giants winning as they would today. Coin flip for the site, which was in Cleveland as well. Browns won a hard fought 8-3 game. Giants had a terrific defense reinforced by a few AAFC New York Yankee players. Passing game had a young Charlie Conerly but was lacking overall. A home loss to the Steelers in Week 4 hurt.

[TanksAndSpartans]

Yep, I was hoping someone would post something like what @JayZ said. I recall from the AAFC thread that the Giants got some really good AAFC players. They were able to get some wins against the Browns too, but no other team was able to help them out much so they didn't have much margin for era in trying to compile a better record than the Browns.

I’d like to see how the ’27 squad fares against either of Guy Chamberlin’s 1922 or 1923 Canton Bulldog installments!

This hints at something interesting - team of the 20s? '27 Giants? One of those Canton teams? '25' Maroons? '26 Yellow Jackets? '29 Packers?

It's easy to forget the '27 team had Cal Hubbard - one of the reasons when I see lists of all-time linemen without Hubbard, I shake my head, guy was an impact player. The offensive MVP to me was Jack McBride as they didn't have Friedman that season and in a one game playoff, it's hard for me not to like a really well rounded team. '25 Maroons had everything.