1930: Packers VS Giants

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74_75_78_79_
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1930: Packers VS Giants

Post by 74_75_78_79_ »

Green Bay awarded the League Championship by .004 %-age points: 10-3-1 (.769) to 13-4-0 (.765). Both split against each other, both games by a 7-point margin. Quite a race it was between both of them for the prize! The Pack had to at least tie their final game to clinch things which they, indeed, ended up doing against Portsmouth, 6-6.

Had it went by today’s rules with ties being a half-win and a half-loss, then it would have been the G-men getting awarded (no Titletown three-peat until ’65-thru-’67). Still, it would have begged for an already-League Championship Game as, IMO, it did already. I know, rules were rules at the time, nothing “unfair” happened, but simple common sense would call for that rubberband match. I’m guessing this played a role in instigating a LCG. Was there any such talk of this amongst the league, the Giants, and fans alike in the days and weeks after this…4/10ths of a percentage-point victory?
Bob Gill
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Re: 1930: Packers VS Giants

Post by Bob Gill »

I don't see that there was any special need for an official championship game between the Giants and the Packers; that's just not the way things were done at the time.

What I find most interesting about the title chase that year is what happened AFTER their big late-season matchup, which the Giants won 13-6. That left them comfortably ahead with a record of 11-2, while the Packers were 8-2. The Packers didn't finish especially strong: They trounced Frankford and Staten Island, but then lost to the third-place Bears 21-0 and managed only that 6-6 tie in the final game against Portsmouth.

But that was enough to give them the championship, because the Giants dropped their next two games to Staten Island and Brooklyn, by matching 7-6 scores. In each game the Giants missed the extra point try after their lone touchdown; if they had made ONE of those two kicks, they would've finished first with a 13-3-1 record. Pro Football Reference doesn't show who missed those conversions, but based on David Neft's book Benny Friedman seems to be the likely culprit.

The other thing that hurt the Giants is that their only two scores in those two games BOTH came on blocked punts. So in two games -- granted, against two competitive teams -- the league's highest-scoring offense managed no points. It couldn't have happened at a worse time.
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GameBeforeTheMoney
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Re: 1930: Packers VS Giants

Post by GameBeforeTheMoney »

Really interesting points about the 1930 season. And didn't know about the missed extra points.

That led me to look up the game summaries:

NYT story said that Friedman tried to pass for the extra point vs Stapletons:

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesm ... issue.html


For the Brooklyn game, NYT said Friedman missed the game due to injury. Doesn't say who tried the kick, only that it was wide:

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesm ... issue.html


The Giants played Staten Island on Thursday and Brooklyn on Sunday!

NOTE ON THE LINKS -- I guess it just links to the first page of the paper. The Brooklyn summary is on page 27.

Staten Island summary is on page 32, second column, second story down.
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Bob Gill
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Re: 1930: Packers VS Giants

Post by Bob Gill »

I didn't know Pro Football Archives had line scores too!

Interesting about Friedman missing the second game; that helps to explain the Giants' ineffective offense -- maybe in the previous game too, if that was when he got hurt.
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