Giants Defeat and Tie Cardinals in 1964

[LeonardRachiele]

For one day in in 1964, the New York Giants returned to the form of the previous three years.   In defeating the St Louis Cardinals in Week 8, the Giants helped their one time archrivals, the Cleveland Browns, win the Eastern Division Championship.

Y.A. Tittle completed 19 of 30 passes for 285 yards and four touchdowns.  Frank Gifford and Aaron Thomas had good days receiving;  but Joe Morrison was exceptional with six catches for 122 yards and one touchdown. The defense was great with big numbers-three interceptions and a fumble recovery.  HB  Dick Lynch had one interception and returned it 30 yards.  LB Tom Scott returned his pick 31 yards.

All that aside, the Giant defensive line was the big story.   They kept continual pressure on Cardinal quarterback Charlie Johnson.  Andy Stynchula,  Andy Robustelli, Jim Katcavage, and John LoVater together had 11 sacks for 96 yards.  With just this statistic, losing is almost impossible.  NY Giants 34   St. Louis Cardinals 17.   

For the rest of the season, the  New York Giants lost all games except one.  Two weeks after the above game,  the Giants and Cardinals played to a 10 to 10 tie at Busch Stadium.  It rained all day and the players skidded, fell, dropped passes, and banged into each other. 

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These two games were significant in the Eastern Division race.  The Giants were last at 2-10-2,  the St Louis Cardinals finished second at 9-3-2, and the Cleveland Browns won the Division with 10-3-1.  This leaves some "what if"  occurrences that fans always think about in close races. It is useless to speculate about the Cardinals' loss in the first game.  For that day,  New York  was clearly the better team.

--If the Cardinals had won the at home, their record would have been the same as Cleveland, 10-3-1.
--The playoff game would have been at  St Louis.  Why?  In September at Cleveland, the teams played to a 33 to 33 tie.  At St Louis in December, the Cardinals won easily 28 to 19.  The Browns did not score a touchdown until the last minute of the game.

To be a champion,  neither overlook nor be overconfident about bad teams.