It's Tuesday, and that means it is time for the next series history post. Today's post will cover Green Bay's history against the New York Giants.
This series goes all the way back to 1928, and features plenty of playoff games. More after the jump.
Currently, the Packers lead the series in the regular season 26-21-2, and the playoff series 4-2.
The series began in 1928, with the Giants winning 6-0 in Green Bay. However, the Packers won 6 of the next 7 going into the start of the 1932 season. The Giants then seized some control of the series going 7-3-1 until 1942, when the teams registered their first tie in the series.
After the Packers went 2-1-1 against the Giants in the mid-1940s, the Giants then won four of five, ending in a 20-3 Giants win in New York over Lombardi's first Packers team in 1959. The Packers then became the dominant team in the series, winning 8 of 11 regular season games until 1985. This includes two separate regular season wins over the Giants in 1981. A little quirk of the schedule was that two teams, one from the NFC Central and the other from the NFC East, would play each other twice in a season. The Packers did this again in 1989, winning two games against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Giants won three consecutive games in the 1986, 1987, and 1992 seasons. After this, the Packers would win five of six regular season matchups, losing only in 2004 in Green Bay. The 2010 win over the Giants in Green Bay would start the Packers on what became the franchise record for their longest winning streak. In that game, the Packers put up over 500 yards of offense, the first time since 1980 that the Giants had surrendered that much on defense.
In the playoffs, the Packers lead the series 4-2. This series goes all the way back to the 1938 NFL Championship, which the Giants won 23-17. The following season, the Packers beat the Giants 27-0 for the NFL Championship, the first shutout in championship game history. The Packers would again beat the Giants for the Championship in 1944, 1961, and 1962. The 1961 game was Green Bay's first NFL Championship in 17 years. That game was a 37-0 rout in Green Bay, but it was the 1962 game that became arguably the most famous game in this entire series.
In that game, played in fierce wind and extreme cold in New York, Jim Taylor ran 31 times for 85 yards, and took an absolute beating from Giants linebacker Sam Huff. Taylor had cuts on his arm and tongue in the first half, but he also scored Green Bay's only touchdown of the game. Paul Hornung would say the 1962 NFL Championship game was "the hardest football game I ever played in". Bart Starr noted that the team benches were blown over several times during the game. The Packers won, 16-7, for their second consecutive NFL Title under Lombardi.
Since that game, the Packers and Giants have only played one more playoff game, the 2007 NFC Championship for the right to go to the Super Bowl. The Giants won, 23-20, and would go on to win the Super Bowl over the Patriots.
What are your memories of the Packers playing the Giants?