The Loop Special Report: Most memorable Vikings-Giants games
The Vikings and New York Giants, who meet for the second time in 23 days in Sunday’s NFC wild-card playoff game, don’t have one of the NFL’s top rivalries. They’ve played only 30 times over the past 62 seasons.
In fact, the two teams have been connected historically more for what they did off the field than on it. Arguably the two biggest trades in Vikings history both were made with Big Blue. They both involved a fellow named Francis Asbury Tarkenton.
The future hall of famer played his first six seasons with Minnesota teams of middling talent. On March 7, 1967, he was dealt to the Giants for two first-round draft picks and two second-rounders.
Those draft picks brought to Bloomington future hall of fame tackle Ron Yary, all-pro guard Ed White and flashy running back Clinton Jones. The deal was a huge step in transforming Norm Van Brocklin’s second-division team into Bud Grant’s juggernaut.
Five years later, with the Vikings in desperate need for a franchise quarterback, they went back to the Tarkenton well, obtaining him from New York in exchange for quarterback Norm Snead, receiver Bob Grim and a first-round draft pick.
Those weren’t the only VIkings-Giants trades involving a hall of famer. In 1986, the Giants traded the rights to offensive tackle Gary Zimmerman, a USFL refugee who said he had no interest in moving to New York. So he landed with the Vikings and launched a career that landed him in Canton.
The first deal between the teams actually brought Minnesota’s first starting quarterback. The Vikings traded the No. 1 pick in the 1962 draft to the Giants for George Shaw, who started the team’s inaugural game against the Chicago Bears. He lasted only a quarter before being replaced by … wait for it … Fran Tarkenton. The scrambler led the Vikings to a 37-13 upset victory.
The Vikings lead the all-time series 18-12, but the biggest difference with the Giants is on the big stage. The Giants are 4-1 in Super Bowls, while everyone knows Minnesota is still 0-4 in the big one, having lost six consecutive NFC championship games.
So here are our picks for the top Vikings-Giants games. Spoiler alert: You already know the obvious No. 1 choice:
10. (tie) December 24, 2022: Vikings 27 / Giants 24 > >
Just three weeks ago, on Christmas Eve, Greg Joseph hit a game-winning 61-yard field goal in the White Out Game at U.S. Bank Stadium. It gave the Vikings their second straight walk-off win following their NFL record 33-point comeback to beat Indianapolis. For the Vikings, it was their 11th and final one-score victory of the season, and it came thanks to recently-added tight end T.J. Hockenson, who caught 13 passes for 109 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But in a possible foreboding sign for the Purple, Giants quarterback Daniel Jones threw for 334 yards against the Vikings’ porous pass defense.
10. (tie) December 28, 2008: Vikings 20 / Giants 19 > >
The Vikings got another walk-off win when Ryan Longwell hit a 50-yarder to beat the defending Super Bowl champs, who were resting many of their top players having already locked up the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Adrian Peterson rushed for 103 yards, including a 67-yard TD jaunt. The win gave Brad Childress’ team its first NFC North title in eight years. In an ironic twist, both teams went on to be eliminated in consecutive weeks by Philadelphia, the Vikings in the wild-card round and the Giants in their divisional playoff.
9. December 6, 1964: Vikings 30 / Giants 21 > >
Tarkenton gave New York fans a glimpse of the future in the teams’ first-ever meeting at Yankee Stadium. No. 10 passed for two TDs and ran for a third, and Bill Brown rushed for 102 yards for the Vikings. In a historical footnote, this game featured the final touchdown in the hall of fame career of Giants hero Frank Gifford. But this was a disaster season for the Giants, who sank to 2-10-2 after winning the NFL’s Eastern Division six of the previous eight years. For the Vikings, they wound up with their first winning season, and their 8-5-1 record got them a second-place tie with Green Bay in the Western Division.
8. October 21, 2013: Giants 23 / Vikings 7 > >
The infamous Josh Freeman Game. The faintly-talented quarterback failed miserably filling in for the injured Christian Ponder, and the Vikings were pushed around by the winless Giants at the Meadowlands. Freeman completed just 20 of his 53 passes, and he never took another snap for Minnesota. All in all a forgettable season for the Vikings, who finished 5-10-1, winless on the road, with the worst defense in the league ending up costing head coach Leslie Frazier his job.
7. December 13, 2010: Giants 23 / Vikings 7 > >
This matchup is mostly remembered for that moment, at 5 a.m. Sunday morning, when the Metrodome roof collapsed during a blizzard. So the game was moved to the next night in Detroit’s Ford Field. But the game itself wasn’t very noteworthy, as the Giants scored three unanswered touchdowns to breeze to victory on a field hastily painted with Vikings logos. Minnesota’s offense under Tarvaris Jackson managed only 164 yards, as injured starter Brett Favre watched from the sideline, having already taken his final snap as an NFL quarterback. Childress was fired a few weeks earlier, the Vikings finished in last place at 6-10, and the Metrodome would be finished after the 2013 season.
6. January 8, 1994: Giants 17 / Vikings 10 > >
New York beats Minnesota in a defensive struggle in a windy wild card game, but this game is mostly remembered for the brutal beating suffered by Vikings quarterback Jim McMahon. He was knocked out of the game a couple of times after concussion-producing hits, which go a long way to explaining his post-career medical struggles. The Vikings led 10-3 before the Giants got two TD runs from Rodney Hampton in the third quarter. The pivotal play came in the fourth, when Cris Carter fumbled the ball after taking a Sean Salisbury pass deep into Giants territory. The Vikings’ QB woes led them to trade for Houston’s Warren Moon in the offseason.
5. November 5, 1967: Vikings 27 / Giants 24 > >
The Vikings rally from a 17-point deficit to beat Tarkenton in their first reunion at Metropolitan Stadium. New York had taken a 24-7 lead on three long Tarkenton TD passes, two to Homer Jones and one to Aaron Thomas. But CFL import Joe Kapp, in his first season in Minnesota, rallied the Vikings for the final 20 points. He and Brown ran for touchdowns, then Fred Cox hit game-tying and winning field goals. But the first post-Tarkenton season is noteworthy only for the Vikings’ never-to-be-duplicated record of 3-8-3. Yes … a three-tie season.
4. September 21, 1969: Giants 24 / Vikings 23 > >
The ‘69 Vikings proved to be Super Bowl-bound, but that wasn’t obvious when the Giants rallied to win the season opener at Yankee Stadium. Minnesota, coming off its first NFC Central title in 1968, took a 13-point lead into the fourth quarter thanks to two TD passes from Gary Cuozzo and three Cox field goals. But Tarkenton, starting his third season in Gotham, threw two late TD passes to Don Herrmann. While the Giants managed only a 6-8 mark that season, the Vikings went on to win their next 12 games, then their only NFL championship.
3. November 16, 1986: Giants 22 / Vikings 20 > >
The teams’ first meeting in 10 years is widely regarded as the victory that jump-started the Giants’ first Super Bowl championship team. New York QB Phil Simms led a comeback that was capped by a memorable fourth-and-17 pass to Bobby Johnson to get the Giants into scoring range. Raul Allegre then came on to hit the winner, his fifth field goal of the afternoon. Wade Wilson starred in relief of injured Tommy Kramer for the Vikings, but the loss eventually cost them a playoff spot in Jerry Burns’ first year as coach.
2. December 27, 1997: Vikings 23 / Giants 22 > >
Dennis Green’s Vikings were down by nine points with less than two minutes left in their wild card game against a JIm Fassel team that had gone from worst to first in ‘97. But what a last 90 seconds. First, a Randall Cunningham TD pass to Jake Reed. Then an onside kick that bounced out of the grasp of the Giants’ Chris Calloway. Then an Eddie Murray field goal that improbably sent the Vikings to San Francisco, where they lost in the divisional round to Steve Young’s 49ers.
1. January 14, 2001: Giants 41 / Vikings 0 > >
Randy Moss’ greatest contribution to the 2000 NFC championship game was in giving the blowout a moniker that has lived forever: 41-Doughnut. An afternoon that began with an on-field dispute about Moss’ posse ended with one of the worst routs in NFL playoff history. Giants QB Kerry Collins still cannot believe how easily he threw five TD passes and totalled 381 yards against the Vikings’ 28th-ranked pass defense. And the score was not indicative of how bloody a massacre this was, as the teams sleepwalked through the game’s final 27 scoreless minutes. The Vikings’ infamy only grew two weeks later when those same Giants were pummeled in Super Bowl XXXV by Ray Lewis and the Baltimore Ravens.
You can hear Kevin Cusick on Wednesdays on Bob Sansevere’s “BS Show” podcast on iTunes. You can follow Kevin on Twitter — @theloopnow. He can be reached at kcusick@pioneerpress.com.
