CHICAGO – There’s a huge six-foot picture as you enter the offices of Giants Stadium that shows a jubilant Phil Simms hugging Lawrence Taylor. The picture was taken at Soldier Field on Sept. 5, 1993, the last time the Giants played here before yesterday.
Taylor had just forced a sack, caused a fumble and made the recovery late in the fourth quarter to preserve a 26-20 win in what would be the final season for the Hall of Fame linebacker and the franchise’s best quarterback. A jubilant Simms was the first to congratulate Taylor for the play. The quarterback and linebacker sharing a moment in victory as teammates and friends.
“That’s one of my best memories of playing with those guys,” said Michael Strahan, who was rookie on that playoff-bound team.
It was also one of the last times, seemingly, the Giants pulled for each other on both sides of the ball. Too many times in recent years, they have been a team divided by positions. As recently as last year, the defense, whose standards weren’t exactly spectacular, began to publicly grumble about an inept offense. The divisiveness became an open wound that never healed, prompting players to treat teammates like enemies. The team unity that comes through so clearly in the picture of Simms and Taylor had become just that, a snapshot of the past.
Seven years later, the Giants were back at Soldier Field again, and so is the team unity thought retired with Simms and Taylor. That was the theme that emerged from the Giants 14-7 victory over the Bears yesterday, a game the Giants should have won more easily, but probably would have lost a year ago.
A quick eyeball at the statistics would give the Giants defense credit for securing their third straight win. After all, it held the Bears to 222 total yards, including just 48 rushing. They limited the Bears to only 3-of-12 third-down conversions and shut them out in the second half, particularly late in the fourth quarter.
But the Giants defense gave its offense as much credit, pointing to its huge edge in time of possession, 38:11 to 21:49, as the reason they played so well. The Giants offense didn’t get the points it would have liked, but it gained 407 totals yards and ran 76 plays to the Bears 56.
“We were so fresh that whenever we went out there, we gave (the Bears) our best shot every time we went on the field,” Giants safety Sam Garnes said.
Said Strahan, “Even when our offense didn’t score points, they took a lot of time off the clock and kept us on the sideline. Because of that we were able to go out and do what we able to do.”
A fresh defense made life miserable for the Bears and quarterback Cade McNown, who couldn’t generate a running game and had little success in the air, except for one drive at the end of the first half when the Bears scored their only touchdown to tie the game, 7-7.
In fact, the defense had as much to do with the Giants final touchdown as the offense. The Bears had a second-and-10 from their own 15 in the third quarter, when McNown went back to pass and was sacked by defensive tackle Keith Hamilton. After an incomplete pass, the Bears were forced to punt. The Giants wound up with excellent field position starting their drive at the Bears 43. It took just six plays, all on the ground, for the Giants to score on a 3-yard run around right end by Tiki Barber.
But ask the defensive players why they were able to dominate the game and they almost to a man credited the performance of the offense.
“We realize that we have an offense that controls the ball,” said cornerback Jason Sehorn. “All we have to do is go out there and do our thing. We don’t have to win football games, and we don’t have to worry about losing them. We just have to go out there and play solid defense.”
Of course, this kind of team unity is easier to express when you’re 3-0 and atop the NFC East. Family feuds usually coincide with adversity. Victories over the Cardinals, Eagles and Bears to start the season have taught the Giants offense and defense to believe in each other, a unity that will sorely be tested in the future.
“We’re a tighter unit now,” Jessie Armstead insisted. “If the offense makes a mistake, we say, ‘Don’t worry about it. We got your back.’ Same way when we gave up the touchdown. The offense said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re going to score again.’ That’s the kind of thing you need to have a championship team.”
It’s uncertain whether the special teams unit is still on good terms, considering three botched field goals yesterday could have proven costly. But for now, the Giants are playing and sounding like a team again. Now if they could only play like Taylor and Simms.
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