The Giants had not had a winning season since 1963, but their fans had high hopes for the 1970 season. Here’s how things turned out.
Alex Webster (courtesy Big Blue)
Alex Webster took over as head coach in 1969, and the team had finished the season strong, winning their last three games. But hope faded quickly when the Giants lost their first three games in 1970, with two of those losses coming to bad teams, the Saints and Bears.
But, suddenly, the team got hot, winning six games in a row. Two wins came against good teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the eventual NFC Champ Cowboys.
From losing to bad teams to then winning against good ones didn’t become the storyline. Instead, the Giants reverted to their old ways with another bad loss, this time to the Eagles. The Giants’ Jeckyl and Hyde season continued.
It was hard to hard out, too. NYG had plenty of talented players with Fran Tarkenton at quarterback, rookie Bob Tucker at tight end, Fred Dryer at defensive end, Carl “Spider” Lockhart at safety, and Pete Gogolak at kicker. They also had one of the best running backs in football in the person of Ron Johnson, who came to the Giants in an off-season trade with the Browns, Johnson rushed for 142 yards in a Week Four win over the Eagles, and he had a 200-yard day against the Cowboys–136 yards on the ground and 59 yards through the air.
After that disappointing loss to the Eagles, the Giants got back on the winning track again, this time winning their next three games. Their Week 13 win over the Cardinals put them at the top of the division, tied for first place with the Cowboys.
The playoffs were on the line as the Giants prepared to face the Rams in the season finale.
But it wasn’t to be. The Giants played their worst game of the year before a packed house at Yankee Stadium. Rams 31, Giants 3.
The Giants finished the season 9-5, their best season since 1963. Ron Johnson became the first Giants running back in team history to gain over 1,000 yards (1,027) in a season, His nearly 500 yards receiving put him at 1,514 yards from scrimmage for the year, the NFL’s best in 1970.
But like it often is with the Giants, success couldn’t be sustained. Johnson missed most of the 1971 season with an injury, and the team reverted to its losing ways, finishing with a dismal 4-10 record. Johnson returned in 1972 and hit the 1,000-yard mark again, but the Giants finished only one game over .500 at 8-6.
It would be nearly another decade for woeful Giants fans before their team had another winning season (10-3 in 1981).
