‘Skins Chris Hanburger trying to decapitate New York’s Tom Kennedy in epic 1966 72-41 NFL game
The final regular season edition of my “Throwback Thursday” feature highlights a game played between two old NFL Eastern Division rivals, the New York Giants and Washington Redskins. The two clubs will close out the 2013 regular season with a meaningless match, as both teams are out of the playoff chase. The featured game was played on November 27, 1966, and at the time both franchises were struggling. The mid-60s were an era when the NFL was considered a “three yards and a cloud of dust” league, with teams playing a conservative style that featured an emphasis on the running game, combined with smothering defenses. This particular game bucked that trend, however, at least as far as scoring was concerned, as the Redskins outscored the Giants, 72-41. The final score would lead one to believe that it was a shootout between the resident star quarterbacks for these two clubs in this era – Washington’s Sonny Jurgensen and the Giants’ Fran Tarkenton. Jurgensen, in fact, played a decent game, tossing three touchdown passes. His statistics, however, were completely underwhelming. It wasn’t one of the typical 400 yard, five TD pass days you see in today’s game from Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, etc. Jurgenson threw only 16 times, completing 10 for a paltry 145 yards. As for the Giants, they didn’t actually acquire Tarkenton until 1967, and on this day the quarterbacking chores were split between two very forgettable players in Giant history – Gary Wood and Tom Kennedy. The Redskins’ leading rusher that day was a journeyman back named A.D. Whitfield, who carried 6 times for 74 yards. He ran for two scores and caught one of Jurgensen’s passes for a TD. The only Washington player who racked up any eye-opening numbers in the game was their future Hall of Fame receiver, Charley Taylor, who caught 6 of the 10 Jurgensen completions for 124 yards and a pair of touchdowns. So with so little statistical yardage, just how did the Redskins manage to run up such an astounding point total? With the help of six Giant turnovers. Brig Owens had a stellar day in the secondary for Washington, picking off three passes and returning one of those 60 yards for a score. He also scooped up a Giant fumble and ran that back 62 yards for a touchdown. Throw in a 52 yard punt return for a TD by Rickie Harris and a 45 yard scoring run by Bobby Mitchell and you have the amazing nine touchdown big-play day by the ‘Skins. So how do two NFL teams combine to score 113 total points with only 776 combined offensive yards, a scant total by today’s standards? Well, it helped that both clubs were over 100 yards in penalty yards, another sign that it was a game played between two bad football teams that took turns playing bad on offense, defense and special teams. Still, on a September day in 1966, it was one for the ages.
Scoreboard message from classic Redskins-Giants 1966 contest
