Sept. 20, 1964 - The handwriting had been scrawled on the wall a week ago in Philadelphia. Today, in Pittsburgh, it was there in big bold letters. The most avid Giant fan can sense that an era in which the Giants won three straight NFL Eastern Division pennants is over.
And another era seemed to have ended today. Y.A. Tittle suffered “severely bruised lower-right rib cartilages” and will be lost “from 10 days to two weeks,” according to team physician Dr. Francis Sweeny. This is a bigger loss than the 27-24 game the Giants gift-wrapped today for the Steelers.
It started out like a rout for the Giants — sloppy, but a rout. It was Tittle’s game, 14-0, when Erich Barnes intercepted Pittsburgh quarterback Ed Brown and went 26 yards to score, and Tittle’s 54-yard pass to Del Shofner set up Alex Webster’s plunge to paydirt.
But big John Baker, the leading Pittsburgh bruiser, had been smashing over New York’s alternating right tackles, Lane Howell and Roger Anderson. Sooner or later, it seemed he might break through and do no good to Tittle. It was sooner — late in the second period.
Tittle dropped back to throw a screen pass. Baker came through and hit Y.A. from the blind side. The ball floated into the hands of Steeler Chuck Hinton, who ran eight yards for a touchdown as Tittle fell like a chopped tree under the 6-6, 270-pound Baker. Tittle was helped from the field. He never returned.
“I knew it was a screen,” Baker said later. “I just went in there and tried to hit him. He was watching for the receiver, and I don’t think he saw me. Just as he was releasing the ball, I hit him. I had my forearms like this — not aiming — and I hit him. I don’t know where, but I know I fell on top of him.”
It was a frightening sight. Baker looks mean, though he plays without malice. But Y.A. stayed down.
Tittle said he had trouble breathing and talking and that “it hurts.” “I think I saw him at the last second,” Tittle said.
The Steelers’ final go-ahead score came in the first two minutes of the final period, when Ed Brown — a goat earlier in the game when two interceptions went for Giant scores — ran one yard for a touchdown that was set up by Brady Keys’ 90-yard return of Don Chandler’s punt.
So, the Giants are 0-2 against the Eastern Division and are without Tittle.
Pittsburgh fullback Phil King, who was unexpectedly traded from the Giants for next to nothing (a future draft choice) just before the start of this season asked newsmen, “How’re things in New York? Pretty lousy, huh?” Only he didn’t say lousy. “You know how bad I wanted to win this one? I’d have given half my year’s salary.”
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