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Giants Manhandled by Lions in Detroit

Oct. 4, 1964 - If the New York Giants are dead, the Giants are not about to admit it. They did not kick the locker room door down after today’s 26-3 licking by the Lions in Detroit, nor did they throw helmets against the wall or cuss up a storm. (Pictured below, New York’s Bookie Bolan battles Detroit’s Alex Karras.) No one had to tell them that their NFL record now reads 1-3, and their chances of winning a fourth straight Eastern Division championship are virtually nil.

Joe Morrison dressed quietly, as did the rest. “Sure we feel the pressure,” Morrison admitted. “It’s there. But we know we’re coming. You can see things coming with each game — our defensive play last week, our running game today. We’re a good team.”

A few cages away, Frank Gifford was dressing. Like Morrison, he is a quiet man who has been around. “We’ve got 10 more shots at it,” Gifford said, referring to the remaining number of games. “It won’t be easy, but then it never is.”

The Giants think they are the Yankees of football, and they remind you that the Yankees were written off not many weeks ago, too. But the Yankees kicked doors, Mickey Mantle kicked water coolers, and Phil Linz played a harmonica. Perhaps that is what the Giants need right now — someone to incite them, burn them out of their complacency.

If coach Allie Sherman thinks his team is lousy, he usually says so. He didn’t think so today. He saw good, most of it spelled Ernie (Big Wheel) Wheelwright, who carried seven times for 45 yards and provided Y.A. Tittle with the kind of pass protection that should have made Y.A. better than he was.

“But,” Sherman said, “you can’t give away 16 points and not pay the price.”

The 16 giveaway points were the game’s first — a touchdown on a fake field goal; a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown by Tom Watkins, who slid out of the buttery hands of at least seven Giants and then faked Don Chandler out of his punting shoes; and a safety out of a field goal attempt. On the latter, rookie Clarence Childs fumbled Wayne Walker’s placement at the one, picked it up, and stumbled into the end zone thinking he had a touchback. He didn’t.

The fake field goal didn’t just happen; it was planned. Detroit coach George Wilson said he had “planned to use it the first time we had a field goal opportunity.” But what burned Sherman was that he warned his players to expect just that.

“At our meeting yesterday, our players were told to watch for it,” Allie said. “We know Wilson likes to pull those things from time to time, and we wanted to be ready. And we still got caught.”

Tittle had the best protection he’s had this year and no excuses for a mediocre 11-for-24 record and three interceptions. Y.A. was just another quarterback today. With the exception of the second half against Washington, that’s all he’s been this season.

Someone ought to start playing a harmonica.



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