A Giant comeback for the ages

Saquon Barkley’s pilon lunge for a touchdown helps propel Giants rally in Arizona.

It took nearly three quarters of a century, but the Giants finally equaled the largest comeback in their 99-year history, rallying from 21 points down to defeat the Arizona Cardinals 31-28.

Turn the clocks back to October 30, 1949, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. That day the Giants trailed the Chicago Cardinals 28-7 at halftime, before launching a stirring comeback.

Jack Salscheider ran back the second half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown that got the Giants rolling. They eventually took a 34-31 lead on Gene Roberts second TD, a one-yard run.

Then after the Cardinals regained the lead, Joe Scott plunged over from a yard out to secure the Giants 41-38 victory.

The G-Men, coached by Hall of Famer Steve Owens, would finish 6-6 that year, just behind the 6-5-1 Cardinals. Those Cardinals won their only NFL championship in 1947, and finished runner-up to the Eagles in 1948. The team eventually moved to St. Louis in 1960 and then to Arizona.in 1988.

Another 21-point comeback

The Giants also engineered a 21-point comeback on December 2, 1945, against the Eagles at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan.

New York looked to be cooked when Steve Van Buren ran back the second half kickoff 98 yards for his third touchdown of the game to give Philadelphia a 21-0 lead.

But Giants quarterback and Hall of Famer  Arnie Herber, right, threw three TD passes in the third quarter – all to Frank Liebel to tie the score.

And when Sam Fox caught a 5-yard pass from Herber late in the game, the Giants had an improbable 28-21 win. They finished the year 3-6-1.

The Giants have had several other amazing comeback through the years, though none larger than 20 points.

Rally against the Colts

In 1950, they trailed the Baltimore Colts 20-0 in the second quarter as YA Tittle, who later won an MVP with the Giants, threw a pair of touchdown passes. But Eddie Price rushed for a pair of TDs and QB Travis Tidwell threw two and scored another as the Giants scored 55 unanswered points for a 55-20 win at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

The 1950 Giants wound up 10-2 before losing a playoff to the Cleveland Browns for the Eastern Conference title. The Colts finished 1-11.

In 1970, the Giants rallied from a 19-point deficit with three, fourth-quarter scores to beat the Washington Redskins 35-33 at Yankee Stadium. Running back Ron Johnson scored twice and Frank Tarkenton tossed a 57-yard touchdown to Tucker Frederickson to ensure the win.

In their Super Bowl championship campaign of 1986, the Giants twice came back from 17-0 deficits to beat the New Orleans Saints and later the San Francisco 49ers.

As recently as 2019, the Giants overcame an 18-point deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Bucs 32-31, Quarterback Daniel Jones, making his first career start and replacing Eli Manning, passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more, including a 7-run scamper with a little over a minute remaining to earn the win. The Giants trailed 28-10 at halftime.

The record for the biggest comeback in NFL history is held by the Minnesota Vikings. Last year, the Vikings overcame a 33-0, third quarter deficit to beat the Indianapolis Colts 39-36 in overtime.

Biggest comebacks in Giants history