November 19, 1978: The Miracle at the Meadowlands

November 19, 1978: What may just be the all-time National Football League blooper occurs. In the Delaware Valley -- Eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Northern Delaware -- it is known as the Miracle at the Meadowlands. (Not "the Miracle of... " or "the Miracle in... ") In the adjoining Tri-State Area -- New York City, Long Island, the Lower Hudson Valley, North and Central Jersey, and Fairfield and New Haven Counties in Connecticut -- it is called other things, less printable ones.

Imagine you're the quarterback of the New York Giants. You're playing in front of 70,318 fans, on your home field, Giants Stadium, at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. You're leading your arch-rival -- or the closest divisional opponent, the team you should consider your arch-rival -- the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-12, with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation. If you win this game, you have a shot at making the Playoffs, and you'll also be effectively knocking your rivals out of Playoff contention.

So what do you do? Easy: You snap the ball, step back, kneel down on the artificial turf, and let the clock run out. You don't run the kind of play that would risk losing the ball and giving the other team a chance to win. After all, as a man who would later coach the Jets in the same stadium would say, "You play to win the game!"

Yes, that's what you would do, if you were the quarterback of the Giants that day. Certainly, that's what Giants coach John McVay wanted his quarterback to do.

Ah, but on this day, the quarterback was Joe Pisarcik, and he thought, "I've got the great Larry Csonka in the backfield. I think I'll hand off to him." The Zonk, who had helped the Miami Dolphins win 2 Super Bowls, told Pisarcik in the huddle, "Don't give me the ball."

What did Pisarcik do? He tried to give Csonka the ball, when he was not expecting it.

As Merrill Reese, then in only his 2nd season as a broadcaster for the Eagles, put it:

Under 30 seconds in the game. The Giants can just run out the clock, and there is nothing the Eagles can do about it.

And Pisarcik (pause) fumbles the football! It's picked up by Herman Edwards! 15! 10! 5! Touchdown, Eagles! I don't believe it! I don't believe it!

I do not believe what has occurred here, ladies and gentlemen. As Pisarcik came forward, he fumbled the football, Charlie Johnson hit him, and Herman Edwards picked up and ran for a touchdown! The Eagles take the lead, 18-17, in front of a shocked crowd at the Meadowlands!

Reese pronounced it "MED-il-unz" instead of the usual "MED-oh-lands." I think he can be excused, as nobody saw this coming.

The extra point made the final score 19-17 to the Eagles. The Eagles made the Playoffs for the 1st time in 18 years. The win gave them the confidence to win the NFC East the next year, and the NFC Championship the year after that, making their 1st Super Bowl.

The Giants missed the Playoffs for the 15th season in a row, and team owner Wellington Mara, tired of losing, cleaned house. He fired McVay, and he fired the general manager, Andy Robustelli, once a Hall of Fame defensive end for the Giants.

As the new head coach, he hired Ray Perkins. As the new GM, he hired George Young. Perkins only coached the Giants for 3 seasons, as his dream job opened up: Replacing his mentor, Paul "Bear" Bryant as head coach of the University of Alabama. That dream turned out to be a rude awakening. But his replacement as Giants head coach was one of his assistants, Bill Parcells. Together, Parcells and Young undertook the rebuilding process that would result in the 2 Super Bowl wins in the 1986-87 and 1990-91 seasons.

But there were 4 reasons why the Miracle at the Meadowlands was the dumbest play in NFL history -- at least until Pete Carroll told Russell Wilson to throw a pass near the end of Super Bowl XLIX, 36 seasons later: 1. McVay told Pisarcik to fall on the ball. Pisarcik violated orders.

2. Csonka himself told Pisarcik, "Don't give me the ball!" He turned down the advice of a future Hall-of-Famer. 3. Pisarcik fumbled the ball twice. He had a chance to fall on the ball after fumbling. Had he done so, it would have been a silly footnote in the year the Giants ended a 15-year Playoff drought. 4. He practically gave the ball to the one player on the Eagles in a position to pick it up and score a touchdown. Think about it: If any player but Edwards had gotten to it, he most likely would have just jumped on the ball to secure it. The Eagles would have been in field goal range, but 3 points wouldn't have helped. Ron Jaworski was a good quarterback, nicknamed "the Polish Rifle" before becoming an ESPN analyst nicknamed "Jaws," with a good receiver in Harold Carmichael, but there's no guarantee he would have gotten the ball in the end zone. But Edwards was a smart guy, who was in the perfect position to take advantage of the mistakes, and it was touchdown, Eagles; victory Eagles. It's fair to say that Pisarcik made 3 people famous on the play: Himself, Edwards, and Reese, whose voice became familiar to NFL Films viewers all over the country, not just in the Delaware Valley.

Oh, and that Jets coach of 2002, who reminded us to do what it takes to win? "Hello! You play to win the game!" It was Herman Edwards.

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November 19, 1978 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played on the day:

* The New York Jets lost to the New England Patriots, 19-17 at Shea Stadium.

* The Cleveland Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 45-24 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Redskins, 27-17 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 7-6 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-10 at Tampa Stadium.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the New Orleans Saints, 27-7 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Atlanta Falcons, 13-7 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 13-7 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 13-10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers, 16-3 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Detroit Lions, 29-17 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, 31-28 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

And the next day, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Houston Oilers beat the Miami Dolphins, 35-30 at the Astrodome in Houston, which turned out to be a showcase game for Oilers running back Earl Campbell.

There were 2 games played in the NBA that day. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-95 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. And the Seattle SuperSonics beat their arch-rivals, the Portland Trail Blazers, 88-85 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 4 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Atlanta Flames, 3-1 at Madison Square Garden. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Boston Garden. And the Buffalo Sabres beat the Minnesota North Stars, 9-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

And on this day in this last season for the World Hockey Association, there were 2 games. The Winnipeg Jets beat the Indianapolis Racers, 5-2 at the Winnipeg Arena. And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 6-3 at the Northlands Coliseum.