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Sunday, January 5, 2002 at Candlestick Park

Giants Fall to Niners, 39-38
Stunning loss ends Big Blue's season.
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

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January 5, 2003

San Francisco - In the end, it came down to the things that have sabotaged and hurt the Giants all season: an inability to play with a lead, fourth-quarter inefficiency, and most glaring and harmful of all, a failure to execute one of the most fundamental acts in football, the snap for a placekick.

Instead, it suddenly, shockingly, unfathomably came to an end. In the second-worst collapse in NFL postseason history, the Giants never scored another point. The 49ers put 25 on the board, out-scoring the Giants in the final period, 17-0, including the game-winning 13-yard touchdown pass from Jeff Garcia to Tai Streets with one minute left.

The Giants still had one final shot to win it. But Trey Junkin, signed last Tuesday when snapper Dan O'Leary was put on injured reserve with torn thumb ligaments, made his second poor snap of the game. Instead of Matt Bryant kicking what might have been the game-winning 41-yard field goal, holder Matt Allen threw a hopeless pass as time expired.

Just like that, the hottest team in the NFC was ushered out of the playoffs.

"This is about the worst loss I have ever felt in my entire life," said coach Jim Fassel, who saw two critical field goal attempts in the final 3:01 sabotaged by bad snaps. "It got away from us. It's tragic. I think we let a great opportunity [slip away]. I'm not getting over this for a while."

The Giants players were in a state of near-disbelief after the game.

"It was just complete and utter shock," said quarterback Kerry Collins, who had a brilliant first half. "It shouldn't have come down to that. That's the bottom line and we have only ourselves to blame for that."

"We gave the game away," said defensive end Michael Strahan. "It's not a two-quarter game, it's not a 2 ½-quarter game, it's not a three-quarter game. It's a four-quarter game. And we didn't play four quarters. Offensively, the guys played extremely well, good enough to help us win. Defensively, we just did not play the fourth quarter."

The final minutes were chaotic. With a little more than three minutes left, the Giants were clinging to a 38-33 lead when Fassel sent Bryant into the game on a fourth-and-one from the San Francisco 24-yard line. Allen had to lunge for Junkin's poor snap and Bryant hooked a 42-yard field goal attempt that would have given the Giants an eight-point lead.

The Niners then drove 68 yards in nine plays and 2:01, with Garcia (27 of 44 for 331 yards and three touchdowns, plus a team-high 60 rushing yards) throwing to Streets for the go-ahead score.

The Giants still had a minute to work their way down field. But after the Niners' failed two-point conversion attempt, Giants safety Shaun Williams and San Francisco wide receiver Terrell Owens received offsetting unnecessary roughness penalties. The 49ers might have been forced to kick off from the 15-yard line instead of the 30 had the Giants refrained from joining the fracas. Williams was ejected from the game.

Delvin Joyce's 32-yard kickoff return gave the Giants the ball at the 48-yard line. Collins hit Ron Dixon for 10 yards, then, after a delay of game penalty, Dixon for 19 more. After an incompletion, a five-yard pass to Amani Toomer left the Giants with a third-and-five on the San Francisco 23-yard line. Six seconds remained.

Enter Bryant. The rookie kicker stood at almost the exact same spot where Matt Bahr booted the game-winning 42-yard field goal in the 1990 NFC Championship Game. Bryant believes he could have repeated those heroics. But he never had a chance. Junkin's snap skidded back to Allen, who picked it up, ran and threw a desperation pass down field as time expired. Guard Rich Seubert was penalized for being an ineligible receiver downfield.

"I forgot rule No. 1," said Junkin, who had filed his retirement papers, ending a 19-year career, before the Giants signed him last week. "Always remember that you never make a perfect snap; just make the snap. I just didn't do a good enough job." Allen warned Bryant the snap could be low again.

"I told him, 'Just be aware, go ahead and trust me and to go ahead and expect the ball to go down,'" Allen said. "I told Junkin to get it right. I told him, 'You've been playing in this league for 19 years, you've got to come through for us.'" Bryant, who scored 108 points in his debut season, was left to wonder what might have been.

"It's tough to take, because we had one little job to do and we didn't get it done," Bryant said. "Probably what's most frustrating of all is that I didn't get the chance. It's like a hitter at the plate with two outs in the ninth and the runner gets thrown out trying to steal second. It takes the bat right out of your hands. That's what it felt like for me today."

The Giants special teams were in flux much of the season. Three bad snaps by the departed Bob Jones cost them points in Minnesota, though they won the game. A poor punt snap in Houston resulted in a safety in a game the Giants lost by two points. The Giants seemed to have their problems solved with O'Leary, but he got hurt. So the Giants turned to the 41-year-old Junkin, whose one-game Giants career will not be remembered fondly.

"It's been a problem since we started," Fassel said of his team's season-long kicking and snapping.

"I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it's been," Bryant said. "I've gone through five or six snappers and two holders. It's been strange this year."

Tiki Barber said, "It's very appropriate for our season. Special teams have been a crux for us from the very beginning. You think we've got it fixed, and then it comes back to bite us in the butt."

Snapping and holding weren't the only problems. The Giants had a tendency to turn large leads into small ones. A 17-0 advantage at St. Louis became a 26-21 victory. They shot ahead of Jacksonville, 24-0, and held on to win, 24-17. They led the Vikings, 19-6, then fell behind, 20-19, before rallying for a victory. At Indianapolis, a 30-6 lead turned into a 37-27 scramble.

The Giants seemed to change personalities in the fourth period. In their 17 games, they were out-scored in the final quarter, 147-87. It all came back to haunt them in San Francisco.

"This game was just like our season," Strahan said. "We looked about as good as you can look on a football field, and we looked about as bad as you can look on a football field. We just did not perform well. You have to remember this one. It has to be fuel to the fire."

The epic collapse overshadowed some brilliant individual performances. Collins completed 29 of 43 passes for 342 yards and four first-half touchdowns. Toomer had eight receptions for 136 yards and three of those scores. Tiki Barber rushed for 115 yards on 26 carries and scored a touchdown. Jeremy Shockey caught seven passes and a touchdown.

But it was a pass that Shockey failed to hold onto that ignited the San Francisco turnaround. In the third period, the Giants led, 35-14, when Collins' 46-yard pass to Toomer gave them a first-and-goal at the three. Another touchdown would have made it 42-14 and might have sealed the deal. But Ron Dayne was stopped for no gain before a Collins pass to Shockey in the end zone slipped through the Pro Bowler's hands. Another pass toward Shockey was incomplete. Bryant then came on to kick a 21-yard field goal. It was 38-14, but very subtly, the momentum had begun to shift.

"It was a little corner route," Shockey said. "Kerry threw a great pass, but unfortunately, it hit off my fingertips. It was a bad play. We had a lot of mistakes in this game."

The Niners quickly capitalized, going 70 yards in just seven plays and 2:20. Garcia threw to Owens (nine catches for 177 yards and two scores) for the 26-yard touchdown and two-point conversion that pulled San Francisco to within 38-22 - and got the crowd back into the game.

The Giants went three-and-out, including a third-down sack of Collins. Allen punted, and Dhani Jones was penalized 15 yards for hitting Vinny Sutherland after he had signaled for a fair catch. That gave the 49ers possession on the Giants 27-yard line. Three plays and 41 seconds later, it was 38-30 after Garcia scored on a 14-yard bootleg around left end on the first play of the fourth period. Garcia then threw to Owens for the two-point conversion that lifted the 49ers to within eight points.

The Giants again responded to a San Francisco touchdown by running three offensive plays and punting. The Niners moved from their own 18-yard line to the Giants eight. But the defense stiffened and Jeff Chandler came on to kick a 25-yard field goal. With 7:49 remaining it was 38-33.

Collins and Barber led the way as the Giants moved from their own 36 to the San Francisco 24. But Barber was stopped a yard short on third-and-two and Bryant came on to kick what would have been a 42-yarder. But Junkin's bad snap foiled the effort.

Given another opening, Garcia and the 49ers responded. After three short completions, Garcia hit wide open tight end Eric Johnson for a 25-yard gain to the Giants 25 with 1:10 left. Garcia scrambled for 12 yards and threw an incompletion before hitting Streets with the game-winner.

For most of the first three quarters of the game, the Giants were in complete command. Barber's six-yard touchdown run with 9:53 remaining in the third period and Bryant's field goal a few minutes later extended their lead to 38-14.

Barber took a handoff and scooted untouched around the right side and into the end zone. The play capped a six-play, 54-yard drive that was highlighted by the lengthy plays the Giants produced when the offense was in sync.

The first was Barber's 22-yard run, which gave the Giants a first down on the San Francisco 32. Two plays later, Collins and Toomer hooked up for a 17-yard completion to the 14. After Barber gained eight yards to the six, he finished the job with the Giants fifth touchdown of the afternoon.

San Francisco had taken the second-half kickoff but was stopped cold by the Giants. On fourth-and-one from the Giants 45, the Niners tried to keep possession by running fullback Fred Beasley into the middle of the line. But a group of Giants, including Jones, stuffed Beasley for no gain.

The Giants led, 28-14, at the end of a first half in which Collins three four touchdown passes, three to Toomer and one to Shockey. The Giants scored two touchdowns in the final 2:49 of the half to take the lead.

Toomer's final touchdown, a 24-yard reception with just 10 seconds left in the half, capped a five-play, 56-yard drive that was set up by Jason Sehorn's interception, the second score in about 2 ½ minutes following a Giants takeaway. On second-and-10 from the 24, Collins fired a pass to Toomer in the back left corner of the end zone. Toomer caught the ball while falling on his back.

Moments earlier, Sehorn had stepped in front of J.J. Stokes and intercepted a Garcia pass at the Giants 44-yard line. The Giants were set back by Dan Campbell's holding penalty, setting up a second-and-12 at the 42. But two plays later, Collins threw a perfect pass down the middle for Barber, who got a step on safety Zach Bronson, before being tackled at the San Francisco 24 after a 30-yard gain. Following an incompletion to Campbell, Collins capped his hot half with another touchdown pass to Toomer.

The Giants premier wide receiver had scored just 2:39 earlier, on an eight-yard pass from Collins. That score was set up by a fumble recovery by Johnnie Harris, who fell on the ball at the Niners eight-yard line after Cedrick Wilson muffed a punt. On the very next snap, Collins fired to the right side for Toomer, who caught the ball on the three and sidestepped cornerback Ahmed Plummer.

Prior to the two late scores, the 49ers had tied the score at 14-14 on Kevan Barlow's one-yard plunge. On third-and-one from just shy of the goal line, Barlow bulled his way forward. The officials ruled him down by contact, setting up a fourth down. But the 49ers challenged the ruling, and after reviewing the videotape, referee Ron Winter overturned the call and awarded the 49ers a touchdown.

San Francisco drove 69 yards in 10 plays, the longest a 25-yard pass from one wide receiver - Owens - to another - Tai Streets. That gave the 49ers a first down at the seven. They scored three plays later.

Collins touchdown passes to Toomer in the first period and Shockey in the second gave the Giants a 14-7 lead.

Toomer's touchdown, a 12-yarder, capped a well-executed 11-play, 65-yard drive. The Giants converted two third downs on the march, including a 10-yard pass to Ron Dixon on third-and-nine. Dixon, playing his first game since Dec. 1, advanced the ball to the seven-yard line.

A false start penalty on Luke Petitgout moved it back to the 12. After an incompletion to Toomer, Collins came right back to him, throwing a fade pass to the left side. Toomer fooled cornerback Ahmed Plummer, leaped high and came down for the touchdown.

After forcing a San Francisco punt, the Giants needed only five plays to travel 61 yards and take their first lead at 14-7. The score was another perfectly thrown fade pass by Collins. This time, Shockey didn't have to wrestle with a defender for the ball, as he did last week with Philadelphia's Brian Dawkins. Instead, the Pro Bowl tight end simply out-jumped safety Tony Parrish and came down with the ball in the back left corner of the end zone.

The Giants had two big plays prior to the touchdown. On the first play of the drive, Barber ran for 29 yards around the left side. Collins then hit Shockey up the right seam for a 31-yard gain to the one.

The 49ers jumped ahead, 7-0, on their first offensive play when Garcia and Owens hooked up for a 76-yard touchdown pass. The score was set up by Julian Peterson's interception of a Kerry Collins pass.

The Giants were moving the ball well on the game's opening possession, advancing from their own 24-yard line to the San Francisco 33 with a blend of runs and passes that seemed to keep the San Francisco defense off-balance. Barber had 33 total yards on the drive, on four rushes and two receptions.

But on the ninth play of the march, disaster struck, on a second-and-four from the San Francisco 33. Collins tried to throw over the middle to Ron Dayne. But in attempting to catch the ball, Dayne batted it in the air. Parrish also hit it, keeping the ball afloat. That gave linebacker Julian Peterson a chance to intercept it at the 24-yard line.

On the 49ers' first snap, Garcia threw a short pass to Owens, who caught the ball at the 35. Both Will Allen and Mike Barrow hit Owens with clean shots. But instead of going down, the Pro Bowl receiver took off down the middle of the field for a quick-strike touchdown.

For the Giants, the game had a disastrous start and a long, prosperous period before the collapse that will live in infamy.

"It's a bitter pill to swallow," Barber said. "We had control of this game for much of it. It's a tale of two halves. It's unfortunate."

"It's tough," Toomer said. "It's a tough situation. They just finished the game like champions. And we didn't"

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