Round 1: '86-SEA 20, '88-NYG 7

The old football axiom is: To win this game you have to be able to run the ball and stop the run. The Seahawks did just that as they defeated the Giants in this opening round contest. For the better part of 3 1/2 quarters the game was dead even tight, but 5 minutes into the final stanza the Seahawks pulled away and left the Giants for dead.

It was a blustery day in the swamps of Jersey and both teams slugged it out. Seattle jumped out to a 7-0 lead to break the ice. The Giants looked to have stopped Seattle but Dave Krieg ran a QB sneak and plugged it in from the 1 foot line on 3rd down. The Giants came out of the locker room fired up and Phil Simms lead them on a 9 play, 71 yard journey to paydirt, which was capped off by a 13 yard toss to fullback Mo Carthon who was the secondary receiver on the play.

The fourth quarter belonged to Seattle as their defense rose up to bottleneck the Mara-men. Time in time again Phil Simms would get sacked and the Giants would have to punt. Seattle had a record 8 sacks on the day. If Simms wasn't sacked, he was hurried and when QB's are hurried they make big mistakes. Down 13-7 late in the 4th quarter Simms hit TE Mark Bavaro for 9 yards to make it second and 1 on the Giant 29 with 6:33 to play. Rather than get the sure first down and keep the chains moving the Giants elected to go for a big gainer, which backfired as Bruce Scholtz sacked Simms back to the original line of scrimmage where the drive started on the 20.

Seattle took over and Curt Warner got hot. On a 2nd and 6 play from his own 28 he broke free for 50 yards as the Giants shoulders began to slump. 3 plays later he busted another one for 17 yards and a TD to put the Giants away for good. Warner finished the day 21-150-TD. He gained almost half of those yards on this one drive.

The Giants total rushing output was 48 yards, which was 2 less than Warner had on his longest run.