The New York Giants, who know plenty about post-Super Bowl letdown, spread the pain around Sunday night when they upset the defending NFL champion Washington Redskins 24-7.
A common symptom of the post-Super Bowl blues is getting beaten by teams that you are supposed to beat. Or beating yourselves with penalties. Or being unable to make big plays. That happened to the Giants a lot in 1991 as they staggered to an 8-8 record, and it happened to Washington on Sunday night.The Giants (4-4), using a ball-control offense and a stunting defense that took away numerous pass opportunities for Washington's Mark Rypien, took a 21-7 halftime lead and were never threatened after that. Washington, which has now gone 11 consecutive quarters without scoring a touchdown on offense, fell to 5-3.
An 84-yard touchdown return of Sean Landeta's punt by Brian Mitchell gave the Redskins a 7-0 lead with 10:25 gone in the first period, but there were already bad omens aplenty for Washington. To that point, the Redskins had just 30 yards on two possessions, 21 of them on a pass from Rypien to Gary Clark.
On the other side of the ball, the Giants looked better prepared to play under wet, sloppy conditions. New York tied the score on its next possession, using a 29-yard pass from Jeff Hostetler to Howard Cross and a 27-yard scramble by the quarterback to set up Jarrod Bunch's 8-yard touchdown run.
Two possessions later, the Giants scored again, this time on a drive kept alive when the Redskins were penalized for having 12 men on the field when the Giants were punting the ball away.