Can Miami Avoid A 'Miracle At The Meadowlands' Sequel? Hurricanes Play At No. 12 North Carolina Tonight
The last team to so infamously blow a game as the Miami Hurricanes did last Saturday in front of the entire televised world were the New York Giants on Nov. 19, 1978.
It is called the "Miracle at the Meadowlands," and it changed the way teams everywhere finish games in which they have the ball and the lead in the final seconds. At least, most teams.
The No. 17 and 4-0 Hurricanes led 2-3 Georgia Tech, 20-17, with 33 seconds to play at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami a week ago. They faced a 3rd-and-10 at Tech's 30-yard line and needed only to have quarterback Tyler Van Dyke take a knee on a play or two to run the clock out. Instead, Van Dyke followed offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson's call to hand off to running back Donald Chaney Jr.. Chaney fumbled, and defensive lineman Kyle Kennard recovered with 25 seconds to go.
Hurricanes To Try To Recover From Georgia Tech Disaster
And Georgia Tech moved 76 yards in four plays for a 23-20 win on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Haynes King to Christian Leary with a second left.
No. 27 Miami (4-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) plays at No. 12 North Carolina (5-0, 2-0 ACC) on Saturday (7:30 p.m., ABC). Can it recover?
Miami coach Mario Cristobal has taken ownership of the Hurricanes' late fumble last week in the loss to Georgia Tech. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
"Certainly, a tough loss to take," Miami coach Mario Cristobal said on his weekly TV show this week. "Our best opportunities now are still right there in front of us. So our guys are going in with a great mindset."
The Giants had opportunities in 1978. They would have greatly enhanced their NFC Wild Card playoff chances by beating the Eagles that afternoon 45 years ago and improved to 6-6. Instead, they dropped to 5-7. And they never recovered, losing the next three before finishing 6-10.
Miracle At The Meadowlands Similar To Miami's Mistake
"Brown right, near wing, 65 slant," was the play sent by Giants' offensive coordinator Bob Gibson sent to Giants' quarterback Joe Pisarcik. The clock neared :30 to go with New York leading the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-12.
The Giants faced a 2nd-and-13 at their 29-yard line. Pisarcik had just taken a knee the play before, but at the time NFL rules allowed free shots on the quarterback in such situations. Eagles linebacker Bill Bergey had just driven center Joe Clack backwards, and both landed on Pisarcik.
Philadelphia CB Herm Edwards grabs a fumble by New York Giants QB Joe Pisarcik and returns it 26 yards for a TD with :20 left for a 19-17 win in 1978 at Giants Stadium at The Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford, N.J. The play became known as the "Miracle at the Meadowlands." (Getty Images).
In order to protect Pisarcik from getting hurt, Gibson called for a handoff to Larry Csonka. Pisarcik, though, did not get the snap cleanly, then fumbled as he tried to hand off. Eagles defensive back Herm Edwards picked it up and sprinted 26 yards for the touchdown with 20 seconds left and a 19-17 lead after the extra point.
New York Giants Never Recovered From The Late Fumble
"Under 30 seconds left in the game," Eagles play-by-play announcer Merrill Reese said. "From here on in, Pisarcik can just fall on the football, and there is nothing the Eagles can do. And Pisarcik 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!"
Eagles coach Dick Vermeil didn't see it live. He had his back to the play as he talked to his offensive players just in case they got the ball back. But they didn't need another score now.
CBS announcer Dan Criqui also couldn't believe it.
"Unbelievable," he said shortly after thanking the TV crew, the producer, the director, the statistician and the spotter as if the game was over. "I've seen Dempsey kick a 63-yard field goal. I fell out of the press box on that one."
Criqui was referring to Tom Dempsey kicking the then-longest field goal in NFL history as time expired to knock the Detroit Lions out of the playoffs on Nov. 8, 1970, in New Orleans. That final score was also 19-17.
Former Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Herm Edwards, shown here coaching Arizona State last season, retired as a player following the 1986 season and began coaching in 1987. (Getty Images)
Pisarcik, a game manager quarterback of all things who rarely passed, needed a police escort to get to his car. And not because Giants fans wanted his autograph.
"I never had control," Pisarcik told reporters after the game. He could've been talking about the football and/or the play. Gibson, a former quarterback at Youngstown State (1946-49) and Bowling Green's head coach from 1956-64, called all the plays. And he had previously threatened to bench Pisarcik if he ever changed a play.
Giants Headed Miami Way After The Disaster
Pisarcik was already so unpopular and called "Off-Broadway Joe" by Giants fans in a sarcastic reference to former Jets' quarterback great "Broadway" Joe Namath. Csonka tried to help and immediately chartered a flight to south Florida for a day or two of escape fishing for Pisarcik and himself.
Soon, Gibson was in south Florida as well. Giants owner Wellington Mara fired Gibson the morning after the game, and he never coached again. He later opened a bait shop on Sanibel Island near Fort Myers and raised cattle.
"I haven't talked about that game for 30 years," Gibson told ESPN in 2008. "I'm not about to start now."
Gibson died at age 88 in 2015.
Shortly after the season, the Giants also fired director of operations Andy Robustelli and head coach John McVay.
Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay is the grandson of the losing coach in the Miracle at the Meadowlands - the late New York Giants coach John McVay. (Getty Images)
After the game, McVay said he would have overruled Gibson's call, but he didn't know what was coming. His headphones were not working.
Moving On From The Miracle Disaster
McVay also never coached again. As a front office executive with the San Francisco 49ers from 1980-96, however, he helped build one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history with five Super Bowl titles in the 1980s and '90s. He died last Oct. 31 at age 91. But not before he got to see his grandson, Sean McVay, coach the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl LVI title on Feb. 13, 2022, with a 23-20 win over Cincinnati.
"He's going to get a chance to be here, and that really means a lot to our family," McVay said of his grandfather before that Super Bowl. "He sure does have a wealth of wisdom."
McVay credited his grandfather for opening doors in his career.
"The things that wouldn't have occurred with out his influence in this league," he said. "It's such a small network. And I'm not naive to think that I would get these opportunities if it weren't for the legacy that my grandfather was able to establish."
The Giants actually benefitted in the long run from the disaster because Mara hired George Young to replace Robustelli with the general manager title. Young drafted such superstars as linebacker Lawrence Taylor and quarterback Phil Simms. He also hired Ray Perkins as head coach. In 1981, Perkins took the Giants to the playoffs for the first time since 1963. In the Wild Card playoffs, they beat the Eagles, who had a backup quarterback named Joe Pisarcik. Then they lost to McVay and the 49ers, who went on to win their first Super Bowl that season.
Can Mario Cristobal Recover As The Giants Eventually Did?
So far, Mario Cristobal has made no personnel changes with the Hurricanes.
Before the 1980 season, Perkins hired a linebackers coach from New England named Bill Parcells to be his defensive coordinator. When Perkins left the Giants after the 1982 season to replace Bear Bryant at his alma mater Alabama, Parcells became head coach. He took the Giants to Super Bowl titles in the 1986 and 1990 seasons.
The Eagles at 8-7 played the Giants again in the season finale of 1978 in Philadelphia and won 20-3 to finish 9-7 and reach the playoffs for the first time since 1960. Two years later, Vermeil guided Philadelphia to its first Super Bowl in the 1980 season.
"That was so unexpected," Edwards said in 2019 on the Dan Patrick Show. "My mindset was if I get it on the first hop, I might have a chance. And that's what happened."
During his first season as Arizona State's coach in 2018, Edwards put his team through the "Victory Formation" at the end of a practice - two running backs deep behind the quarterback and another back even deeper just in case there is a fumble. When Edwards returned his fumble against the Giants, there was no one deep.
New York Giants Installed Victory Formation
McVay actually installed the new, three-back formation after the loss to the Eagles. And it worked perfectly with Pisarcik kneeling to kill the clock with the lead at the end of the first half the next Sunday against Buffalo. Alas, the Bills outscored the Giants, 27-0, to end the game and erase a 17-14 deficit to win 41-17. Soon, virtually all NFL teams used the "Victory Formation."
"The Victory Formation came out of that," Edwards said. "I asked my players after that practice, 'Why do people do this?' And they said, 'Coach, that's what teams do when they have the game and are just trying to kill the clock.' And I showed them the clip."
There is no telling how many times Cristobal has watched a replay of his team's fumble last week, and he has learned what Gibson and McVay and Pisarcik learned before him.
"At the end of the game," he said, "the right call is to go ahead and kneel it down. I take ownership in not doing so."