Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [96]
Still, while high-profile, Pro-Bowl caliber receiving duos filled the rosters of several NFL teams—Jerry Rice and John Taylor in San Francisco, Mark Clayton and Mark Duper in Miami, Gary Clark and Art Monk in Washington, and, of course, Andre Reed and James Lofton for the Bills—New York’s receiving corps was widely overlooked.
“It’s always frustrating, because I would like to catch more balls,” Ingram said during the 1991 playoffs. “Any receiver would. But as long as we’re winning, I’m not going to complain. I know I can do more than I’ve shown. When they’ve thrown the ball to me I’ve produced. I’d like them to throw it to me more, but Bill doesn’t like to mess with a winning formula.”
They occasionally experimented with the formula midway through Super Bowl XXV.
Stephen Baker’s beautiful over-the-shoulder touchdown grab in the final seconds of the first half provided a considerable swing in momentum. More important, it cut the Bills’ lead to just two points. Only six minutes wore off the second-half game clock before Mark Ingram matched his teammate’s tremendous and unforgettable reception.
Twice on their first possession of the second half, the Giants kept the drive alive by converting clutch third downs: Meggett’s catch out of the backfield, paired with O. J. Anderson’s charging run into the Buffalo secondary. New York’s next third-down conversion was the most spectacular—not just of the drive or the game but, arguably, in Super Bowl history.
Anderson’s big gainer set the Giants up at Buffalo’s twenty-nine. Relying on the input from his players—“Our offensive linemen were saying that
Buffalo was getting a little tired, especially in the third quarter,” Parcells said—the coaches wisely stuck to the power football game plan. After a hard-hitting Carthon run netted five yards, it was Dave Meggett’s turn to carry the ball. The five-foot, nine-inch multipurpose back sidestepped two Bills defenders and bounced to the outside, picking up fifteen yards. But Meggett was only able to reach the edge because Mark Bavaro had illegally wrestled Buffalo linebacker Cornelius Bennett to the ground. Not only was Meggett’s huge play nullified, but also, the holding penalty against Bavaro pushed the Giants back an additional ten yards.
On second and fifteen at the thirty-four (instead of first and ten at the fourteen), Hostetler dropped back to pass. Unable to find an open man and with the pocket collapsing, he scrambled upfield before being brought down just two yards past the line of scrimmage. From a fresh set of downs inside Buffalo’s red zone to a third and thirteen at the thirty-two in the matter of a few snaps, the Giants now faced the very real possibility of scoring no points on the drive.
The play came in from the sidelines: “half-right–huddle-62-comeback-dig.” Hostetler broke the huddle and the other ten men spread out to their pre-snap positions.
“Here we go! Big play!” wide receiver Mark Ingram told himself. “Here’s our chance! So many times they’ve said we can’t do it. Let’s show ’em!”
From the shotgun, Hostetler flicked a pass across the middle of the field, seven yards short of the first down. Ingram pulled in the ball and wiggled out of a tackle.
Still six yards shy of where he needed to get to, Ingram pivoted upfield.
“All I saw was white jerseys coming at me,” Ingram said afterwards. “I looked at the chains before the play started and I knew I had a long way to run to get the first down.”
The first white jersey he saw read “56,” that of Pro-Bowler Darryl Talley. In great position to make the tackle, Talley lunged at the ball carrier. But Ingram—once a track star at Michigan State—stopped instantaneously, spun back to the inside of the field, and avoided Talley.
Slowing down to spin