New York Giants Annual Information: 1971 New York Giants Outlook

TEAM DIRECTORY

President: Wellington T. Mara

General Manager: Raymond J. Walsh

Head Coach: Alex Webster

Assistant Coaches: Norb Hecker, Frank (Pop) Ivy, Jim Garrett, Joe Walton, Emlen Tunnell, Jim Katcavage

Trainers: John Dziegiel and John Johnson

Office: 10 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10019

Stadium: Yankee Stadium (64,882)

Colors: Red, White, Blue

Training Camp: C.W. Post College, Bookville, Long Island, New York

-The Complete Handbook of Pro Football (1971 Edition)

IN BRIEF

Probable 1971 Finish: 3rd (NFC Eastern)

Strengths: a flashy offense starring Tarkenton, Johnson and McNeil, defensive vigor from Files at middle linebacker, Dryer at end, and Lockhart in the secondary.

Biggest Needs: depth on the defensive and offensive lines and an improved pass rush.

1970 finish: 2nd (NFC Eastern, 9-5-0)

-Brenda Zanger, Pro Football 1971

"The Giants seem to be moving toward championship status once again, but at the same time they appear to be moving to the swamplands of New Jersey. New Jersey governor Cahill has offered to build a new stadium to house the Giants, which he says can be ready in 1973. Giant owner Wellington Mara has been more than toying with the idea.
The question at hand, however, is whether it will be the New York Giants or the Hackensack Giants who will be playing for a future NFL title. Last year the Giants looked much improved, battling for the Eastern Division championship until the final game of the season, when they lost to the Rams, 31-3, and showed that they still didn't quite have the personnel to beat the NFL's top teams.
This year the Giants face a tougher schedule and will have to be a lot stronger to do as well as they did in 1970. At the same time their division mates, Dallas and St. Louis, are full-fledged contenders, and Washington, under George Allen's new regime, should be more troublesome, too.
Offense has been the name of the game for the Giants, but last year it wasn't only quarterback Fran Tarkenton who made it work. Newcomers Ron Johnson, the former Cleveland running back, Bob Tucker, a free agent who moved in at tight end, and Clifton McNeil, the 49ers' former deep threat, plus fullback Tucker Frederickson, who shed his injury jinx last season, were all responsible for bringing the Giants back to respectability.
This year Coach Webster will build his I-formation around Tarkenton and Johnson. Tarkenton, entering his 11th pro season, is at his peak, still keeping defenses off-balance with the threat of his running while capably directing an exciting passing game. Behind him is Dick Shiner, whom Fran calls 'the best backup quarterback in football.' Tarkenton, who has played in every game of his pro career, didn't give Shiner much chance to perform last season (Dick completed nine of his 12 attempts), but relies heavily on his sideline experience. Ed Baker, who was taxied last season as a rookie, will probably suffer the same fate this season.
The running game was sound for the first time in years with Johnson darting for yardage and Frederickson, displaying excellent blocking skills, opening holes for his running mate. The reserve halfbacks are third-year man Bobby Duhon, ex-Cowboy Les Shy (a six-year veteran) and man-of-all-trades Joe Morrison. Free agent Allen Smith will compete for a job, too. Behind Frederickson are Junior Coffey, who missed the entire '70 season with a leg injury, veteran Ernie Koy and rookie Charlie Evans of USC.
The Giants' potent passing attack should be much improved this year since both split end Clifton McNeil and Bob Tucker have had a season's experience of catching Tarkenton passes and adjusting to the Giants' system. Johnson and Frederickson catch their share of passes, too. Add to that the promise of first round draft choice Rocky Thompson, a 9.2 speedster out of West Texas State. If Thompson is as good as he's expected to be at flanker, then McNeil will have more of a chance to maintain his reputation for making game-busting plays. Don Herrmann is penciled in as the starting flanker, at least until the Giants find out about Thompson. Ten-year veteran Aaron Thomas should also be available to provide depth. Other rookies vying for jobs are free agent Tim Delaney (San Diego State) and fourteenth round draft choice Coleman Zeno (Grambling). Behind Tucker at tight end are veteran Dick Kotite and 6-6 rookie Dick Gibbs (U. of Texas at El Paso), although Gibbs has signed to play pro basketball for the ABA New York Nets.
The line isn't up to the level of the rest of the offense, primarily because of a lack of depth. Veteran center Greg Larson is solid but 32. The solution Webster has come up with is the conversion of big (6-6, 250) Dennis Crane from tackle to center. Rookie Wayne Walton, a tackle in college, will also be tried at center. The starting tackles are Willie Young on the left side and Dick Buzin on the right. Webster would like to try Young at guard, but that would leave him with only Charlie Harper, who plays both guard and tackle, and rookies Walton, George Barron and Tom Bailey to compete for the tackle job. Pete Case, listed as the left guard, may retire. Doug Van Horn, the right guard, is improving steadily. Other prospects are Willie Banks (a taxi-squadder last year) and rookie Mark Ellison (Dayton).
The defensive line is also questionable, particularly inside. Aside from right end Fred Dryer, the front four can stand improvement. Wes Grant, who had won the left end job in the 1970 exhibition season, missed his rookie because of a fractured vertebra. He was the Giants' number two draft choice in '70, and is penciled in as the starting left end this year. Grant pass rushes well but needs work against the run. Bob Lurtsema was the regular left end in '70, but could be shifted to tackle since Jerry Shay's future is still in doubt. Shay suffered a severe leg fracture in the closing game against Los Angeles. Experienced Jim Kanicki will be at right tackle. Depth? John Baker, the ex-Canadian League star who played some last year, Willie Townes, the former Dallas Cowboy, Vernon Vanoy, a taxi-squadder in '70, and rookie hopefuls Dave Tipton (Stanford), Ted Gregory (Delaware) and Dave Roller (Kentucky) will all be trying to make the squad. If his legs are sound and if he keeps his weight down, Townes could be a revelation.
Second-year man Jim Files is a fixture at middle linebacker, but the outside jobs, held last year by veterans Ralph Heck (30) and Matt Hazeltine (37), require faster and younger men. Pat Hughes is being switched from center to linebacker and ex-Cowboy John Douglas is another good prospect. Eight-year veteran John Kirby backs up the middle. He's coming back from knee surgery. Rookie contenders are well-rated Ronnie Hornsby (Southeast Louisiana), Ed Thomas (Lebanon Valley) and Jim Wright (Notre Dame). Rookie end Ted Gregory will also be tried there.
The secondary is competent. Scott Eaton and Willie Williams are at the corners. Kenny Parker and Rich Houston (being shifted from flanker to defense this year) are the reserves. Spider Lockhart, one of the few Giant untouchables, mans the free safety job, while Otto Brown should take over as the strong safety. Tom Longo, who courageously played with broken metacarpal bones in both hands last year (as did Kenny Parker), is first in line for backup duty. Tough little Joe Green and taxi-squadder John Shinall are also available. Rookies with the best chance are free agents Ulysses Young and Al Butler.
Placekicking chores will again be handled by Pete Gogolak, who set a number of Giant records last season. But the punting is still a sore point. Left-footed punter Bill Johnson was inconsistent in 1970. He'll meet competition from rookie Tom Blanchard, a quarterback and punter out of Oregon, and Tom Rodgers, who failed to make it with Dallas last season."

-Brenda Zanger, Pro Football 1971

"As far as Giants are concerned, the rebuilding program that suffered so many frustrating failures during the regime of Allie Sherman seems finally to have taken hold in 1970. The previous year the team lost all five of its preseason games and Sherman was fired, Alex Webster moving up to the head job. The most important thing he did that season was to bring the team together and let the players know he had respect for them. He also gave Fran Tarkenton much more control over the offense than the veteran scrambler had ever enjoyed under Sherman or Norm Van Brocklin in Minnesota. Although he didn't have much of a football team to work with in terms of ability, Tarkenton still managed to win six games for New York.

So in 1970 owner Wellington Mara set out to provide Tarkenton with better personnel to work with, and Webster set out to take better advantage of Fran's style and natural assets. Webster decided that the Giants would run mostly from the I formation and rely heavily on play-action passes. He says, 'the idea is take Tarkenton out of the pocket more often so that he can keep the defenses guessing, shake up their rush.' The I formation does not allow defenses to get an early reading and set before the play goes off. And the play fake holds the line and linebackers a split second before the pass. Both tactics are ideally suited to Tarkenton, who has amazing peripheral vision and a quick release. And last season he also had some first-rate weapons to release, too.

The Giants' most important trades brought them perhaps the best running back the team has ever had, halfback Ron Johnson. He became the first back in Giant history to rush for over 1,000 yards. Johnson was also the team's second-leading pass receiver, with 48. The leading receiver was another trade acquisition, wide end Clifton McNeil, who caught 50. Still another excellent pickup on offense was tight end Bob Tucker, who had failed trials with other NFL teams and was signed as a free agent after playing two years of minor league ball. Tucker is big, a good blocker and appears to be running in sand most of the time. But he gets open consistently and has hands like sponges; they seem to absorb thrown footballs on or off-target. Tucker averaged 14.3 yards per catch on 40 receptions.

If the Giant offense needed aid going into the 1970 season, the defense almost qualified for federal food stamps. Coming from Cleveland with Johnson in the Homer Jones trade was Jim Kanicki, a big tackle who teamed with another veteran newcomer, ex-Falcon Jerry Shay. The most important defensive acquisition, though, was No. 1 draft choice Jim Files, a middle linebacker. He hadn't played the middle in college and thus had an awful lot to learn. But the fact was that Webster didn't have much choice at this position, so he made a commitment to the rookie and stayed with him throughout a trial-and-error-filled season. An indication of just how thin New York was at linebacker could be seen in the signing of 37-year-old Matt Hazeltine, the former San Francisco great who had retired from football after the 1968 season. Although Hazeltine's reading and reaction to plays was as quick as ever, his legs weren't.

So the Giants went into the season with a potentially high-powered offense and a hustling, improved defense that could stop the run for a change. But the defense could do little about getting to the quarterback; nor could it offer much linebacker help to a quick, solid, continually panting secondary. Even the strengthened offense couldn't get it together for the first three games. The Bears beat the Giants, 24-16, and the next week, after New York had taken a 10-0 halftime lead, Dallas won, 28-10. The third successive loss was undoubtedly the season's most frustrating: New Orleans won, 14-10, only because an official disallowed a Tarkenton touchdown pass that turned out to be well within the end zone boundaries when the play was replayed on television. The problem was that the boundaries were a yard wide INSIDE the end zone and the confused official though the inner edge of the lime marked the boundaries.

Giant players didn't let their disappointment get them down, though. With Tarkenton's passes getting sharper, with a healthy Tucker Frederickson laying crushing blocks at the point of attack for Ron Johnson's quick-start runs, and with Pete Gogolak hitting his field goals, New York won six games in a row. The Giants beat Philadelphia, 30-23; Boston, 16-0; St. Louis, 35-17; the Jets, 22-10; Dallas, 23-20; and Washington, 35-33. Tarkenton led exciting fourth-quarter comebacks in the last two victories. He handed off to Johnson on a four-yard run and then hit him with a 13-yard touchdown pass in the Cowboy upset. The Redskins were leading, 33-24, until Fran staged three successive marches, with Johnson scoring twice on runs and Frederickson catching a 57-yard pass.

Then the Giants were upset by Philadelphia, 23-30, but they bounced back to win their next three games and stay in title contention. Tarkenton again had to lead a last-minute drive to overcome Washington, with Gogolak kicking a 20-yard field goal for the 27-24 win. Neither the Bills (20-6) nor the Cardinals (34-17) proved to be any problem, but the Rams completely dominated the Giants in the finale, 31-3. The loss eliminated New York from the playoffs but left the team with a surprising 9-5 record.

'We'll have to be a better team this year to come anywhere near that record,' Alex Webster admits. The main problem is obviously the defense. 'It's got to be a lot better if we hope to make a serious run at the title,' Webster says. 'Specifically, we must strengthen the rush line and solidify our linebacking.'

Last season's front four featured only one outstanding pass rusher, end Fred Dryer, who was continually double-teamed. Opponents find that easy to do when there is only one man to worry about. Surprisingly, though, the Giants didn't draft a defensive lineman until the fourth round, getting tackle Dave Tipton from Stanford. So unless they can make a trade, rushline help will have to come from last year's reserves. The most likely candidate is end Wes Grant, a promising rookie who missed the 1970 season with a back injury. Willie Townes, a former Dallas regular, could be a big help, too, if he can play back to his early form. One of the linebacking hopes is another ex-Cowboy, John Douglas, along with reserve center Pat Hughes and No. 3 draft choice Ronnie Hornsby of Southeast Louisiana. Look for the Giants to trade for a linebacker before the season starts.

The offense should be even better with the addition of No. 1 choice Rocky Thompson from West Texas State. A 9.2-man in the 100-yard dash, Thompson is a receiver who will improve the passing attack, and he should also make a big difference in the kick return department.

But, as noted, scoring points is not the problem. And unless the Giants make some heavy moves to keep opponents off the scoreboard, they have little hope of challenging Dallas for the Eastern Division title."

-Berry Stainback, Pro Football Forecast For 1971

STRENGTHS: Two solid performers in quarterback Fran Tarkenton and running Ron Johnson; a good defensive secondary.

WEAKNESS: Only fair pass rush and weak linebacking corps; inconsistent punting.