ARLINGTON, Texas — The Giants and the Cowboys have been getting after each other for so long, we sometimes forget there are a lot key elements missing from it, things that certainly would strengthen the notion of this “rivalry” in the classic context.
The very first time the teams met, the game ended in a 31-31 tie, so it did begin on equal footing (even if that was the only game the expansion Cowboys didn’t lose in that 1960 season). But little has been equal about it since. At the start the Giants were dominant, and the Cowboys morose. Then they flipped, and for a good 15 years it seemed they were playing in different leagues.
Rarely have they been very good at the same time, borne out by this shocking truth: In 53 years of shared existence, the teams have met exactly once — once! — in the playoffs. This is a rivalry that exists as much because of ill will as anything else, whose nadir was the ’70s when the ubiquitous Cowboys tried to siphon off a whole generation of Giants fans disenchanted with lousy football.
So this is a rivalry stripped of many of the basic entities most rivalries have, and one of the amazing byproducts of that is this: There never has been an honest-to-goodness war between the quarterbacks of these two glamorous franchises. Y.A. Tittle and Charley Conerly ruled early, then Don Meredith and Roger Staubach. Phil Simms usually got the better of Danny White, and by the time Troy Aikman emerged the Giants were in full Dave Brown mode.
That should have been different these past few years, of course. The Giants have had Eli Manning for nine years, and Tony Romo has been the Cowboys’ starting quarterback since midway through the ’06 season. At the start, Romo had the early speed, and then Eli had the first of his magical runs, and though neither ever has gone completely off the rails or vaulted themselves into rarefied, undisputed-elite territory, they’ve both had solid careers.
And yet this is a contest that seems so … one-sided.
Even if it’s not, by the way. Romo won the first three times he matched up with Manning, and four of the first five, so that helps keep the record from being skewed too much. But as of Sunday, when the Giants will open their season against the Cowboys for the second straight year in this Spaceship Jerry Jones built hard by Six Flags, this is how the scoreboard reads:
Eli Manning: 7 wins.
Tony Romo: 6 wins.
That’s as close as you can get, barring a tie, in 13 meetings. So why does it feel so different? Part of that, of course, is the fact that the two quarterbacks have combined for two Super Bowl championships … and Eli has both of them. Part of that is because in the one matchup that truly mattered, on Jan. 13, 2008, Eli got the better of things, a 21-17 playoff win after twice taking it on the chin in the regular season.
That was, in reality, Manning’s coming-out party. Remember, he was still just three weeks removed from Tom Coughlin all but eliminating him from the gameplan in the Giants’ playoff-clinching win at Buffalo two days before Christmas. But in the game that sparked the Giants into believing they really could make that miracle run, he was terrific: 12-for-18, two TDs, no picks, a QB rating of 132.4
By contrast Romo had one TD and one interception, completed half his 36 attempts, had a rating of 64.7, and watched as Eli rallied the Giants from behind, then led them into history.
There is much talk now that this is Romo’s put-up-or-shut-up year, that Jones doesn’t have an endless supply of patience any longer, that he needs to prove he’s the equal of his reputation and his paycheck. What better way to start, then, than against his main contemporary, Eli, against whom he’s twice opened seasons in the past with victories.
If this is ever going to be a genuine quarterback rivalry, he’d better join the party soon.