The Game : Rutledge Lifts Giants Past Oilers

Former Ram quarterback Jeff Rutledge threw two touchdown passes as the New York Giants defeated the Houston Oilers, 21-20, Saturday before a record Hall of Fame Game crowd of 23,940, some 2,000 more than capacity.

The game was the National Football League’s 1985 exhibition opener.

Rutledge’s first touchdown pass came in the first quarter and went 18 yards to running back Joe Morris.

The Giants’ next touchdown was scored by a rookie halfback, George Adams of Kentucky, on a one-yard run. It gave the Giants a 14-6 lead at 7:59 of the third quarter.

A little more than two minutes later, Rutledge threw three yards to Mark Bavaro for a touchdown that gave the Giants a 21-6 lead.

Reserves played the rest of the game.

The weather was so balmy during the week that a Cleveland newspaper didn’t bother with a precise prediction Saturday morning. Its forecast was limited to one word: Gorgeous.

Which it was, but it wasn’t a good day for Giant quarterback Phil Simms, who cut a finger in the first quarter.

All-Everything linebacker Lawrence Taylor and his friends in the Giant defense probably won the game in the second quarter with a pulverizing goal-line stand, stopping Houston four times from the one-yard line.

The Oilers’ Mike Rozier, the transplant from the United States Football League, got off his best run on a fourth-quarter pass, making three Giants miss, to set up a last-minute touchdown that didn’t mean much.