Shackling of Charger Offense No Accident : Giants, Shamed by Cowboys, Studied Fouts and Co. for Seven Months

The New York Giants’ outstanding defensive effort Sunday against the Chargers’ prolific offense resulted from seven months of intense preparation. The Giants spent countless hours studying film, interviewing personnel from San Diego’s AFC West rivals and plotting strategy. But it was not enough.

The well-coordinated cerebral effort might have meant little had it not been for the events that unfolded last Monday night in Dallas, where the Giant defense allowed 31 points in what veteran linebacker Harry Carson called an “embarrassing loss.”

How in the names of Sam Huff and Andy Robustelli could the Giants’ defense have played so poorly in such a big game? Complacency, that’s how.

After pounding San Diego, 20-7, several Giant players admitted that the defense had become cocky and overly concerned with individual performances. Losing to the Cowboys on national television certainly changed that.

“It was a humbling experience to look at films of a so-called good defense getting dominated the way we did,” linebacker Carl Banks said. “Dallas really hurt us. They hurt our pride.”

Humbled and inspired, the Giant defense did the same to Dan Fouts and Co. “Air Coryell,” which amassed 50 points the previous Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, never got off the ground. The Chargers committed seven turnovers, including five interceptions thrown by Fouts. It made the Giants’ maligned secondary look like a quartet of All-Pros.

Remarkably, Fouts--13 for 43, 224 yards--completed as many passes to the Giant defensive backs as he did to his own wide receivers. Safeties Kenny Hill and Terry Kinard each had two interceptions and rookie cornerback Mark Collins had one. Eight of Fouts’ 13 completions were to running backs Gary Anderson and Buford McGee.

And when was the last time that happened? Every San Diego offensive series in the second half ended with a turnover. Five interceptions and a fumble by Tim Spencer.

“Their defense played extremely well,” Fouts said, “but our offense never got on track.”

The Chargers were reluctant to lavish praise upon the Giant defensive effort, attributing the loss more to their own deficiencies. The Giants, however, relished their defensive showing. Holding the Chargers to seven points proved one point: How much a lesson in humility can affect your performance.

“Going into Dallas, everybody thought they were too big for their britches,” nose guard Jim Burt said. “We were reading the press clippings about how great our defense is. We were worried more about sacks and who was going to get them than we were about stopping the Cowboys. And it showed.”

Hill, a former Raider who knew the explosiveness of the Charger offense, said, “We played more humbly. You guys (reporters) have been saying how great we were and we started to think that way. (Today) we decided to play our usual, no-name defense.”

Any defense with the likes of Carson, Lawrence Taylor and Leonard Marshall hardly can be classified as no-name. Despite their prowess, the Giants approached the game with extreme caution.

“I had a lot of sleepless nights thinking about it,” Carson said.

Coach Bill Parcells and his staff started to prepare for the inevitable in February. They visited some of San Diego’s opponents, gathering data and hoping to solve the riddle of how to neutralize the complex Charger offense. What’s more, they devoted one day a week during training camp to the Chargers.

“We did an awful lot of preparation for this one,” Parcells said. “What you saw (today) was not three days’ work. We’ve been trying to learn about them since February. They have a tremendous volume of weapons and they rely on the quick strikes. We knew we had to stop that immediately.”

Ignoring the opinions of some observers, who said constant blitzing was the only way to stop Fouts, Parcells devised a zone defense in which the Giants mostly used two deep backs and five players in underneath coverage.

“What we did is the exact best way to play them,” he said.

Indeed, the coaching staff did not hesitate to warn its players of the possible result of another Dallas-like effort. “They said if we had a repeat performance,” Banks said, “the Chargers would triple the Cowboy score.”