Beuerlein Gets a Win for Buddy

Apparently it doesn’t make a difference who plays quarterback for the New York Giants. Someone is going to find a way to beat them.

Sunday, it was a quarterback whose rating was worse than recently benched Giant Dave Brown and a rookie wide receiver whom Buddy Ryan refers to as No. 80.

Steve Beuerlein delivered a floating nine-yard pass and Bryan Reeves made a superb catch at the back of the end zone with 1:39 to play as the Arizona Cardinals rallied to defeat the Giants, 10-9, to extend New York’s longest losing streak since 1980 to seven games.

The slide is the longest of Dan Reeves’ 14-year coaching career and it came in a game in which the Giants (3-7) squandered a 9-0 halftime lead and the Cardinals (4-6) rallied to win for the first time at Giants Stadium since 1983.

“They all hurt,” said Reeves, whose worst skid before this was six in a row with the Denver Broncos in 1990. “The longer it goes, the more it hurts.”

Reeves had hoped to jump-start the Giants by starting Kent Graham at quarterback instead of Brown, who had thrown 10 interceptions in the losing streak and had seen his rating dip to 65.5.

The strategy nearly worked.

“It feels good to win, but it’s hard to really enjoy it,” said Beuerlein, who was inconsistent but managed to complete 17 of 33 passes for 180 yards, with one interception. “We made it difficult. It should have been a lot easier. But it’s better to win ugly than lose pretty.”

Beuerlein’s 59.9 rating is second worst in the league.

Arizona, which limited the Giants to 56 second-half yards, drove 54 yards for the game-winning score, with Beuerlein completing four of seven passes for 53 yards.

On Reeves’ catch, it appeared that he may have previously stepped out of the end zone, but the officials said he was inbounds.