NY Giants Schedule: Top-10 season openers of all-time

1. September 21, 1969 – NY Giants 24, Minnesota Vikings 23

After going 7-7 in three of the previous four seasons, the NY Giants were smack in the middle of a mediocre and underwhelming stretch in their franchise history.

The Minnesota Vikings were a relatively new team, not even a decade old, and coming off their first ever playoff appearance. They were led by their defensive front four of Carl Eller, Alan Page, Jim Marshall and Gary Larsen —also known as the Purple People Eaters.

Big Blue had its work cut out for them and after 47 and 48-yard touchdown strikes by Minnesota in the second quarter, the 17-3 deficit wasn’t helping the cause.

A long touchdown strike by QB Fran Tarkenton cut into the lead and made the halftime score 17-10. After both defenses tightened up in the second half, two field goals by Minnesota made the score 23-10 in the fourth quarter.

Shockingly, Fran Tarkenton, playing against his former and future team, threw back-to-back touchdowns to wideout Don Herrmann with under five minutes left in the game to stun the Vikings 24-23 at Yankee Stadium.

Tarkenton put together a game that would make fantasy football owners happy by today’s standards – going 19-34 for 224 yards and three touchdowns.

The extremely close game was just as close on the stat sheet as well. Minnesota racked up 327 total offensive yards while New York put up 320. Each team had 13 first downs, 2 turnovers, and 3 sacks as well.

While the Giants would finish 6-8, the Vikings would go on to win the NFL Championship before ultimately losing in Super Bowl IV to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Overall, considering the time period the franchise was in, who the Giants were playing, and the type of comeback that was orchestrated so late in the game, this is the best season opener in franchise history – to date.