The Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants have battled on the Gridiron 183 times in the regular season with five additional meetings in the postseason. The storied rivalry dates back to the creation of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1933 and ranks inside the top 10 of all-time meetings between NFL football franchises.
Philadelphia is 90-86-2 against New York in the regular season to lead the all-time series. The Birds are 3-2 against Big Blue in the postseason all but one of those matchups coming after Y2K. If you don’t know what Y2K is, take a second and look it up… it was a fun time.
With almost 200 games in the football series, it wouldn’t be much fun to read all of that now, would it? Let’s take a look at the first fistful of decades between 1933 and 1999. We will cover the remaining timeframe between 2000 and 2023 in a follow-up piece before Philadelphia battles New York in the final game of the regular season in January 2025.
Rough opening 20 Games vs. New York
Earlier this week, we detailed the Eagles’ 56-0 loss to the New York Giants in their first NFL football game. Unfortunately, the tilt was a harbinger of things to come as Philadelphia struggled to beat New York for a decade between 1933 and 1942. During that time, Philly went 3-17 against New York only earning wins in 1934, 1936, and 1938. Even those wins made Eagles fans hold their breath in close one-score ball games.
The only season the teams haven’t officially battled for football bragging rights was when the Philadelphia/Pittsburgh Steagles split a pair of games against the New York Giants in October 1943. Otherwise, the Philadelphia – New York rivalry gets renewed twice a season in NFC East Competition.
Steve Van Buren brings wins to Philly
When the Eagles returned from their Transformers form in 1944, the Birds selected running back Steve Van Buren as the fifth overall pick in the NFL draft in the NFL draft. The all-time NFL great helped to shift the tide of the series towards Philadelphia as the Eagles were 9-2-1 over Van Buren’s first five NFL seasons.
The October 19, 1948 game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia remains one of the most unbalanced wins in Philadelphia Eagles history with a 45-0 win over the Giants and started an unbelievable run to the Eagles’ first NFL championship. Philly forced a handful of turnovers while allowing only 125 offensive yards in the game. Philadelphia finished the rest of the 1948 season with a 9-1 record, including a 7-0 home win unde over the Chicago Cardinals in the 1948 title game.
New York would get a small bit of revenge against running back Steve Van Buren by handing the Eagles four consecutive losses in the last two seasons of the Hall-of-Famer’s career between 1950 and 1951. Once the legendary halfback departed following the 1951 season, the Eagles struggled to beat New York once again with a 6-10 record between 1952 and 1959.
1960 Championship success short-lived vs. New York
The 1960 Eagles dominated the competition, including the New York Giants, en route to the NFL Championship over the Vince Lombardi-coached Green Bay Packers. Before reaching the title game, the Eagles were 5-2 and stuck in a grueling matchup with the 4-1-1 Giants. With the Eagles leading 17-10 in the fourth quarter, Legendary Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik laid “The Hit” on New York’s Frank Gifford causing a fumble and securing a huge victory over New York at Yankee Stadium. The following week in Philadelphia, the Eagles erased a 17-point first-quarter deficit with a 17-point scoring outburst in the second frame that led to a 31-23 win at Franklin Field.
The winning vibes against New York would be short-lived after the 1960 Title season. Philly lost the next six straight to the Giants between 1961 and 1963. Philadelphia and New York alternated season sweeps for the next few years with the Eagles winning in 1964 and 1966.
Our look back at Eagles-Giants history brings us to a rarity in the 1967 season where Philadelphia and New York battled only once during the season due to the AFL-NFL merger. Philly dropped the 1967 battle 44-7 in New York. The scheduling oddity occurred again in 1969 with the Eagles coming out victorious, 23-20, in the lone meeting in New York. The two teams have battled at least twice a season since the AFL-NFL merger was finalized in 1970.
The Eagles enjoyed the disco era against the Giants
Philadelphia finally enjoyed a consistent upper hand against New York beginning in 1973. The Eagles went 12-1-1 over their next 14 games against New York through the end of the 1970s. One of the most unexplainable plays in Eagles history occurred during this run of Eagles supremacy in a 19-17 Birds win at Giants Stadium on November 19, 1978. Instead of taking a knee and ending the game, New York handed the ball to Larry Csonka who fumbled the pigskin away to Herm Edwards for a 26-yard game-winning touchdown in the original “Miracle at the Meadowlands”. That play was ranked Number 23 on the “NFL 100 Greatest” list ranking the greatest plays in league history.
Eagles-Giants First Playoff Fight in 1981
The inaugural NFL postseason matchup in the Philadelphia-New York Giants football rivalry occurred during the 1981 NFC Wild Card at Veterans Stadium on December 27, 1981. In typical Philadelphia playoff fashion, New York jumped out to a 17-0 first-quarter advantage, including an Eagles fumble in their end zone for a Giants score. Down 21 points at halftime, Ron Jaworski’s squad could only manage two second-half touchdowns in a tough-to-swallow 27-21 home playoff loss to the Giants. Jaworski would struggle against the Giants for the rest of his career with a 2-7 record from 1977 until he retired in 1986.
After three straight seasons of getting swept between 1985 and 1987, Philadelphia got to bust out the brooms by sweeping the season series in 1988 and 1989 to end the Hair Metal era on a high note. Between 1991 and 1998, the Eagles and Giants alternated four-game win streaks with each season winning the season series for those two years. In 1999, the Birds were unable to continue the alternating pattern following a tight 16-15 road loss to New York. Overall, the Eagles lost their final six games to New York to end the 1990s with a very sour experience against Big Blue.
Unfortunately, our trip through history ends here before the spiciest part of the Philadelphia – New York rivalry. In January, we will cover the almost 50 NFL games between the Eagles and Giants, including four postseason clashes that sent one team home much earlier than expected.
Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire
