1st Quarter: Neither team scored, but the defensive tone of this game was set. San Fran went 3 and out on their first possession. Tiki Barber gained 20 yards for the G-men on their first play from scrimmage, but they went 3 and out on their next set and had to punt as well. SF followed that w/a 3 and out of their own, which NY did the same. Nobody seemed to be moving the ball. San Fran finally got in it gear and got a first down on a 4 yard gain by Fred Beasley. On the next play Tai Streets pushed off and San Fran was looking at a 1st and 20 from their own 29. Jeff Garcia rolled out and hit Terrell Owens on the 39. T.O. dodged a tackler and took the ball 26 more yards before getting pushed out of bounds by Jason Sehorn. Two plays later Garcia hit Tight End Eric Johnson for 21 yards, but offsetting penalties nullified the play. On 3rd and 8 Garcia hit Beasley on a check down for 18 yards and a new set of downs. Looking at 3rd and 1 from the Giant six Garrison Hearst got the call, but the G-men had 8 in the box and stuffed the play to bring on 4th and 1. Coach Mikhli made a gutsy call to go for it and his QB, Garcia rewarded him with 2 yards and a first and goal from the 4. Two incomplete passes and a Hearst run that was stuffed led to San Fran settling for a 21 yard Jose Cortez FG. The score was 3-0 San Fran with 13:39 left in the 2nd.2nd Quarter: San Fran's KR coverage was poor as Omar
Stoutmire twisted in and out for 42 yards after receiving the ball on his own 2. Tiki ran off tackle for 3 and the '9ers were looking for him to do the same on 2nd down, but Kerry Collins flipped a play action pass to fullback Greg Comella for 14 yards and a 1st down on the '9ers 39 yard line. San Fran decided to blitz and Collins made them pay by hitting Barber for 21 yards on a medium out. The G-men could not advance the ball any further and had to settle for a Brad Daluiso 34 yarder to knot it at 3 apiece. The Giants kick coverage was no better than the '9ers, who were set to start on their own 39. Garcia flipped a 9 yard hitch to Hearst and on 2nd and 1 went deep to Kevan Barlow for 28 more yards. Mike Barrow sacked Garcia to make it 3rd and 16 for the '9ers on the Giants 30. No gain on 3rd down led to a 45 yard Cortez FG attempt, which his pushed wide to the right. 3 plays later Collins was picked off by Lance Schulters at NY's 44, but the turnover did not stand thaks to pass interference. SF got their turnover back on the next play when Tiki fumbled after a nominal 3 yard gain. The ground looked to have caused the fumble, but the replay was inconclusive. The Giants expected San Fran to go for it all, so they double covered T.O. Garcia threw into the coverage and T.O. wrestled the ball away from Dave Thomas for a 25 yard gain down to NY's 22. Garcia hit J.J. Stokes for 17 more to the Giants 5. The Giants D held and forced a 3rd and goal from the 9, but it all came crashing down when Ramos McDonald was flagged in the end zone for Pass Interference on T.O. The G-men stuffed Hearst on 1st and goal from the 1, when Pete Monty submarined him at the 1 foot line. Michael Strahan shed his blocker and stuffed Terry Jackson on the 2nd down hand off to make it 3rd and goal from the 3. Finally the '9ers were able to break the plane when Garrison Hearst knifed in from the 3. The score was 10-3 SF at the half.
3rd Quarter: New York started the 2nd half on their own 31. A 9 and a 3 yard run by Ron Dayne netted a quick first down at the Giant 42. Dayne got the ball a 3rd consecutive time and Andre Carter punched it out of the "Big Dog's" hands. Julian Peterson fell on it and the '9ers had the ball on NY's 42. 3 plays later Garcia hit Tai Streets who was knocked out on the Giant 5 by Reggie Stephens. The Giant D dug in and stuffed the '9ers, who could not advance the ball and had to settle for a Cortez chip shot to make it 13-3 with 10:14 left in the 3rd. On the ensuing kick off Stoutmire had one tackler to beat and couldn't do it, but the G-men did have excellent field position on their 37. A false start made it 1st and 15, but a nice square out to Ike Hilliard for 18 yards gave them a 1st down at mid field. San Fran was looking run and the Giants countered with a quick 12 yard hitch to Joe Jurevicius on SF's 38. Back up TE Dan Campbell caught one for 8 yards on the 30 to make it 2nd and 2. Barber got the 1st on the next play with a 2 yard run. San Fran expected pass and doubled Toomer. Collins called Barber's number and hit him in the flat for 4 yards. Barber shook a tackler and added 28 yards to his tally, which took the ball down to SF's 1. On the next play the '9ers loaded up for the run and Collins hit Ike Hilliard in the end zone for the score. With 6:56 left to go in the 3rd the score was now SF 13 - 10. Neither team could move the ball for the rest of the quarter. Brad Maynard hit a booming 72 yard punt from his own 27 to pin the '9ers on their own 1 yard line.4th Quarter: SF was forced to punt and Jason Barker hit a monster punt of his own for 62
yards and the G-men took over on their own 37. On 3rd and 1 the NY gave the ball to Dayne who was stuffed by Bryant Young for a 3 yard loss, but Young managed to twist Dayne's facemask around and a 15 yd penalty would reward NY with a 1st down on SF's 39. Two plays later Collins hit Amani Toomer for 17 yards after jason Webster tripped him up on SF's 18. Collins caught another one for 8 yards three plays later, but he wound up 2 yards short of a 1st down and NY settled for a game tying 27 yard FG by Daluiso, which was right through the middle. After a nice run back by Vinny Sutherland the '9ers were rewarded with good field position on their 37. Kevan Barlow busted through for 6 yards, but in an effort to fight for extra yardage he was stripped of the ball by Kevin Lewis. Jack Golden recovered for NY on SF's 43. 2 plays later Collins hit Ike Hilliard for 16 yards on SF's 27. New York could only advance the ball 5 more yards before they were faced with a 4th and 7 from SF's 22. Brad Daluiso was called on for a 39 yard FG attempt to give his team their first lead of the game. He hooked the ball to the left and never gave it a chance. SF took over possession on their own 29 with 7 minutes to go. Neither team threatened to score, so we headed to OT.
Overtime: NY won the toss and elected to receive. Stoutmire picked the ball up on his own 8 and was brought down 24 yards later to give the G-men the ball on their own 32. Collins faded back to pass and looked off his primary target (Toomer) and threw an ill advised wounded duck into double coverage that Rashad Holman easily picked off. San Fran was in business with the ball on NY's 27. T.O. caught a dump pass for 11 yards to bring it down to the Giant 16. A 5 yard penalty pushed it back to SF's 21. Going conservative the '9ers dumped it off to Owens for 2 yards and Cortez came on for a 36 yard FG attempt that he nailed for the game winner. San Fran nipped New York 16-13 in OT in this defensive classic.
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