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It is once again time for us to take a look back at the history between the Minnesota Vikings and their upcoming opponent. This week, it’s the New York Giants, who the Vikings will take on at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The history between these two teams goes back a significant amount of time, as they first matched up against each other back in 1964. They were also involved in trading Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton. . .twice. . .with the Vikings even getting what wound up being a #1 overall pick from the Giants in exchange. (They turned that pick into another Hall of Famer, offensive tackle Ron Yary.) The Vikings have the head-to-head edge in the regular season matchups between these two teams, and that’s going to be our focus here.
As always, the numbers in this post are brought to you by the good folks from Pro Football Reference.
Total regular season games between the Vikings and Giants: 25
All-time series: Vikings, 15-10
Total Vikings points scored, head-to-head: 602 (24.1 points/game)
Total Giants points scored, head-to-head: 459 (18.4 points/game)
Longest Vikings winning streak vs Giants: 4 games, 13 November 2005 to 3 January 2010
Longest Giants winning streak vs Vikings: 3 games, twice, most recently from 10 November 2002 to 31 October 2004
Most recent Vikings road win in series: 25 November 2007 (final score 41-17)
Most recent Giants home win in series: 21 October 2013 (final score 23-7)
Biggest Vikings road win in series: 24 points, 25 November 2007 (final score 41-17)
Biggest Giants home win in series: 16 points, 21 October 2013 (final score 23-7)
Current streak: Vikings, 2 wins
The last time these two teams got together, it was in prime time at U.S. Bank Stadium for Monday Night Football in 2016. The Vikings were in the midst of their season-starting five-game winning streak, and got off to an early lead against the Giants with a first quarter touchdown from Matt Asiata and a scoring pass from Sam Bradford to Kyle Rudolph in the second quarter. The Giants eventually got as close as 17-10, but a 4-yard touchdown by Jerick McKinnon provided the final margin as the Vikings took the contest by a final score of 24-10.
The last time the Vikings and Giants got together in New York was also for Monday Night Football. It was memorable. . .for the wrong reasons.
Yes, that was the infamous Josh Freeman game. Freeman, who had been with the team for a couple of weeks, was given the start by Leslie Frazier and, for some reason, allowed to throw the football 53 times. He completed 20 of them. That’s bad. The Vikings actually had a lead after the first quarter, thanks to an 86-yard punt return by Marcus Sherels, but those would be the Vikings’ only points of the night. The Giants steadily pulled away, and took a 23-7 victory.
Yes, it’s been 12 years since the Vikings last won in New York. Of course, the only time they’ve played in New York in that 12-year stretch was the Monday Night game we just talked about. Their last trip prior to that came on 25 November 2007, and the Vikings thumped the Giants in a big way. The Vikings’ defense harassed Eli Manning into four interceptions, three of which were returned for touchdowns. . .one by some guy that’s in prison right now, one by Dwight Smith, and one by Chad Greenway en route to a huge 41-17 victory at the Meadowlands.
That’s a quick look back at the history between the Giants and the Vikings, folks. Hopefully the Vikings can extend their historical advantage just a little further on Sunday afternoon.