Week 1: at Dallas Cowboys The Giants had their first test in the opening week
Monday Night Football game against the defending Eastern Division champion
Dallas Cowboys. Playing in front of 59,804 fans at
Texas Stadium, the Giants lost the opener, 31–28. The teams played fairly evenly statistically; the Giants totalled 416 yards to the Cowboys' 392. Highlights of the game included Cowboys
running back Herschel Walker, in his first NFL game, rushing 10 times for 64 yards and the game-winning touchdown, and fellow running back
Tony Dorsett scoring on a 36-yard
screen pass on the game's opening drive. The Giants led the Chargers 10–7 after three-quarters before scoring 10 in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach. After the game Fouts complimented the Giants defense, "There was no comparing the Giants' defense with the Dolphins' defense (the Chargers scored 50 points and totalled 500 yards against the Dolphins in week one). We never got anything established against the Giants. Momma said there would be days like this, and she was right." Joe Morris rushed for 110 yards on 18 carries—the first time in 19 games someone had rushed for 100 yards against the Raiders—and the Giants' defense held the Raiders to three
field goals. Raiders' quarterback
Jim Plunkett completed 21 of 41 passes for 281 yards, and Phil Simms threw touchdown passes of 18 and 11 yards to
wide receiver Lionel Manuel. They came back from a 17–0 second-quarter deficit, by scoring 20 points in the final three-quarters.
Week 5: at St. Louis Cardinals The Giants faced the
St. Louis Cardinals in St. Louis in their fifth game of the season. The Giants offense struggled, with Morris leading the team with a meager 53 rushing yards and quarterback
Phil Simms completing only 8 of 20 passes for 104 yards.
Week 6: vs. Philadelphia Eagles In week six, the Giants hosted the Eagles at the Meadowlands. Linebacker
Harry Carson scored his first career touchdown by catching a pass on a fake field goal in the third quarter, and the Giants defense sacked Eagles' quarterbacks
Ron Jaworski and
Randall Cunningham three times each. and Lawrence Taylor had four sacks and seven tackles. The sack total was Taylor's highest single game total since the 1984 season. Seahawks defensive end
Jacob Green outplayed
offensive tackle Karl Nelson and recorded a career-high four sacks.
Week 8: vs. Washington Redskins The Giants improved to 6-2 and moved into a tie with Washington for the division lead after defeating them on the same night the
New York Mets won the
1986 World Series at
Shea Stadium. Fans attending the football game brought portable televisions and spent much of the time reacting to the baseball game, leading to a Redskins false start in one instance. With the teams tied 20–20, Joe Morris scored the game-winning touchdown on a 13-yard run with 98 seconds remaining. The Giants used
Mark Bavaro and Zeke Mowatt throughout much of the game, sometimes even lining them up on the same side.
Week 9: vs. Dallas Cowboys The Giants played the Cowboys at Giants Stadium in week nine. Defensive end
George Martin recorded a late sack, termed by head coach Bill Parcells as the biggest play of the game, to help the Giants to a 17–14 victory. Phil Simms struggled and completed only 6 of 18 passes for 67 yards, In a physical game marked by several scuffles, the Giants passing game struggled as several receivers played with injuries, and quarterback Phil Simms completed only one pass to a wide receiver; a 17-yarder to
Solomon Miller. The Giants won 17–14 nonetheless despite Simms completing only 14 of 36 passes overall. The Giants rode their running attack as Joe Morris passed the 100 yard mark for the fourth consecutive game; Morris totalled 116, 181, 181 and 111 yards in that period. Simms commented years later, "[i]t's my favorite game in my career, because it's everything I always wanted to be as a player. I wanted to be tough, making big throws, immune to pressure, not worried about outcomes. It was truly like standing on the tee box in golf and there's trees on each side and water and you just go 'Man, I'm gonna rip it down the middle.' And no other thought crosses your mind." The game has frequently been credited as a signature game of their season, and the Giants players celebrated the victory in the tunnel leading to their locker room and in the locker room itself in a raucous manner that was highly atypical for the team. "They high-fived themselves silly", recalled
Peter King. "They were screaming and hooting and raising hell—happier than they had been all year." Then in the final two minutes of the game, Simms hit fan–favorite
Phil McConkey for a 46-yard pass. In the win, Simms threw for nearly 400 yards and wide receiver
Stacy Robinson made an acrobatic catch at the goalline to set up the winning touchdown.
Week 14: at Washington Redskins The Giants defeated the Redskins 24–14 in week 14 to move into sole possession of first place in the NFC East. The Redskins held Joe Morris, who had rushed for 181 yards in the Giants week eight victory, to 62 yards on 22 carries. Schroeder threw six interceptions in the game, matching
Sammy Baugh's franchise record, After the game, Parcells gave the Redskins credit for their performance and told the reporters that he had a feeling that the two would meet again sometime in the playoffs.
Week 15: vs. St. Louis Cardinals The Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 27–7 in their fifteenth game of the season in front of 75,261 fans at Giants Stadium. Joe Morris ran for 179 yards and three touchdowns, but had three fumbles. The Giants defense controlled the Cardinals throughout the game, particularly in the first half; the Cardinals' first four possessions ended in third-down sacks and fourth-down punts. Sparked by a blocked punt returned for a TD by Tom Flynn, who had recently been picked up from the Packers, the Giants defeated the Packers 55–24 in front of 71,351 fans at Giants Stadium to finish the regular season with a franchise record 14 victories. The win was the Giants' ninth consecutive, matching the team record set in 1962. The Giants also set a franchise record for points in the first quarter of a game with 21. Although the Packers cut the score to 24–17 at halftime, the Giants scored 31-second half points to put the game out of reach.
Standings == Playoffs ==