The Miracle at the Meadowlands occurred at the end of a game between the
New York Giants and the visiting
Philadelphia Eagles, which was the first meeting between the divisional rivals in the
1978 season. The Eagles were in third place in the
NFC East, behind the
Dallas Cowboys and
Washington Redskins; the Giants were in fourth. The teams went into the game in similar situations, but heading in different directions. Both had playoff hopes, especially since this was the first 16-game NFL season, but likely would have to settle for a
wild card berth due to the solid lead the powerful Cowboys had in the division. Given the similarity of their records it was likely the outcome would have playoff implications, since the first tie-breaker for a wild card spot is the head-to-head record.
Giants Going into the game, the Giants were 5–6. A three-game losing streak on the road had made the team's playoff prospects much dimmer since midseason. However, a win at home against the favored Eagles could, the team hoped, reverse the trend and keep an outside shot at a playoff spot alive. Despite the team's
storied past, the Giants had not played in the postseason since 1963 and had managed only two winning seasons since then. Although they were the league's fourth oldest franchise, they were, up to that point in time, almost a non-entity in the post-
merger National Football League (NFL). Their move to
New Jersey in 1976 had alienated some longtime fans, even if it made more seats available. Most living Giants fans had never gone this long without a contender, but despite this, they were still forgiving. However, there was little pressure the fans could bring to bear on the people who could ultimately make changes, longtime team owners
Wellington Mara and the heirs of his brother
Jack. Notably, while Wellington's nephew
Timothy J. Mara had legally inherited only a one-sixth stake in the Giants along with his mother and sister after Jack Mara's death in 1965, in practice the latter two women took no part in the team's day-to-day affairs and allowed Timothy to speak for their interests as well as his own. This effectively made Timothy an equal partner in the same way his father had been. Wellington and Timothy managed team operations closely but feuded so bitterly with each other that at one point a partition had to be erected between their seats in the owners' box. Nevertheless, while the owners bitterly disagreed on personnel matters in principle, they both generally endeavored to keep payroll costs as low as possible, not only in terms of player salaries but also when it came to coaching and scouting. In the post-merger era prior to the introduction of
free agency, Giants players had limited
bargaining power, so it was arguably the owners' reluctance to commit the resources other teams already were to non-playing personnel that was of greater long-term detriment to the team's on-field performance. The effects of the Maras' parsimony, combined with the uncertainty and instability at the highest managerial level, affected the team's play, most significantly when it came to some apparently inexplicable personnel decisions. It was not lost on fans that players (including
Craig Morton and
Fran Tarkenton) and coaches (including
Tom Landry and
Vince Lombardi) who had once been in the Giants' fold were now enjoying, or had enjoyed, great success elsewhere. The team also had passed over future stars for lesser, or ultimately failed, players in the annual
draft, or worse, traded away high draft picks who became stars. The most egregious instance of the latter was when the Giants traded their first round selection in the 1975 draft to the Cowboys for Morton. The Giants' 2-12
1974 season handed Dallas the No. 2 overall pick, which the Cowboys used to select future
Hall of Fame defensive tackle
Randy White from
Maryland. Morton was dealt to the Broncos in 1977 and promptly led the Broncos to
Super Bowl XII. The Giants played in the largest metropolitan area in the United States, and there was still far greater demand for tickets than there were available even in the face of competition from the
AFC's
New York Jets. Despite the Jets' upset win in
Super Bowl III and that team still playing at
Shea Stadium in
Queens, the Giants were still widely regarded as New York's pre-eminent football team. Moreover, the
Dallas Cowboys and
Washington Redskins had dominated the NFC East in the years following the merger. For most of the 1970s, only the division winners and one wild card team per conference made the playoffs, and until the introduction of the wild card round in 1978 there was no possibility of a wild card team hosting a playoff game. Furthermore, NFL playoff television revenues were shared equally regardless of which teams were playing. Thus, the most meaningful prospect of financial return available to the Maras in return for a winning team would have been the revenue from home playoff games, which until 1978 would have required the Giants to (at the very least) win the NFC East title. From a purely financial perspective, the expenditure required to overcome the Cowboys' dominance appeared to be, at best, a reckless and needless gamble. The Maras therefore apparently felt little or no financial incentive to spend more money in an effort to build a championship contender. As things stood, minimizing expenses seemed to ensure the franchise would remain highly profitable no matter how poorly the team performed on the field, whereas spending more money offered no obvious guarantee of additional financial return even if it made the team more competitive. Due to the Giants' continued success at the box office, the Maras eventually came to be viewed as complacent and miserly owners by observers who were unaware of the full extent of the ownership schism.
Friction between offensive players and assistant coaches The week before the game, Giants players, particularly on
offense, had complained to reporters about the team's assistant coaches. Head coach
John McVay was popular with the players; he had taken the role in the middle of the 1976 season after
Bill Arnsparger was fired, and improved morale while adding talented players to the team. However, the players were not so enthusiastic about many of the longtime friends he had hired as assistants. The players felt the assistant coaches were uninterested in helping younger players develop, at least compared to their counterparts on other teams. As an example, they pointed out that the season before, while none of the team's three quarterbacks had had any previous NFL experience, no quarterback coach had been hired. They also noted that one of the few coaches who seemed to care about this situation, Jerry Wampfler, coached the
offensive line, one of the Giants' most improved units that season.
Offensive coordinator Bob Gibson was the most frequent target of complaints: he had taken to the relatively nascent practice (now almost universal) of calling all the plays from the upstairs press box, to the point of
Joe Pisarcik openly challenging Gibson over the previous two seasons. The players felt that Gibson should let Pisarcik call plays; during the previous week's loss to Washington, the Giants had attempted only three passes on several third-and-long situations during the game. Players also felt insulted that on a third-and-7 in
overtime, the coaches had called a
run play. Gibson, for his part, had limited confidence in Pisarcik's passing ability, an opinion widely shared (the local media in
New York City referred to him as "
off-Broadway Joe," a
sarcastic reference to former Jets quarterback
"Broadway Joe" Namath), with Gibson and other coaches responding to this criticism by pointing out the three passing attempts the players referred to had resulted in two
interceptions and a
sack for an 11-yard loss. The team's general philosophy at the time was to concentrate on its improving
defense and playing conservatively on offense until it could be made more competitive. Players on the offense became frustrated over this decision and wanted more chances to prove themselves.
Eagles At 6–5, things looked a little more promising for the Eagles. The two-game win streak they took into the game had gotten them over a .500 first half. Momentum clearly was on their side, and the Giants had not beaten the Eagles since the opening game of the
1975 season, three years prior. Still, the Giants were a decent team, and the Eagles knew they could not relax. They, too, were an old-line NFL franchise coming off
many years in the doldrums. The Eagles had not been to the playoffs since winning their third NFL title in
1960 and had only notched two winning seasons in the seventeen years since then, with the last coming in
1966. However, Eagles fans were less inclined to be forgiving than Giants fans. The impatience of Eagles fans was certainly not helped by the success of their cross-state rival
Pittsburgh Steelers, who after decades of being also-rans in the pre-merger NFL had become perennial Super Bowl contenders, winning championships in 1974 and 1975, after moving to the
American Football Conference (AFC). Additionally, Philadelphia's other professional teams, the
Phillies (
MLB),
76ers (
NBA) and
Flyers (
NHL), were among the best teams in their respective leagues. A loss to the slumping Giants would have dealt a severe blow to the confidence the team needed to maintain over the last quarter of its schedule, in which it would face not only the Cowboys, but the equally formidable
Minnesota Vikings as well as the Giants again in
Philadelphia. 1978 was also viewed as an important season for head coach
Dick Vermeil, as there was little doubt the Eagles were playing much better under his watch, but there was also a great deal of local impatience for concrete results. ==The game==