Live from New York, it's Sunday Night!

On October 27, 1991, the Redskins traveled to East Rutherford, N.J., for a Sunday night game against the defending Super Bowl champion Giants. Washington had rolled to a 7-0 record, while New York, at 4-3, was hoping to keep its NFC East hopes alive.

All of eight years old, I was thrilled to have had a legitimate reason to stay up past my bedtime on a school night; I had a job to to. As an unofficial Redskins beat reporter, I wrote recaps the day after every game that season, finding time in between learning long division and the state capitals in my third grade class.

Here's the recap from that game, reproduced in its original form, which is written in cursive, on wide-ruled notebook paper, stapled between two sheets of red and yellow construction paper:

The Skins kicked off to Mikeelh Johnson. He returned it to the 16. Jeff Hostetler handed off to Rodney Hampton. He ran for five yards. The Giants kept on handing off to Hampton who put them in field goal range. The Giants led 3-0. The Redskins were stuffed on there first drive.

The Giants drove 80 yards to the 9 of Washington but were forced to kick a field goal to make the score 6-0 at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter the Redskins started from there own 20 yard line. Mark Rypien threw 2 straight complete passes for 18 yards. But pretty soon it was 3rd down and 10. Then he tried to throw a 54 yard pass to Gary Clark but it slipped threw his hands. the score was 13-0 Giants at the end of the first half. In the second half it was all Washington. The Giants kicked of to Brian Mitchell who returned 11 yards to the 23 of Washington. Then Ricky Ervins checked in for Earnest Byner. The Skins were inside the 40 of New York when Mark Rypien threw a 38 yard touchdown pass to make the score 13-7.

The Redskins scored another touchdown on there next drive to make the score 14-13. The final score was 17-13 Redskins.

OF NOTE: Sixteen years later, 3rd down and 10 still seems to arrive "pretty soon"...The Redskins haven't always been a first-half team...I obviously fell asleep shortly after Washington cut the deficit to 13-7...Ricky Ervins was a beast...I could've used an editor.

Here's Frank Litsky's account of the same game in the New York Times.

Basically the same story, no?