Former New York Giants RB Brandon Jacobs Says 1 Particular Win Over the Dallas Cowboys Was Better Than Winning the Super Bowl
He has no problem remembering the date. Former New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs puts one particular win in his NFL career ahead of any other. Jacobs said there was a victory over the Dallas Cowboys during his career that was even more satisfying than either of his two Super Bowl titles.
Brandon Jacobs was a bruising back who racked up two Super Bowl rings with the New York Giants
Jacobs wasn’t built like your typical running back. At 6-foot-4, 264 pounds, the former Giants’ fourth-round draft pick made defenders pay. He ran over them and through them to the tune of 60 rushing touchdowns in his nine-year NFL career.
Drafted with the 110th overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft, Jacobs proved to be a fourth-round steal. He rushed for better than 1,000 yards in his third and fourth years in the league. In 2008, he rushed for a career-high 1,089 yards and 15 touchdowns. The previous year, he racked up 1,009 rushing yards in 11 games, helping the Giants reach the Super Bowl.
There was nothing fancy about Jacobs. He was mostly power but had some speed for a player his size. In that 2008 season, he and Derrick Ward became the fifth NFL pair of teammates to each rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
Jacobs is the Giants’ all-time leader in rushing touchdowns with 60. He finished his Giants career with 5,087 yards. Tiki Barber rushed for 10,449 yards in his Giants career and is in second place with 55 rushing scores.
Brandon Jacobs said there was one victory sweeter than the Super Bowl wins
The 2007 season was magical for the Giants, although things looked grim from the get-go.
New York opened the season with consecutive losses to the Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers before rattling off six straight wins. Another loss to the Cowboys halted that streak. They finished 10-6 and in second place in the NFC East. The Giants earned a wild-card berth, defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-14.
Next up was a third meeting with the Cowboys, and the Giants escaped with a 21-17 victory before putting off the upset at Green Bay with a 23-20 win over the Packers in the NFC title game.
The Giants went on to stun the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42, spoiling New England’s bid for a perfect season.
That victory over the Cowboys, however, is the one Jacobs considers the most satisfying.
“January 13 2008 was the best win ever,” he posted on Twitter this week. “Felt better than winning the Super Bowl. Team kicked our ass twice during the season. They ended up being 13-3 but nothing was better than going into Texas Stadium and knocking the Cowboys out of the playoffs.”
Many Giants fans likely disagree with Jacobs
While beating the Cowboys and knocking them out of the playoffs is something Giants fans love to see, winning a Super Bowl while preventing a team from a perfect season has to outshine the Cowboys win, right?
That first Super Bowl victory over the Patriots might be the most talked-about championship win ever. So much was on the line. The Pats became the first team to go undefeated in a regular season since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978.
The Giants barely got in the playoffs. They had a shot at spoiling New England’s quest for a perfect regular season during the final week. They came up short, 38-35.
In the Super Bowl, David Tyree’s remarkable helmet catch kept a drive alive that helped the Giants pull off the stunner, 17-14.
The win over the Cowboys was big, no doubt. Without it, there’s no win over the Patriots. To call it the “best win ever,” might just show how much dislike Jacobs had for those Cowboys.
All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference.
