Had Bill Parcells been invited to the Quest Diagnostics Giants Training Center this week leading up to Sunday’s pivotal game in Seattle, he might have strutted into the offensive line room and asked, “Is this a meeting of Club 26?”
Because the Giants rushed for 26 yards on “Thursday Night Football” against the Cowboys.
This was before the Giants would meet the Joe Montana 49ers in the 1986 divisional round. A month earlier, even though the Giants had defeated the 49ers because Phil Simms threw for 388 yards, they had rushed for an embarrassing 13 yards.
So Bill Parcells, Hall of Fame motivator, strutted into the offensive line room and asked: “Is this a meeting of Club 13?”
Silence.
“The last time we played the 49ers, we got 13 yards rushing,” he said. “We could’ve run 13 quarterback sneaks and done better than that.”
The Giants, led by Joe Morris’ 159 yards and two touchdowns, turned into Club 216 in their 49-3 demolition of the 49ers.
“I loved the way that Bill coached. I responded to it,” former center Bart Oates told The Post. “I knew all along what he was doing was trying to get us to motivate to do the best that we can. … We had 13 yards, so we deserved it.”
Former offensive tackle Karl Nelson: “We knew what that was about. He was just trying to crank people up. Bill’s always messing with your head. And he’ll use anything he can to try to mess with your head. But the reason we were Club 13 was I don’t think he did a very good job of putting us in a position to run the ball.
“In my humble opinion, Parcells hated Bill Walsh. Hated him. He wanted to stick it to Bill Walsh and show him that, ‘Hey, I’m from Jersey, we’re tough, we’re badasses, we’re not this esoteric genius. I’m gonna show you what a genius I am, I’m gonna run the ball down your frickin’ throat.’
“What do you think Walsh was thinking? ‘I bet Bill Parcells wants to run the ball on me. What am I gonna do? I’ll stick nine guys on the line of scrimmage.’ We couldn’t run the frickin’ ball. Bill was so set in his mind that he wanted to run the ball that he wouldn’t call any pass plays.”
Until the second half, when Parcells turned Simms loose to unleash the passing game and convinced Walsh to change his strategy for the playoff game.
I relayed the Club 13 tale to left tackle Andrew Thomas.
“We definitely take pride in being able to run the ball,” Thomas told The Post, “and we didn’t do a good job of that last game, so I’m just trying to make sure we’re all on the same page with technique this game to be better this week.”
I relayed the Club 13 tale to left guard Jon Runyan Jr. No one is expecting a meeting of Club 26 next week.
“Everybody’s taking the blame for it, even the coaches,” Runyan told The Post. “Players, we could have executed better, coaches said that they think they could have called a better game as well.
“We’re gonna go forward with that, and try to just simplify things. I felt like going into that game we had a pretty broad game plan for just a short turnaround. We’re gonna get back to the kind of stuff that we like doing a lot more.”
The Giants are in next-man-up mode with WR Jalin Hyatt getting more of an opportunity with Malik Nabers still in concussion protocol and RB Tyrone Tracy prepared to step in for Devin Singletary (groin) if need be.
“Regardless of Malik playing or not, we want to be able to run the ball,” Thomas said.
The offensive line has given Daniel Jones better protection than he has ever enjoyed. But Club 26 is Club 26.
“We’ve been a confident group since the beginning,” Runyan said. “Results don’t faze us because we know that we prepare and we work hard throughout the week. We’ve got a good game plan in the run game. We’re doing stuff that we’re good at. And the defense is gonna have to do their best to stop us when it gets to that, and hopefully once we get the run game going, then the pass game opens up. We’re a confident group upfront, and we just gotta play like that.”
The offensive line craves a bullyball identity.
“We’re big, we’re strong, we run good schemes,” Runyan said, “and that’s what we’re trying to make as our identity. When we get double teams, we’re gonna try to wear you down.”
The decibel level from the 12s crowd at Lumen Field will test the offensive line communication.
“Practice today couldn’t really hear much,” Runyan said, “and we’re doing the best we can to simulate it. When it gets to those situations on third down, we got some stuff built in to help handle that crowd noise so there’s not too much communication, but we’ll be ready for it.”
It would behoove Jones and the offensive line to keep Geno Smith and his weapons on the sideline as much as possible.
“I think they’re motivated and ready to go,” Jones told The Post. “I think that’s all of us in getting on the same page and getting the run set up, and then it’s about executing from there. But yeah, I think they’re always ready to go.”
Then disband Club 26.