NFL Countdown: 1958 Championship Game goes down as the 'The Greatest Game Ever Played'

In 1958, the Baltimore Colts faced off against the New York Giants in the Championship game. The players weren't aware of it at the time, but they were about to become part of NFL folklore. In the pantheon of NFL history, this 1958 game was soon recognized and referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever Played."

Sixty years later, that status was officially confirmed during the celebration of the NFL's 100 year anniversary. This was decided after a nationwide poll of 66 media members voted on it. Many NFL historians believe it was this game that sparked the birth of the modern NFL.

The 1958 Baltimore Colts

The Baltimore Colts finished the regular season with a 9-3 record. This was only the second winning campaign in their short six-year existence. It was enough to win the Western Conference, though. They just edged out the Chicago Bears.

The Colts were led by their future Hall of Fame coach, Weeb Ewbank. Ewbanks would later steer the New York Jets to their famous, Namath-inspired victory in Super Bowl III. The 1958 Colts had a fearsome roster with HOF talent on both sides of the ball.

The Colts were expertly marshaled by their quarterback, Johnny Unitas, who threw 19 touchdowns against seven interceptions that season. The Colts based their game around a powerful run game. For their efforts, they racked up an average of 177.3 rushing yards per game, and scored an impressive 24 touchdowns.

All-Pro full-back Alan Ameche recorded nearly 800 rushing yards, along with eight touchdowns. He was supported by half-backs L.G. Dupre and Lenny Moore. Between them, they accumilated over 1,750 rushing yards.

The strength of the 1958 Baltimore team was their feared defense, which posted some elite numbers. They allowed only nine touchdown passes and grabbed a barely believable 35 interceptions. Safeties Andy Nelson and Ray Brown recorded eight interceptions each.

The 1958 New York Giants

The New York Giants also put together a 9-3 record during the regular season. They secured the Eastern Conference with a 10-0 victory over the Cleveland Browns. One of their regular-season wins came against the Colts at Yankee Stadium in what would be a foreshadowing of what was to come.

They were coached by Jim Howell, but fascinatingly boasted the greatest set of coordinators in NFL history. Vince Lombardi was the Giants' offensive coordinator. He was complemented on the other side of the ball by defensive coordinator Tom Landry.

Offensively, the 1958 Giants were a below-average team. Their offense was ranked ninth in the Eastern conference, out of only twelve teams. Somehow, Lombardi got enough out of 37-year-old quarterback Charlie Conerly to make it to the Championship game.

His job was made easier by Landry's incredible defense, which was the clear number one in the East. The Colts were the only team that could rival the Baltimore Colts, giving up less than sixteen points a game. The defensive standout was Jimmy Patton, who snared eleven interceptions that season. He would have a total of fifty-two in his Giants career.

The Greatest Game Ever

Needless to say, with the two best defenses in the country, it was that side of the ball that dominated the game in the first couple of quarters. Both teams seemed determined not to score. They committed a ridiculous six turnovers between them in the first half, along with a blocked field goal.

Pat Summerall finally gave the Giants the lead with a 36-yard field goal, but a couple of forced fumbles led to Colts touchdowns. Frank Gifford lost the ball in his own red zone to set up Alan Ameche for a two-yard score. After the Giants forced a fumble on a punt, setting them up on the Colts 10-yard line, Gifford would fumble again. Unitas marched the Colts 86 yards to give them a 14-3 half-time lead.

Early in the third quarter, some goalline heroics for the Giants kept them in the game as they stood Ameche up on the one-yard line. They followed this with a scintilating four-play, 95-yard drive, as Mel Triplett crashed over from a yard out.

Another long drive by Conerly, finished off with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Gifford, gave the Giants a 17-14 lead early in the final stanza. With two minutes to go and camped on their own 14-yard line, Unitas engineered a famous 73-yard drive to set up the tying field goal and send the game into the first overtime period in playoff history.

New York received the kick-off in the overtime period, only for the receiver to muff the kick on the Giants' 20-yard line, where they would subsequently go three-and-out and have to punt. Unitas would, once again, conjure up some magic on a 13-play, 80-yard drive, setting up Ameche for the game-winning score.

The 1958 Championship game was watched by a record TV audience of 45 million. It would catch the eye of Lamar Hunt, who would go on to launch the AFL in 1959. This sparked a growth in the NFL, which has endured to this day, and is directly linked to this match-up -- the greatest game ever played.