during this period quarterback charlie conerly emerged. conerly was the team's starting quarterback from 1948 to 1960, and had a franchise-record string of 12 consecutive seasons in which he led the team in passing. a former us marine, conerly was renowned among his teammates for his toughness. "there was a time my rookie year when i really saw it", recalled running back frank gifford. "he broke his nose really badly, they literally called a timeout and then they called another one while they stopped the bleeding, they stuck stuff up there until it would stop bleeding. you try to get them to do that today. they'd be yelling, 'get my agent!'". in 1951, the giants finished 9–2–1, but their inability to beat division rival cleveland cost them an opportunity to play in the championship game. fullback eddie price led the league in rushing and set a league record for rushing attempts in a season, and defensive linemen arnie weinmeister and al derogatis, linebacker jon baker, and offensive tackle tex coulter all made the all-pro team. the following year new york fell to 7–5, but tunnell continued to impress. "tunnell returned interceptions, punts, and kickoffs with such electric flair that he actually outgained the league rushing leader in yards gained" according to one publication. tunnell amassed 924 yards, while never lining up on offense, whereas the league rushing leader totalled 894. the giants offense struggled in 1953, and they fell to a 3–9 record. gifford was forced to play both ways due to a depleted roster, and in the second to last game of the season they lost 62–14 to division rival cleveland.