Giants win, 41-35, after Romo fractures collarbone

ARLINGTON, Texas - The Giants gave the Cowboys a head start and then allowed them to catch up at the end, but in between the sloppiness of five turnovers and a special-teams touchdown allowed, the Giants showed that they are among the best teams in the NFL.

At least when they allow themselves to be.

"As I said to our team, tonight there were times when we were as good as there is in the NFL in both phases," coach Tom Coughlin said of the Giants' 41-35 win at Cowboys Stadium.

That was almost overshadowed by a late flurry of points by the Cowboys, who scored 15 points in the final 3:17 of the game. But the Giants recovered two onside-kick attempts by the Cowboys, one of them by an unlikely player, and held tight for a win that likely buried the Cowboys' hopes of playing in a Super Bowl they will host in February.

They also buried Tony Romo, sending him to the sideline early in the second quarter. In seven weeks, the Big Blue bullies have knocked five passers from games, but undoubtedly, none was sweeter or had more implications for the rest of the season than the crushing blow linebacker Michael Boley leveled on Romo.

Boley came blitzing in untouched early in the second quarter and landed on top of Romo, breaking the quarterback's left clavicle and essentially ending the Cowboys' season.

"The guard didn't see me, so I came scot-free," Boley said. "When he hit the ground, I heard him let out a little scream, so I knew something was up. After I got up and started running, I looked back and he was still down."

Without Romo, the Dallas offense could muster no life with backup Jon Kitna. Then again, even with Romo, they had to rely on the charity of the Giants to put points on the board. The Cowboys had 75 net offensive yards at halftime, much of them coming on plays of 17 and 14 yards. The 14-yarder was the completion Romo threw to Miles Austin just as Boley creamed him. Through three quarters, the Giants outgained the Cowboys 408 yards to 97.

The loss leaves Dallas Romo-less for the foreseeable future - certainly beyond the next meeting with the Giants in three weeks - and buried in the rubble of a 1-5 record. The Giants improved to 5-2 to take a commanding grip on the NFC East heading into their bye week.

Eli Manning threw for 306 yards and four touchdowns but was picked off three times. Hakeem Nicks had nine catches for 108 yards and two scores, giving him eight, and Ahmad Bradshaw gained 126 of the Giants' 200 rushing yards. Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs averaged 5.6 yards on 36 carries.

After falling behind 20-7 midway through the second quarter, the Giants ran off 31 straight points in their next five possessions to crush the Cowboys. The Giants outgained Dallas 497-254, had a 25-14 edge in first downs and held the ball for 37:31.

In addition to a 93-yard punt return for a touchdown that gave Dallas a 20-7 lead, rookie Dez Bryant scored two TDs in the final 3:17 on 15-yard passes from Kitna.

The final Bryant touchdown was followed by a second onside-kick attempt, a line drive that bounced off the foot of the Giants' Clint Sintim. The second-year linebacker was not even supposed to be on the field at that point. Gerris Wilkinson usually is on the "hands" team, but he broke a bone in his left hand and Sintim had to take his place on the fly.

"I was hoping it wasn't coming at me," Sintim said of lining up for the deciding play. "After it hit me, I just made a mad dash for it. Once it hit me, I was like, 'It's going to be my fault if they get it.' "

They didn't. Sintim managed to sprint to the live football as it bounced freely and dived on it, securing the ball and the win.

The Giants said during the week that they had no interest in putting the proverbial dagger in the Cowboys, finishing their season early - unprecedented before the Rangers' season ended in North Texas! - and squashing the dreams of Jerry Jones. Only one team in NFL history has recovered from 1-5 to make the playoffs.

"We're not worried about anything as far as putting a nail in the coffin or anything like that," Justin Tuck said last week. "We're just handling what we can handle."

The only bright spots for the Cowboys were the ones that the Giants gave them. Manning threw picks on the first two possessions that Dallas turned into a 10-0 lead before five minutes had elapsed. Both came off the hands of a Giants receiver.

The Giants made it 10-7 with a 79-yard drive featuring a tip-toe catch by Nicks along the sideline that needed a challenge by Coughlin to count, and a 7-yard TD pass to Nicks.

But the Giants kept giving. Jacobs fumbled at the Giants' 43, setting up a Cowboys field goal for a 13-7 lead. On the next possession, Matt Dodge boomed the best punt of his career, a 69-yarder, only to have Bryant elude a poor angle by Duke Calhoun and return it 93 yards for a 20-7 edge.

That was the last of the first-half freebies for the Cowboys. The Giants drove 80 yards, capped by an 8-yard touchdown pass to Nicks. After a three-and-out by Dallas, the Giants took the lead for good on a 14-yard pass from Manning to Steve Smith.

A Jason Witten fumble, forced by Barry Cofield and recovered by Deon Grant with 36 seconds left in the half, gave the Giants time to send out Lawrence Tynes for a 53-yard field goal and a 24-20 edge.

After that, it was all Giants for quite a while. Manning hit Mario Manningham for a 25-yard touchdown and Jacobs ran 30 yards for a score, both plays in which Cowboys defenders shied away from hits.

But Manning's third interception of the game allowed the Cowboys to mount their charge.

"Sometimes . . . if the word is smart, we don't play smart," Coughlin said of the turnovers. "You want it to finish perfect . . . Well, there's a little more to it than that."

Coughlin made no apologies for the victory, however. "Celebrate the wins," he said.

The players echoed that sentiment.

"We won, man," guard Chris Snee said. "If we can eliminate those turnovers and play with the rhythm, the confidence, the swagger that we had tonight, we will be a tough team to beat."