The win spurred the Giants (9-7) to the postseason for the first time since the end of the 2008 campaign. Big Blue’s defense was led by the return of defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who missed the previous four games with ankle and knee maladies. Umenyiora finished with a game-high two sacks. He was not to be outdone as the Giants pass rush as a whole was manic. Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck, Chris Canty and Jacquian Williams each added a sack. Linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka recovered a fumble, while safety Antrel Rolle had an interception to neutralize the usually-potent Cowboys’ attack.   

Giants head coach Tom Coughlin was proud of the way his team responded to the must-win nature of the game, particularly the defense.     

“They did an exceptional job. This was a good team and a good offensive team with lots of skilled players. That was an outstanding game and effort by us,” said Coughlin, who then specifically noted Umenyiora. “Here’s a guy who wasn’t around much, but I was very pleased with how he practiced this week and how he played tonight.”      

The Cowboys didn’t do quarterback Tony Romo any favors, as their struggles in the passing game were a direct result of their benign rushing game. Big Blue only needed its front four to handle the running lanes, which allowed the other seven defenders to stymie the passing game. Felix Jones led all Cowboys rushers with a meager 30 yards on 11 carries. 

Coughlin added he’s seen his defense refocus and pay more attention to details these past couple of weeks and was pleased to see the Cowboys’ offense more one dimensional.      

“It has been really great to see the way the defense has played the last couple of weeks and that has given everyone a boost and some confidence,” said Coughlin. “The defense played well and gave us a chance to play Giants football.”      

Giants’ football lately has been an offense that racks up yardage and scores in bunches. The Giants tallied 437 total yards, 66 total plays that averaged 6.6 yards per play and a 47 percent third-down conversion rate.   

Record-setting quarterback Eli Manning led the way, as he went 24-of-33 for 346 yards and three touchdowns. He also led two scoring drives over 80 yards, including a 96-yard drive that culminated with a Victor Cruz 74-yard touchdown catch and run. Cruz, the burgeoning star and second-alternate for the Pro Bowl, had a big day against the Cowboys. He posted six catches for 178 yards and a touchdown. The 74-yarder was the longest passing play against the Cowboys’ defense all year, with the previous long being a 64-yard strike from Manning to Hakeem Nicks in the Dec. 11 game.    

Manning said the perseverance of his team was what really struck him, especially when the Cowboys began to stage a comeback from their 21-0 halftime deficit.   

“I knew we were going to fight and keep playing until the very end. We’ve been pretty good about handling ups and downs,” Manning said. “We stuck together, no one panicked and we made plays. … We barely had many mistakes, especially the fourth quarter. We were able to play big in the fourth quarter and seal the win.”   

Manning’s near-flawless play, and his ability to be brilliant when the Giants needed him most, didn’t go unnoticed by Coughlin.    

“He had a very solid game, actually an exceptional job. Eli came through big time,” said Coughlin.

Manning set a couple of marks in the game, including a single-season franchise mark of 4,933 passing yards.     

As great as Manning was though, it was Cruz who bailed out his signal caller a couple of times, including a play on the Giants’ second-to-last drive that resulted in an insurance field goal. The drive featured a Cruz 44-yard reception on third-and-two to keep the series alive when Cruz twisted and turned to find an under-thrown ball. He beat Orlando Scandrick on the play as both guys initially appeared to lose track of the ball. Two plays later Cruz snared a 20-yarder to eventually set up Lawrence Tynes’s 28-yarder at the 5:45 mark of the fourth quarter. The Giants tacked on a late touchdown following that series, but it was that field goal — and Cruz’s heroics — that ultimately doomed the Cowboys (8-8).   

“He keeps doing it,” Coughlin said of Cruz. “He keeps me doing cartwheels on the sidelines. The plays he made at the end of the game were outstanding. He just comes down with the ball. Heck of a game, heck of a season for the kid.”    

This was the Giants’ largest margin of victory and a nice way to begin a playoff drive that begins with a Wild Card matchup next Sunday at 1 p.m. against the Falcons. No matter how limp the Giants appeared to be heading down the stretch, Coughlin said that’s better than the alternative.   

“Breaks? Don’t give me any breaks [because] we’ve earned everything we got this season,” Coughlin said when asked about the way things bounced Big Blue’s way tonight.   

He then added he’ll enjoy this game only for tonight because there’s such a quick turnaround to next week’s playoffs.     

“This is not a time for reflection. It’s a time to look forward. Now we get ready for the Atlanta Falcons next Sunday at 1 o’clock,” Coughlin said. “This is rewarding [because] we wanted to win the division to have the most direct route to the playoffs.”     
     
Big Blue notes

» Manning set the NFL record for most fourth-quarter touchdown passes (15) in a season. The previous mark was shared by two Colts legends, brother Peyton and Hall of Famer John Unitas. Manning finished up the finest regular season of his career as he threw for 4,933 yards with a 29-to-16 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Last year he accounted for a league-high 30 turnovers, including a league-high 25 interceptions.  

» Another winter and another end of season loss where Dallas quarterback Tony Romo heads into the off-season fueling his doubters. The polarizing Romo (29-of-37 for 289 yards, two touchdowns, an interception and sacked six times) was largely outplayed by his counterpart Manning and never seemed to get in a groove. Banged-up right hand or not, Romo will have to answer why he couldn’t match the performance of Manning, who also entered this game with something to prove.  

» Pro Bowl-bound Jason Pierre-Paul tallied another sack, this on Dallas’ second series, as he finished the season with a career-best 16.5 sacks. The man affectionately known as JPP said this is the start of something even bigger: “That was nothing. Next week is going to be even bigger. … We’re in the playoffs!”

Follow Giants beat writer Tony Williams on Twitter @TBone8.

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There were plenty of heart-thumping, gut-wrenching and spine-tingling moments from the Jets on Sunday night in their dramatic 27-24 comeback win over Dallas. Even the most optimistic of Jets fans, if there is such a thing after more than four decades of ineptitude and losing, had to be displeased with their team for 55 minutes of their performance against Dallas. Sloppy play, blown assignments on defense, big gains conceded and next to nothing from the ground game marked a performance that seemed destined for an 0-1 start.

No one would have been surprised if the Jets had lost this game. It would have been just another footnote in a sometimes humiliating team history.

Then, out of nowhere, the Jets showed the kind of character and backbone that makes Super Bowl teams — the kind of moxie that can lead to wins in January and, hopefully, February.

“It wasn’t pretty, but that’s the beauty of the NFL, it doesn’t always have to be pretty,” safety Jim Leonhard told Metro. “Of course, we’d like it prettier, we’d like it a bit easier and prettier and there’s things to work on, but we got the win and sometimes that’s good enough.”

The comeback may be good enough to kick start a season built on lofty expectations the Jets have placed on their own shoulders. Head coach Rex Ryan has made it a habit to guarantee that his team has the stuff of championships running through their collective veins. But the effect has trickled down into the locker room when even the low-key LaDainian Tomlinson says that anything less than a Super Bowl this year “would be a disappointment.”

And in a game like Sunday night, where the Jets were down by two touchdowns with 14:50 left in the fourth quarter, the confident swagger of their coach displayed itself in the comeback win.

First, there was Plaxico Burress finally making a mark on the game with a 26-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to cut the Dallas lead to 24-17. Then as Dallas looked certain to score on the following possession, the Jets defense stood tall on the goal line, stripping quarterback Tony Romo of the ball. They followed that with a big special teams play as little-used Joe McKnight blocked a Mat McBriar punt and Isaiah Trufant, who was on the practice squad just two days ago, picked up the bouncing ball and took it to the end zone.

A team forever tagged as “The Same Old Jets” would have found a way to lose this one. Instead, Ryan’s team responded, with Darrelle Revis reading a Romo pass destined for Dez Bryant and returning it 20 yards to the Dallas 34-yard line with just 59 seconds left. Four plays later, Nick Folk kicked the game-winning field from 50 yards — a clutch moment for a player plagued with inconsistencies last year.

“What really started to surface is the character of the team,” nose tackle Sione Pouha said. “The fact that this team can prevail really mirrors the character of this team.”

It was a game they shouldn’t have won.

The vaunted Jets secondary conceded 342 yards and two passing touchdowns, including six receptions for 110 yards to tight end Jason Whitten and 90 yards and 71 yards to wide receivers Miles Austin and Bryant respectively. Advertising themselves as still an offense predicated on the rushing game, the Jets “Ground and Pound” was far from sound, with the running back tandem of Shonn Greene and Tomlinson managing just 42 yards on 15 carries.

There was nothing on paper that pointed to a Jets win, but what beats in the heart of this team can’t be summed up by a scorecard or a game summary.

“We really respond to Rex, we really do. He guarantees wins, he guarantees championships,” right guard Brandon Moore said. “But we believe it when he says it, and we want to back it up. We’ve done this before, we know how to come back in games like this.”

Moore of course is referencing last year’s midseason miracle run in Weeks 9 through 11, when New York had last gasp wins in Detroit, Cleveland and then at home against the Texans.

Coming into Sunday night, the Cowboys as a franchise were 240-0-1 when leading by two touchdowns or more in the fourth quarter. The Jets point to their backbone when they state that Dallas is now 240-1-1.

“It was a dogfight. We told our team whoever plays the longest, the hardest, wins this game,” Ryan said. “This may be the best team effort I can remember, that I’ve been a part of.”

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer for Jets coverage all season long.

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A special teams game-changing moment and a defensive play by the team’s biggest star sparked the Jets after what was generally a lethargic display on both sides of the ball. A Darrelle Revis interception and 20-yard return with 59 seconds left in the fourth quarter set up Folk’s game-winning field goal.

With Dallas holding a 24-17 lead and the Jets looking likely to start the season 0-1, second-year running back Joe McKnight squirmed through the Cowboys’ line to get his hand on a Mat McBriar punt. Isaiah Trufant, who was on the Jets practice squad on Friday before being signed to the 53-man roster on Saturday afternoon, picked up the ball and raced into the end zone to tie the game.

From the game’s opening go, it looked like a long night for the home team.

The Cowboys lassoed the Jets early, taking a lead off the opening drive as quarterback Tony Romo picked apart the highly-touted Jets secondary. Sprinkling in a little ground game via running back Felix Jones, it was Romo going 5-for-6 for 61 yards, highlighted by the Cowboys quarterback hitting wide receiver Dez Bryant on a simple out pattern that the wide receiver turned into a 42-yard gain. Fittingly, six plays later, Romo threaded a tight ball to Bryant in the corner of the end zone for a three-yard touchdown to give the Cowboys a 7-0 lead and take the volume out of the MetLife Stadium crowd.

Cornerback Antonio Cromartie was so ineffective in his coverage on Bryant— conceding the big gain on that opening drive and getting manhandled on the touchdown pass — that Darrelle Revis was switched to Bryant for the next Cowboys possession. Bryant did manage a 26-yard reception on that next drive, but after that was held relatively quiet by Revis.

The Jets offense had no answers as they started sluggishly — being held to three-and-outs on three of their five possessions in the first half. But it took a Dan Bailey 34-yard field goal to give the Cowboys a 10-0 with 3:19 left in the second quarter to finally awaken the Jets from their slumber.

It was two-minute offense time for the Jets as Sanchez marched New York down the field, utilizing short passes and lots of sideline routes to keep the chains moving and effectively stopping the clock. Sanchez showed precision he hadn’t previously in the first half, going 87 yards in nine plays while using just 2:39 of the clock. The Jets finally broke out of their doldrums when Sanchez hit tight end Dustin Keller on a simple run-and-stop for a four-yard touchdown pass to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 10-7 before halftime.

Any Jets momentum was wiped away by the Cowboys offense on their first possession of the third quarter.

After another Jets three-and-out, the Cowboys took over on their own 27-yard line and began a drive that would showcase a little run, a reverse and plenty of short passes before again targeting Cromartie for a big play. On second-and-10, Romo had time in the pocket to find Miles Austin running along the sideline, engaged in single coverage on Cromartie. Heaving a high pass, Austin and Cromartie both came down with Romo’s ball in the end zone, but it was the Cowboys wide receiver who wrestled away possession and a 17-7 lead for the visitors.

A Nick Folk 34-yard field goal in the third quarter made it a 17-10 game. The Jets seemed to build some momentum after that, forcing the Cowboys to punt and getting the ball back on their own 10-yard line. On the first play of the possession, Sanchez found Plaxico Burress over the middle for an 18-yard grab, the wide receiver’s first catch in a Jets uniform. On the next play, however, it all fell apart.

Locking in on Dustin Keller, Sanchez was intercepted by Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee, who returned the ball 37 yards to the Jets one-yard line. Two plays later, Felix Jones took the ball wide left to rumble into the end zone untouched in the early moments of the fourth quarter and giving Dallas what looked like a safe 24-10 lead.

A Plaxico Burress 27-yard touchdown reception with 11:56 left in the fourth quarter made it a 24-17 advantage for the Cowboys as the Jets once again thrived in their high-tempo, two-minute offense. The Cowboys looked likely to respond on their next drive to ice the game as a Jason Whitten 64-yard reception got the ball down to the Jets four-yard line. But after a Jones run produced just one yard and Romo missed Austin in the end zone, defensive end Mike DeVito stripped Romo on a quarterback keeper, giving the Jets the chance they needed for their fourth quarter comeback.

Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.

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1. Blitz Happy Jets

This is a match-up that the Jets’ defensive front is absolutely salivating over. The Jets were eighth best in the league last year in sacks and against a Dallas offensive line which features three new starters, it could be a long day for Tony Romo.

“When you’re starting a new offensive line, no matter who you play, there are going to be some adjustments,” head coach Rex Ryan said. “But when you play a defense like ours that has been together, that does multiple things, there’s probably easier defenses to face than ours.”

With Mike DeVito and Sione Pouha returning as starters to the defensive line and first-round pick Muhammad Wilkerson impressive at end, this unit could become a strength of the team and could get off to a great start Sunday night.

2. Spreading the Ball Around

Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan called the Jets offense “an all-star squad” and for good reason as there is All-Pro talent all over the field. But the big question mark is at wide receiver, especially after the Jets jettisoned the reliable Jerricho Cotchery and Braylon Edwards to sign Plaxico Burress and Derrick Mason. Quarterback Mark Sanchez, who completed just 55 percent of his passes last season, understands that there are weapons at his disposal.

“You get playmakers like that, just get them the ball and be accurate with it,” Sanchez said. “Give them a chance to catch and run.”

But can the Jets keep everyone happy? Cotchery asked for his release this August because he wasn’t happy being the team’s third receiver and wanted to get more of the ball, so Sanchez must spread the passes around to keep this talented bunch smiling.

3. Playing for New York

Everything about the season opener will be heightened this time. Not only is this a chance to begin strong amidst Super Bowl expectations, the game will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. With Ground Zero just miles away from MetLife Stadium, the game means a lot for the New York area and the pre-game ceremonies marking the attack will only underscore that.

“I think it’ll definitely be emotional, to me and everybody that is there and probably people that are watching around the country. I would assume it’s going to be emotional for everybody,” Ryan said. “But in particular with this region, this area, when you talk about 2,753 people perishing in New York alone, I think it’s going to be very emotional for a lot of people.”

Expect the Jets to come out with lots of fire as they play for New York but they must watch against too much emotion.

Follow Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer for Jets news all season long.

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When the Jets signed former Dallas safety
Andrew Sendejo to their practice squad, the Cowboys coaching staff was forced to make major
adjustments to their game plan. The bit of gamesmanship from the Jets has become somewhat commonplace for New York. It’s certainly affording head coach Rex Ryan and the coaching staff the chance to pick Sendejo’s brain. While Ryan says that the Jets didn’t bring the player in just to pick his brain — “he has a lot of traits we like” — it is enough to switch things up in Dallas.

And for Rob Ryan, the twin brother of Rex Ryan, it means going back to the drawing board.

“He ended up switching a lot of that stuff up, so I thought that was pretty interesting when I was watching the defensive side of the ball here this week,” Dallas quarterback Tony Romo said. “I’ve never seen that before, so I think there is a little cat-and-mouse game there, for sure.”

Whatever the scheme is, one thing is certain — the Cowboys will come out flying against the Jets. This will be the Cowboys’ defense first regular-season game under their new coordinator, who overachieved the past two seasons in making the Browns’ defense respectable despite inferior talent.

“He’ll bring a lot of corner pressures, he’ll do a lot of stuff [that he learned] under [Bill] Belichick’s tutelage,” Rex Ryan said.

In Week 10 of last season the Jets defeated Cleveland 26-20 in overtime, but found some difficulties, particularly on the ground. The Jets’ featured backfield — Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson — averaged just 3.39 yards per carry and had one touchdown.

But as worried as the Jets might be about the Dallas defense and the new wrinkles they may now face, the Cowboys have their own concerns on defense.

“They’ve got a whole all-star squad over there. You can’t understate the challenge,” Rob Ryan said. “It’s obviously a huge one and we’re looking forward to it.”

As for Sendejo, well, the Jets stand by the fact that they feel they’ve brought in a player who can contribute right away. Last year, Sendejo was signed to the practice squad in Dallas on Nov. 24 and was on the active roster five days later.

“He’s a smart kid, not just as a safety, but we’re looking at him more as a special teams contributor than he would be as a safety,” Ryan said. “But we think he has that kind of ability, but we’re excited to see him and we’ll probably play him this week on special teams.”

Follow beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer for Jets news the moment it happens all season long.

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