Tony Romo and Eli Manning faced off in a key NFC East showdown for first place in the division in what turned into a shootout. Manning led the Giants back from a 12 point deficit in the final 4:00 minutes for the victory.
Romo led the Cowboys down for a final opportunity for a game tying field goal with 0:06 left on the clock, but Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey, in a virtual repeat of last week’s game was forced to kick twice and had the second kick blocked by Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul. Pierre-Paul had started the scoring as well, by sacking Romo in the end zone in the first quarter to give the Giants’ their initial 2-0 lead.
Romo was 21 of 31 in the game, with 321 passing yards and 4 TDs to 4 different receivers. Laurent Robinson, Romo’s new favorite target, caught 4 balls for 137 yards and a TD, and the other three TDs were caught by Miles Austin, Dez Bryant and John Phillips. Felix Jones added 106 yards rushing as the Cowboys amassed 139 rushing yards as well, but in the end, it wasn’t quite enough.
Manning was equally impressive, completing 27 of 47 passes for 400 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT, and Brandon Jacobs added 101 yards rushing and 2 TDs.
The game see-sawed back and forth with 6 lead changes. The Cowboys took the lead into the half, and went up 20-15 on a 49-yard field goal by Bailey. The Giants came back on a 47-yard touchdown from Manning to Mario Manningham to take the lead 22-20 late in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter got completely out of control, as the Cowboys scored twice on a 6-yard TD pass to Miles Austin followed by a 50-yard TD pass to Dez Bryant to take what looked like a comfortable 34-22 lead with 5:52, but Manning wasn’t done yet.
He led the Giants back, hitting Jake Ballard on an 8-yard TD with 3:20 left, and then Brandon Jacobs scored with 0:51 left to put the Giants up 37-34 with 0:51 on the clock.
With no timeouts, Romo guided the Cowboys down to the 29-yard line for a shot at a 47-yard game tying field goal. Bailey hit the first attempt, but Tom Coughlin had called a timeout just before the snap, similar to the circumstances last week, where Jason Garrett called a timeout just before Bailey’s attempt and he missed the re-kick. This weekend, the second attempt was blocked by Pierre-Paul allowing the Giants to hold on for the victory.
The game moves the two teams into a tie at 7-6 a piece, with a rematch for the division title on January 1, when the two teams play again.
