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Recaps: Big plays lead to Giants win

The race for the NFC East got a little tighter Sunday, and for the Dallas Cowboys, it must feel like a noose around their necks.

Giants 31, Cowboys 24

The Cowboys continued what has become an annual trend of collapsing late in the season as they have not had a winning record in the month of December since 2001. And despite dominating early, holding the ball for 21 minutes in the first half, the December swoon seemed imminent as they went into halftime trailing the New York Giants by four.

New York was able to score quickly all day against the Cowboys and used their two biggest plays of the season to take a giant step back into the race for the division after they almost played themselves right out of contention by virtue of losing four of their last five before Sunday’s game against Dallas.

Both teams exchanged scores in the 3rd quarter, and the changed hands twice within 19 seconds. The Cowboys took the lead on a 5-yard TD pass from QB Tony Romo to WR Roy Williams, their second scoring connection of the day, but on New York’s first play of scrimmage after that TD, QB Eli Manning hit RB Brandon Jacobs with a short pass and he rumbled 74 yards for the touchdown to regain the lead on the Giants’ longest score of the season.

But that description was short-lived as WR Domenik Hixon trumped it in the 4th quarter by returning a punt 79 yards for a touchdown putting the Giants up by 14 at the time. It was New York’s first punt return for a touchdown in 74 games, and proved to be the winning score, allowing the Giants to sweep the season series from Dallas for the first time since 2004.

While Romo has faced much criticism for his play late in seasons, compiling a 5-9 record in games in December, he could not be held responsible for this loss. Romo had career highs in passing attempts, completions and yards, as he went 41-55 for 392 yards. Statistically speaking, the Cowboys’ aerial attack dominated as TE Jason Witten finished with a career-best 14 receptions for 154 yards, while WR Miles Austin added 104 yards on 10 catches and a TD, while Williams had 60 yards on six catches to go with his two TDs.

Manning finished with much more modest numbers, completing just 11 passes on 25 attempts, but finished with 241 yards, 110 of those to WR Steve Smith who had six catches. But the Giants outrushed Dallas 100-45, and used the big plays by Jacobs and Hixon to steal the win, and the cover, as the Cowboys were favored by one.

The loss drops the Cowboys into a tie for 1st place with Philadelphia for the division lead, as they get ready to host the red-hot San Diego Chargers next week. With the win, the Giants pull to within one game back and will host the Eagles next Sunday night in a huge division battle.

Chargers 30, Browns 23

Cleveland drew first blood, scoring a touchdown in the first quarter, but San Diego battered the Browns for the next 33 minutes, scoring 27 unanswered points, taking complete control of the game before letting the Browns sneak back into the game late in the fourth quarter.

While the Browns did manage to cut the lead to just seven points after a FG with 39 seconds left, the Chargers dominated the 3rd quarter to stake themselves to a 20-point lead and then simply outlasted the Browns. San Diego outgained Cleveland 208-10, including 164-0 in passing yards, and held the ball for all but three minutes in the quarter.

As usual, it was San Diego’s big three that led the charge. QB Philip Rivers had another understated, yet effective performance, going 18 for 25 for 373 yards, and two TDs, with TE Antonio Gates on the receiving end of eight catches for a career-best 167 yards. It was the fourth time this season that Rivers threw for more than 300 yards as he now sits with 21 TDs and only six INTs on the season. A case could easily be made for him in the race for MVP if it was not for the remarkable seasons that the holy trinity of quarterbacks — Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Brett Favre — are having.

Running back LaDainian Tomlinson had another career day. While his numbers were modest — 64 yards on 20 carries and one TD — Tomlinson became the fastest player in the history of the league to reach 150 TDs over a career, doing so in his 137th game. And as much as he likes finding the end zone, the more important achievement of the day for LT was that he passed Marshall Faulk and Jim Brown on the career rushing list, doing it in the same city that Brown called home. Tomlinson now sits in eighth place, and is just 418 yards behind Tony Dorsett for seventh all time.

The offensively-challenged Browns did a valiant job of getting back into the game and making it close, sneaking within the 12.5-point spread for the back door cover. They did so on the strength of the arm of QB Brady Quinn, who finished 25-45 for 271 yards and three TDs, two to RB Jerome Harrison.

The win was San Diego’s seventh straight, after starting the season 2-3, and kept them in first place ahead of Denver, who kept pace with their win over Kansas City. The Chargers will have their mettle tested as they travel to Dallas next Sunday and host Cincinnati in two weeks.

Seahawks 20, 49ers 17

Ater playing almost mistake-free football to beat Chicago last week, San Francisco shot themselves in the foot with a series of miscues throughout the game that came back to bite them in the end.

The 49ers failed to score from Seattle’s 1-yard line on third and fourth downs in the first quarter, and later turned the ball over twice on two fumbles, the second of which set up a FG in the fourth quarter that gave the Seahawks the lead. Although San Francisco managed to tie the game with just under three minutes left in the game, Seattle K Olindo Mare booted a 30-yard FG as time expired, to clinch the win for the Seahawks, giving them consecutive wins for the first time this season.

The loss wasted great games by TE Vernon Davis — 6 catches for 111 yards and one TD — and QB Alex Smith, who had his first 300-yard game in his career, finishing with 310 yards and two TDs on 27-45 passing. Davis’ TD was his 10th of the season, setting a franchise record for TDs in a season by a tight end. Surprisingly, RB Frank Gore only had 9 carries (and was held to 25 yards), despite having averaged 160 yards in his previous seven games against the Seahawks, including 202 yards against them earlier this season.

Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck broke out of his two-game slump, during which he had thrown zero TDs, and passed into the end zone twice, and finished with 198 yards on 25-34 passing.

With the three-point win, the Seahawks covered the 1-point spread, as they climbed to 5-7 on the year, with four of those five wins coming at home. Conversely, the loss drops San Francisco to 5-7, their fifth loss in six road games this year, all five of which have been by six points or less.