Giants defeat Cowboys, 21-17
By Michael Eisen, Giants.com

Take this story to go! -    RSS |  Podcast |  Mobile

Jan 13, 2008

IRVING, Texas - The road warriors are headed to the frozen tundra to play for a spot in Super Bowl XLII.

The Giants, with several heroes making huge plays, Sunday defeated the NFC's No. 1 seed, the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17, in a Divisional Playoff game in Texas Stadium. It was the ninth consecutive road victory for the Giants, an NFL single-season and overall franchise record. They avenged their only road defeat of the season, here on Sept. 9, not to mention the two losses they suffered to the Cowboys in the regular season.

The Giants will have a chance to gain another measure of revenge next Sunday, with considerably higher stakes on the line. The 12-6 Giants will travel to Green Bay to face the 14-3 Packers in the NFC Championship Game, the Giants' first since the 2000 season. The Packers defeated the Giants on Sept. 23, 35-13.

"This is one of the most gratifying wins that I have been a part of," said 12-year veteran Amani Toomer, who caught two touchdown passes. "We lost to this team twice this year, once down here and once at home. We all had a bad taste in our mouths from those games. To get an opportunity to come in here and play against a team that has already beaten us twice this season was great. When I was walking off the field the last time I was thinking to myself that I wish we had an opportunity to play them again. We got that chance and beat them when it counted. Next week we have an opportunity to play Green Bay again and I think we are a different team than last game. We had a lot of young guys last time we played them, and I feel that those guys have matured. They are not going to face the same team that they faced in week two, so we are ready to go up there and play them again. We have a lot of momentum and hopefully we can take it up to Green Bay."

"I'm speechless," linebacker Antonio Pierce said. "My heartbeat is normally between 48 and 52 and it's about 150 right now. We came into a situation where no one was giving us a chance. No one picked us, no one expected us to hold a team that has scored (76) points on us this season to 17 tonight. So we are heading to Green Bay, which no one picked as well. I couldn't think of anything better."

Brandon Jacobs' one-yard touchdown run with 13:29 remaining provided the Giants with the game-winning points. But the victory was not assured until R.W. McQuarters intercepted Tony Romo's pass for Terry Glenn in the end zone with nine seconds remaining. It was the game's only takeaway. But it was McQuarters' second game-clinching pick in as many games; last week, he secured the 24-14 Wild Card victory at Tampa Bay by intercepting Jeff Garcia with 1:53 left.

"Coach (Tom) Coughlin always says the most important play is the next play," McQuarters said. "These two games I had two picks to sort of end the game. I am grateful for that. If those are the two best plays of my career I will take that. This is my first time advancing to the NFC championship, so it just feels good."

The Giants' honor role has to include quarterback Eli Manning, who had a career-high 132.4 passer rating after completing 12 of 18 passes for 163 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

"It's just a great feeling," Manning said. "It was a great game and a team win. We have been doing it all season. We didn't make any mistakes on offense, not many if any penalties and their defense did a great job at the end. So did ours, holding their offense to 17 points hasn't been done many times this season. We just had a bunch of big plays throughout the game."

The Giants played with a severely depleted secondary. Sam Madison (stomach) and Kevin Dockery (hip flexor) were inactive. A third cornerback, Aaron Ross, left the game for good in the third quarter with a shoulder injury. That left Corey Webster, McQuarters and Geoffrey Pope - who spent the entire regular season on the practice squad before joining on the active roster on Dec. 31 - as the only healthy corners. All played extensively in the second half.

The secondary, aided by a relentless second-half pass rush, stayed strong throughout the game. The Cowboys scored on Romo's five-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Owens and Marion Barber's one-yard run in the second quarter and Nick Folk's 34-yard field goal in the third. Romo completed 18 of 36 passes for 201 yards and his 64.7 rating was less than half of Manning's.

But when the Cowboys took possession after a punt at the Giants' 48-yard line with 1:50 remaining, the Giants knew he could be the same dangerous quarterback who threw eight touchdown passes against them in the Cowboys' two regular season victories. And for a brief time he was. Romo slipped out of trouble and flipped a pass to Jason Witten that the Pro Bowl tight end turned into an 18-yard gain to the 22. After a false start penalty and a four-yard toss to Witten, the Cowboys faced second-and-11 at the 23. Two incomplete passes left them staring at a fourth down with the seasons of both teams hanging in the balance. Owens was double covered, so Romo threw to the center of the end zone for Terry Glenn. But McQuarters stepped up and picked off the pass.

"(I was thinking) catch it, catch it, get down, end the game, let's go home, and let's advance to the third round," McQuarters said. "Terry Glenn ran a little skinny post and he was just bending it across the field in the end zone. I knew they had to take a shot, it was fourth down. I thought they would probably want to go outside to T.O. because Terry Glenn hadn't really had the ball thrown to him but maybe like once or twice. Maybe that was the decoy that they wanted to run; put T.O. out wide and make us think that they were going to T.O. then try to get Terry Glenn across the middle. (Safety Gibril Wilson) was in a good position, I was in a good position, and I was able to get my head around and get my hands up in time."

Jacobs' short touchdown run gave the Giants a 21-17 lead with 13:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. It was Jacobs' third touchdown of the postseason.

The Giants' six-play, 37-yard drive was set up by McQuarters' 25-yard punt return. The series began with Manning's 13-yard pass to Toomer. After a pass to Kevin Boss fell incomplete in the end zone, a four-yard throw to Steve Smith set up a third-and-six as the third quarter ended.

When the teams switched sides, Manning fired an 11-yard pass to Smith, moving the ball to the Dallas nine. Ahmad Bradshaw ran eight yards through the right side before Jacobs bulled his way through the line for the touchdown.

Dallas took a 17-14 lead on Folk's 34-yard field goal with 6:53 remaining in the third quarter. As they had in the first half, the Cowboys held the ball for a big chunk of time, taking the second half kickoff and taking 8:07 off the clock while moving 62 yards in 13 plays.

The Cowboys converted their first two third downs on the series, extending their streak to eight in a row. The longest play on the drive was a 19-yard Romo pass up the right sideline to Glenn that moved the ball to the Giants' 27-yard line. Two plays later, Romo's 11-yard scramble brought the ball to the 14. Barber picked up three yards. After an incompletion and a false start penalty, Dallas faced a third-and-12. The Cowboys finally failed on a third down try when Romo's pass sailed behind Owens. Folk, the rookie Pro Bowler, then came on to kick the field goal.

The score was tied at halftime, 14-14, after the Giants successfully concluded what was arguably their most important drive of the season.

Manning's four-yard touchdown pass to Toomer knotted the score with just seven seconds remaining in the second quarter. The score capped an impressive seven-play, 76-yard drive that took only 46 seconds to complete after a Cowboys touchdown. Working out of a shotgun on first-and-goal, Manning scanned the field before firing a strike into the end zone for Toomer. Instead of going into the halftime locker room trailing by seven, the Giants were tied with a team that had held the ball for 10:39 in the second quarter.

"That was huge because we had relatively little time left, but we did have two time outs and we made some big plays down the stretch," Coach Tom Coughlin said. "We weren't worried about throwing the ball down the middle."

The series began on the Giants' 29-yard line. After an opening incompletion, Manning connected with rookie Smith for a 22-yard gain. He came right back to Smith for 11 more yards and the Giants advanced an additional 15 yards thanks to Jacques Reeves' facemask penalty, which put the ball at the Cowboys' 23-yard line. On third-and-10, threw to the right sideline for another rookie, Boss, who was knocked out of bounds at the four. On the next snap, Manning threw to Toomer for the touchdown.

"We were able to get the ball out of bounds to keep the time at a minimum there a couple times," Coughlin said. "But to drive it down and score with two big plays and two rookies making two big plays and then the touchdown to Amani - those points opened the gate. I don't know if we had three plays in the second quarter, but we were able to go ahead and score there and that sent us into the locker room with some momentum."

"It was big," Manning said of the drive. "They had all of the momentum with that long drive. Our defense was gassed. They were just out on the field for so long. We were on the sideline for ten minutes of game time. We didn't have a whole lot going our way and to get a touchdown on that drive was a big momentum builder for our team."

Barber's one-yard touchdown plunge had given the Cowboys a 14-7 lead with only 53 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Dallas held the ball for an interminable 10:28 while driving 90 yards on 20 plays. The Cowboys converted six third downs on the series, including the touchdown. But the Giants would have escaped danger had Webster not dropped an interception with 4:12 remaining.

The drive started with three Barber runs for 11 of his 101 first-half yards. The next time Dallas faced a third down, Barber ran for five more. Two plays later, Romo kept the drive alive with an 11-yard pass to Glenn on third-and-seven. It was Glenn's first catch of the season; he missed virtually the entire regular season while rehabbing a knee injury. Moments later, the Cowboys faced another third-and-seven. This time, Romo found Owens for an 11-yard gain and another first down.

On the next snap, Webster missed an opportunity to end the drive - and perhaps pick up substantial yardage himself - when he was unable to hold onto Romo's pass. Two plays later, on third-and-10, Romo threw to Owens for a 20-yard gain to the Giants' 17. Julius Jones' four-yard run and Witten's 11-yard reception put the ball at the two. Barber picked up a yard on second down and crossed the goal line on third down, a score that was upheld after a review by replay official Lloyd McPeters.

Owens' touchdown on the first play of the second quarter tied the score at 7-7. On second-and-goal from the five, Romo threw a fade pass to the right over Webster that Owens caught just before stepping out of bounds. Coughlin challenged the ruling, claiming Owens did not get both feet down inbounds. But after review, referee Peter Morelli upheld the call on the field.

The score capped a nine-play, 96-yard drive that featured 72 rushing yards by Barber, who started for the first time this season in place of Julius Jones. Barber's longest run in the series was a 36-yarder up the middle that put Dallas on the Giants' 44-yard line. After Romo's 13-yard pass to Patrick Crayton, Barber ran for 11 more yards. Tackle Marc Columbo was penalizes five yards for a false start, but Barber got back the yardage and more with a 20-yard scamper around left end. Barber lost a yard on the final play of the first quarter.

When play resumed, Romo threw to Owens for the touchdown.

The Giants led at the end of the first quarter, 7-0, thanks to Toomer's 52-yard touchdown reception, just 3:10 into the game. It was the longest postseason throw for Manning and the longest playoff catch of Toomer's career.

On first down from the Giants' 48-yard line, Toomer caught Manning's pass at the Cowboys' 42. He spun away from tackle attempts by linebacker Greg Ellis and cornerback Anthony Henry, then ran up the left sideline for the touchdown. It was the seventh time this season the Giants scored a first-possession touchdown - including all three games against Dallas.

The drive began with two Jacobs runs for 15 yards. Two plays later, Jacobs ran for five more. An offside penalty left the Giants a few inches shy of a first down, so Manning picked it up with a quarterback sneak. On the next play, he and Toomer hooked up for the touchdown.

Three hours later, the Giants were celebrating their big victory and the opportunity to play for the conference championship.

"I've never played in Green Bay," wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. "It's going to be a tough task for us to play in that stadium, especially with the weather. But we've got to go in and find a way to get it done."