Manning threw for three touchdowns in his return to the scene of his Super Bowl MVP performance and the New York Giants beat Arizona 37-29 to snap the Cardinals’ seven-game home winning streak.
“It’s just a totally different feel, it’s just a different time,” Manning said. “You never really compared it to the last time we were here. We knew we’d have a tough contest with Arizona.”
Defensive end Justin Tuck, though, admitted to “a little deja vu.”
“Once you got back out here, you see the field and this stadium looking like a space ship, you start to think about that night and how it felt,” he said.
With starting running back Brandon Jacobs out with a knee injury, the Giants took to the air to win their sixth in a row. Manning completed 26 of 33 for 240 yards with no interceptions as the Giants moved to 10-1, tied for the best record in the NFL.
“He just continues to do whatever has to be done to win a game,” New York coach Tom Coughlin said.
Kurt Warner, under fierce pressure most of the afternoon, was 32-for-52 for 351 yards and a touchdown for Arizona (7-4). He was intercepted once and fumbled once, both leading to Giants touchdowns.
Besides the turnovers, the Cardinals allowed two long kickoff returns to set up scores.
“Whenever you can put our offense in that type of field position, it’s a great thing,” Tuck said, “especially with the weapons that we have.”
On the field where they upset New England in last season’s Super Bowl, the Giants (10-1) took the lead late in the first half and never relinquished it.
In the second half, Manning completed 16 of 18 for 156 yards and two scores.
Warner topped 300 yards for the fifth consecutive game, one shy of the NFL record he shares with Steve Young and Rich Gannon. Warner’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin cut the lead to 34-26 with 4:02 to play. The Cardinals’ subsequent onside kick bounced off the hands and chest of Arizona’s Ralph Brown and was recovered by Chase Blackburn for New York.
John Carney’s third field goal, from 33 yards, put the Giants ahead 37-26 with 1:55 remaining.
Neil Rackers’ third field goal, a 44-yarder, cut it to 37-29 with 32 seconds left, but New York’s Steve Smith recovered the onside kick.
