National Football League

Giants win 3rd straight, Lions road woes continue

Published Oct. 19, 2010 1:11 a.m. ET

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The New York Giants are riding their longest winning streak since early last year, and actually playing as well as they did a year ago.

They have been good some games, and found a way to win in others. That combination led to five straight wins.

In extending the error-prone Detroit Lions' NFL-record-tying road losing streak to 24 games Sunday and posting their third straight win, the Giants were just good enough in a 28-20 decision.

Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes, Brandon Jacobs ran for two more and safeties Deon Grant and Antrel Rolle made big plays in the final five minutes to help the Giants (4-2) avoid a trap game before next Monday night's contest in Dallas against the rival Cowboys.

''A win is a win,'' offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie said. ''They won't all be pretty, they won't all be the exact way that you like to plan them out. You come away with the win, you take something from it, and build upon it. You build on it, take as much positivity as you can, and build on it.''

The positive for the offense was the running game (167 yards), and lack of turnovers. While the defense gave up some big plays, it got two big ones when it counted.

Grant forced and recovered a fumble by Lions receiver Nate Burleson at the Giants 42 with about 5 minutes to go and New York ahead by four points.

Ahmad Bradshaw, who finished with 133 yards rushing, ran for 45 yards on the first play, setting up Jacobs' second touchdown run, a 6-yarder. He scored from 4 yards out in the first half.

Rolle iced the game in the closing seconds by intercepting Drew Stanton's heave at the Giants 16.

''It feels good,'' Rolle said. ''The guys were out there having fun, and when the guys are tired, we have other guys picking each other up. It's exactly what I expected coming into the Giants' system, I can say we are honestly playing as a team and that's the biggest momentum that we have going for us right now.''

Manning's TD passes covered 33 yards to Mario Manningham and 1 yard to Travis Beckum.

But the difference was that the Giants made fewer mistakes than the Lions, who had three turnovers and 11 penalties for 91 yards, including two that kept New York touchdown drives alive.

''This game resembled our first four when we started 0-4,'' Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. ''Till the end, we were a play away. There were some really good things but there were things that caused us to be on the wrong side of the score.''

Stanton, who took over after starter Shaun Hill broke his left arm late in the first half, had an 87-yard scoring pass to Calvin Johnson in the fourth quarter and moved Detroit to the Giants 38 in the closing seconds before Rolle continued the Lions' road futility.

Detroit has not on the road since Oct. 28, 2007, and this latest setback allowed them to tie their own league record for consecutive road losses (24), set in the 2001-03 seasons.

''To be honest, we don't care about streaks and records,'' said Burleson, who caught a 14-yard TD pass from Hill. ''As soon as we get a victory on the road, it's going to be forgotten. We're just trying to win games. It wasn't motivating us coming in the door. We came to New York to win. We played well at certain points in the game but we didn't do our job.''

The Lions' big mistakes were the penalties. With the game tied at 7, rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was called for hands to the face on a second-and-20 at the New York 19. The first down allowed the Giants to continue what turned into an 11-play, 93-yard drive with Jacobs scoring the go-ahead touchdown from 4 yards out with 3:14 left in the half.

Jason Hanson closed the gap to 14-10 with the first of his two 50-yard field goals. The Lions squandered a chance to take the lead early in the third quarter when an illegal formation nullified a 28-yard Stanton to Burleson pass to the New York 5.

Stanton was sacked on the next play by Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck recovered at the Giants 43.

Seven plays later, Manning hit Beckum on the 1-yard TD pass on third down.

The drive was kept alive when defensive end Cliff Avril took a swing at Giants tackle Kareem McKenzie after Manning missed Hakeem Nicks on a fade pattern in the corner of the end zone.

Given a first down at the 1, the Giants eventually got into the end zone for a 21-10 lead.

''Everybody has to evaluate themselves and the mistakes they made,'' Burleson said. ''Now that we have a bye week, you have to take that week to evaluate yourself as a player and figure out what you can do better.''

The long touchdown pass to Johnson got Detroit in position again and they were driving for a go-ahead score when Burleson fumbled, Grant recovered and New York took advantage again.

''I thought it was out and then I heard their bench yelling, so I knew,'' Grant said.

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