The New York Giants were able to pull a victory on Sunday against the winless Miami Dolphins, but from watching the game, you’d think the Giants didn’t even care about the game. If it wasn’t for Eli Manning, the New York headlines would read something much different had the Dolphins gotten their first win in MetLife Stadium.

Manning’s 25-yard touchdown throw to Victor Cruz with just under six minutes left in the game helped the Giants to escape with a victory, and move to two games ahead of the Cowboys and Eagles in the NFC East, moving the team to 5-2.

“The pressure was there just to get the win,” Giants guard Chris Snee said. “No one was concerned about ‘Oh, we’re going to lose to a winless team, or we were going to lose.’ We thought we were still going to win the game and that’s just the confidence we have, and that stems from Eli.”

Manning was the lone bright spot. He ran 31 of 45 for 345 yards and two touchdowns, bringing the Giants back from 11 points down in the first half. With every passing week, he’s starting to show the leadership many thought was missing, as well as the ability to put the team on his shoulders when they aren’t there mentally. Four of the five wins the Giants have had this season have come in the fourth quarter.

“We knew coming in it would be a tough battle,” Manning said. “A lot of games have come to the fourth quarter, and we knew it would be a tough road. They did a lot of good things defensively, ran a lot of different blitzes. We didn’t run the ball real well today, and we had to throw the ball more than we wanted to. But we’re capable of doing that.”

This loss is just another notch on what is going to be coach Tony Sparano’s last season as the Dolphins head coach. It follows last week’s disastrous game when the Dolphins blew a 15-point lead and lost in overtime to Tim Tebow and the Broncos

“We went toe to toe with them, swung hard. We didn’t win. It’s not acceptable,” Sparano said. Matt Moore played a semi-decent game, going 13 of 22 for 138 yards and one interception. He also had five carries for 31 yards and a touchdown on the ground. However, he was sacked on the final two drives four times, and his one pick sealed the game for the Giants.

Steve Slaton and Moore scored on one yard runs to finish the Dolphins first two drives. After that, they were only able to get a field goal from Dan Carpenter as the Giants defense stepped things up in the second half.

Reggie Bush had his best game as a Dolphin. He rushed 103 yards on 15 carries, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Dolphins from giving away another game, and continuing the league-long winless streak.

The Dolphins head to Kansas City next week to square off with the surging Chiefs who are on the hunt for the AFC West. This is a game the Dolphins have a chance to win and finally get that first victory of the season. However, they will have to show up for the full four quarters and not just the first three.

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With their backs to the wall in the midst of a three game tailspin, the Jets needed a win in “the worst way” against the winless Dolphins on Monday Night just to stay relevant in the NFL playoff race. They got the win, but it wasn’t too convincing. However, ask the Jets and they’ll tell you its fine as long as it wasn’t another loss.

With the Dolphins knocking at the door, threatening to jump out to a 10-0 lead early in the first, Darrelle Revis ran back the first of his two interceptions 100 yards for a touchdown and helped kick start the Jets to do just enough to get a win at home. The Jets were sitting at a 2-3 mark coming into the game with a ton of turmoil going on in the locker room.

“Anytime you lose three games straight, you’re going to lack some confidence,” running back LaDainian Tomlinson said. “You’re going to start to question yourself a little bit.” However, the Jets did nothing to prove that they’ve turned things around, getting off to yet another slow start with their first four possessions ending in three-and-outs for the second straight game.

The Jets didn’t get their 1^st first down until 6:17 left in the half. Sanchez, while not playing a great game, was serviceable. He found Holmes for a 38 yard touchdown on a crossing pattern early in the fourth quarter. Sanchez finished 14 of 25 for 201 yards 1 TD and another touchdown coming on the ground when Sanchez ran a QB draw 5 yards for the score.

Shonn Greene had another decent outing rushing for 74 yards on 21 carries. The Dolphins came to town just in the nick of time for gang green, but they have a much better opponent in the 4-1 San Diego Chargers, coming into town next week with a bye following. For the Dolphins, they drop to 0-5 and this season is beginning to look like 2007 when they went 1-15.

Fans are hoping for no wins so they can get Andrew Luck in next years draft, but the heat for this seasons is falling on Tony Sparano. He didn’t help his cause by designing a game plan that had Matt Moore in his first start. The Dolphins were constantly throwing toward Revis’ side of the field which ended up burning them.

“It’s tough right now,” wide receiver Brandon Marshall said. “When you lose, everything looks bad. It’s a nasty feeling in the building and a nasty feeling every day. The only thing we can do is fight to get a win.” Marshall didn’t even live up to the promise that he’d get ejected during the 2^nd quarter. He didn’t start a fight with Bart Scott or Antonio Cromartie like he said he might.

The Dolphins were first on the scoreboard when Dan Carpenter knocked a 23 yarder midway through the opening quarter. The Jets fumbled and lost the ensuing kickoff when a short kick bounced off blocker Garrett McIntyre and was recovered by Austin Spitler. After Daniel Thomas rushed twice for 3 yards, Moore attempted to hit Marshall in the end zone.

Unfortunately for Moore, Revis was on Marshall, stepping in front of the pass and was off to the races, making it 7-3 and turning the game right around. Matt Moore, who was in for Chad Henne, had a horrible game. He was 16 of 34 for 204 yards and two interceptions. “It’s rough, kind of the same old story, trying to find answers and make plays down there in the red zone and we seem to hit a wall,” Moore said. “Just got to keep going.”

Marshall finished with six catches for 109 yards but no touchdowns. Five of the catches and 63 of the yards came against Revis who was matched up on Marshall for most of the night. He was targeted 19 times. Reggie Bush who left in the 3^rd quarter with a neck injury had 71 yards on the ground and two catches for 7 yards.

Carpenter hit a 21 yard field goal in the early 2^nd to make it a 7-6 game, but that would be the end of the scoring for the Dolphins. The Dolphins face the Broncos at home next week before heading back to MetLife stadium for a showdown with the other New York team Big Blue.

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