Giants hold off Bengals to grab NFC East lead
Wayne Gallman scored a touchdown and rushed for a career-high 94 yards, Graham Gano kicked four field goals and the visiting New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Bengals 19-17 Sunday afternoon to move into first place in the NFC East.
The Giants (4-7) won their third straight game but also lost quarterback Daniel Jones to a hamstring injury in the third quarter. Jones was injured after getting tackled on a scramble with 10:45 remaining in the quarter, tried to play through it and was replaced by Colt McCoy after two plays on New York’s next series.
The Giants are tied with the Washington Football Team atop the NFC East, but hold the head-to-head tiebreaker and will head into Week 13 leading the division if the Philadelphia Eagles lose to the Seattle Seahawks Monday night.
Gallman scored his sixth rushing touchdown since Week 7 on New York’s first series when he plunged in from 1 yard out.
Gano returned from the reserve/COVID-19 list and extended his streak to 24 straight made field goals by converting kicks of 49, 40, 39 and 32 yards.
Jones completed 16-of-27 passes for 213 yards and produced a turnover-free performance before exiting. McCoy completed 6-of-10 passes for 31 yards.
A week after losing rookie Joe Burrow to a season-ending knee injury, Cincinnati turned to Brandon Allen. In his fourth career start, Allen completed 17-of-29 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown but was intercepted once.
The Bengals (2-8-1) lost their third straight and mustered only 155 yards of offense. Cincinnati’s first touchdown came on Brandon Wilson’s 103-yard kickoff return with 9:50 left in the first quarter and it was the longest play in team history.
Cincinnati held a 10-7 lead on Randy Bullock’s 44-yard field with 3:32 remaining in the first half and was within 19-17 on a 1-yard TD reception by Tee Higgins with 2:33 remaining. The Bengals regained possession with 57 seconds remaining but the Giants sealed the win when Leonard Williams sacked Allen and recovered a fumble.
After Cincinnati went ahead, Gano’s first field goal evened the game with 21 seconds left in the half. Gano gave the Giants a 13-10 lead in the third, extended the lead to 16-10 with 11:35 left in the fourth and made his final field goal with 3:58 remaining before New York survived the comeback attempt.
–Field Level Media
