Giants dominate Favre-less Minnesota

Associated Press

DETROIT

Brett Favre stood on the sidelines for the start of a game for the first time since 1992, rubbing his salt-and-pepper beard in frustration because his body couldn’t take another pounding.

The New York Giants made sure his replacement struggled early and often.

Brandon Jacobs ran for a go-ahead touchdown midway through the second quarter, Eli Manning threw a lead-padding TD just before halftime and Ahmad Bradshaw added a 48-yard run to help the Giants beat Minnesota 21-3 Monday night.

“Seems like I been hurt a lot worse,” Favre said. “I can’t believe something like this hasn’t happened before.”

Favre’s NFL-record streak of 297 straight starts ended because of his banged-up right shoulder and numb hand in a game moved from Minneapolis because the Metrodome roof collapsed under heavy snow early Sunday.

“He was having trouble with the numbness,” Vikings interim coach Leslie Frazier said.

Frazier acknowledged that putting the 41-year-old Favre on injured reserve, ending his season and possibly his career, is possible.

“That may be a possibility, but I’m hoping not,” he said.

The Giants sacked Favre replacement Tarvaris Jackson four times, knocking him out of the game late in the third period and again in the final seconds.

New York (9-4) moved back into a first-place tie with Philadelphia in the NFC East. Minnesota, which went to the NFC title game last January, (5-8) was eliminated from the playoff race.

The game was switched from Sunday afternoon when the Giants couldn’t get to Minneapolis because of the severe weather, then was moved to the Detroit Lions’ indoor stadium with a steel roof. The Vikings were technically the home team at Ford Field but they didn’t have much of an edge.

The game drew an announced crowd of 45,910 — there seemed to be at least 10,000 more people in the 65,000-seat stadium late in the first half.

Ravens 34, Texans 28 Overtime

Houston

Baltimore’s Josh Wilson picked off Texans QB Matt Schaub and returned it 12 yards for the game-winning score with 12 minutes left in overtime.

The Texans had rallied from a 28-7 deficit to force overtime.

Schaub hit Andre Johnson for a 5-yard TD pass with 29 seconds left in regulation, then found Jacoby Jones for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 28.