Cowboys lead Giants 24-20 after 3rd quarter of first game at new Cowboys Stadium

Cowboys lead Giants 24-20 after 3rd quarter

ARLINGTON, Texas — With all the pregame hype done at the new Cowboys Stadium, and the largest crowd for an NFL regular season game, Tony Romo ran it in himself to put the Dallas Cowboys ahead 24-20 going into the fourth quarter in the nearly $1.2 billion showplace Sunday night.

Romo scored on a third-down keeper from 2 yards with 3:35 left in the third quarter, a play after throwing a pass that was too hot for Patrick Crayton to handle in the end zone. That was the only score after halftime.

After no turnovers in the season-opening victory at Tampa Bay, Romo had three interceptions through three quarters in the home opener, but was leading the game.

A record crowd of 105,121 fans attended the opening game, including up to 30,000 fans crowded into standing-room party plazas at either end of the stadium. Some of them arrived up to 10 hours before kickoff to get the best viewing spot. About 75,000 more fans filled the seats for the Cowboys’ first regular season game in their new stadium.

The Giants led 20-17 at halftime after Eli Manning threw a 22-yard touchdown pass in the final minute to Mario Manningham, who juggled the ball while falling down in the end zone before pulling it back in.

That go-ahead TD with 46 seconds left in the half came after Romo’s second interception, a ball thrown behind Jason Witten that ricocheted off the Pro Bowl tight end’s foot and was grabbed out of the air by Kenny Phillips.

It was initially ruled an incompletion and whistled dead, but the 160-foot-long high-definition video boards hanging over the middle of the field clearly showed what happened. Officials looked at the replay and spotted the ball at the 28, where Phillips caught the ball, and Manning hit Manningham three plays later.

Nick Folk kicked a 47-yard field goal with a second remaining for Dallas.

The previous record crowd was 103,467 for Arizona-San Francisco in Mexico City in 2005. The record for a game in the United States was 103,985 for the Super Bowl between Steelers and Rams at the Rose Bowl in January 1980. The largest crowd to watch any NFL game was 112,376 in a preseason matchup between the Cowboys and Houston Oilers in Mexico City in 1994.

Romo threw a 1-yard TD to Witten before the strange sequence that put New York ahead.

Marion Barber, who scored the Cowboys’ first TD in the first quarter, was stuffed on consecutive plays from the 1 before Romo hit Witten for the touchdown.

Romo was 12 of 25 passing for 114 yards. His first interception was returned 34 yards by Bruce Johnson for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Manning was 15 of 26 for 217 yards and Lawrence Tynes kicked two field goals (30, 28 yards) for the Giants. Tynes was wide right on a 29-yard attempt to start the second half.

The crowd was loud and boisterous through the pregame pageantry, including the unveiling of the famed star logo in the center of the field and George W. Bush conducting the coin toss. The former president then went to a luxury box where he sat in front of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and next to John Madden, who sat next to former broadcast partner Pat Summerall.

Barber’s 2-yard TD run up the middle with 4:11 remaining in the first quarter gave Dallas a 7-3 lead.

While still on his back in the end zone, Barber threw the ball straight up into the air, and it was retrieved by receiver Roy Williams, who had long talked about hoping to be the player who scored the first TD in the new stadium.

Williams tried giving the ball to Barber, but the bruising back never took it. Instead, a member of the team’s equipment staff got it and put it away for safe keeping.

The score ended a nine-play, 62-yard drive, the TD coming right after Romo threw an 11-yard pass to Martellus Bennett, who obviously tried hard to get into the end zone before being dragged down by Terrell Thomas.

But Johnson picked off Romo on the next drive, then the Cowboys gave it right back when Jones fumbled the ensuing kickoff to set up Tynes’ first field goal.

Dallas went three-and-out on the first possession at the new stadium, then Manning completed passes on his first two plays, 32 yards to Steve Smith and 13 to Domenik Hixon.

The Giants got to the Cowboys 12, where Mike Jenkins broke up a third-down pass thrown at Hixon. Tynes kicked a 30-yard field goal 6:01 into the game.