Giants lead Cowboys 20-17 after first half of first game at new Cowboys Stadium

Giants lead 20-17 after first half

ARLINGTON, Texas — With all the pregame hype done at the new Cowboys Stadium, and the largest crowd ever for an NFL regular season game, the New York Giants were trying to spoil the party once the focus was on the field.

Eli Manning threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham, who juggled the ball while falling down in the end zone before pulling it back in, and the New York Giants led Dallas 20-17 at halftime in the nearly $1.2 billion showplace Sunday night.

The Giants’ go-ahead TD with 46 seconds left in the half came after Tony 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.

A record crowd of 105,121 fans attended the opening game, including up to 30,000 fans crowded in 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.

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 10 of 19 passing for 103 yards. His other interception was returned 34 yards by Bruce Johnson for a touchdown in the first quarter.

Manning was 11 of 18 for 149 yards and Lawrence Tynes kicked two field goals (30, 28 yards) for the Giants.

They were 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. Barber had a 27-yard run, getting a nice downfield block from Williams, on the drive.

But Johnson picked off Romo on the next drive, then the Cowboys gave it right back when Felix 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.