ARLINGTON, Texas — Lawrence Tynes sent the largest regular-season crowd in NFL history home muttering about what might’ve been.
Tynes kicked a 37-yard field goal as time expired Sunday night, giving the New York Giants a 33-31 victory over the turnover-prone Dallas Cowboys and ruining the debut of their rival’s $1.15 billion stadium.
The Cowboys (1-1) went ahead 31-30 on a touchdown run by Felix Jones with 3:40 left. It was the seventh lead change of a game in which neither team led by more than six points, and it didn’t last.
Eli Manning drove New York 56 yards in seven plays. He got out of a first-and-20 on his 15 to start it and converted two third downs, including one on a tipped pass caught by Mario Manningham.
Tynes actually made the winning kick twice; Dallas called a timeout just before the first one was snapped, so he had to do it again.
“Well, we just knew we had to go and get in field-goal range,” Manning said. “We had enough time, we had timeouts.”
An NFL regular-season record crowd of 105,121 that included former President George W. Bush and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell began filling Cowboys Stadium more than four hours before kickoff.
Other than field goals on their first and last drives, the Giants’ other 27 points all were set up by turnovers. New York (2-0) scored three touchdowns off interceptions of Tony Romo and won despite losing defensive end Justin Tuck to a shoulder injury and receiver Domenik Hixon to a sprained knee.
Manning was 25-of-38 for 330 yards with 22-yard touchdowns to Manningham and Steve Smith.
In one of the biggest settings of his career, Romo turned in one of his worst outings. He was 13-of-29 for 127 yards with a touchdown and those three interceptions.
