A record crowd of 105,121 turned out for the first National Football League game at the Cowboys’ new billion-dollar stadium on Sunday, but the New York Giants didn’t send them home happy.
New York’s Lawrence Tynes booted a 37-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Giants to a 33-31 victory in front of a massive audience that included standing-room only revelers, sports world luminaries like basketball’s LeBron James and former US president George W. Bush — who oversaw the pre-game coin toss.
Dallas had taken a 31-30 lead through a touchdown run by Felix Jones with 3:40 remaining.
PHOTO: AFP
But Giants quarterback Eli Manning piloted a 56-yard, seven-play drive to set up Tynes’ winning kick.
In fact, Tynes made the kick twice, as Dallas called timeout a fraction of a second before the ball was snapped to him the first time — forcing him to have to do it again.
It was a fittingly suspenseful end to a rollicking contest in which the lead changed more than half a dozen times and neither team led by more than half a dozen points.
Ultimately, however, four turnovers proved too much for the Cowboys to overcome. Quarterback Tony Romo threw three interceptions that led to Giants TDs as New York shrugged off the loss of defensive end Justin Tuck with a shoulder injury and receiver Domenik Hixon to a knee injury.
The crowd included some 30,000 in standing-room “party plazas” at either end of the stunning venue, which has about 75,000 seats, a retractable roof and a massive video board that has already become a defining feature of the facility.
The roof slid open about 90 minutes before kickoff. Cowboys safety Ken Hamlin and linebacker Bradie James were the first players out of the tunnel.
In other NFL games it was:
• Jets 16, Patriots 9
• Vikings 27, Lions 13
• Cardinals 31, Jaguars 17
• Saints 48, Eagles 22
• 49ers 23, Seahwks10
• Bears 17, Steelers 14
• Ravens 31, Chargers 26
• Bengals 31, Packers 24
• Texans 34, Titans 31
• Bills 33, Buccaneers 20
• Redskins 9, Rams 7
• Athletics 13 Raiders 10
• Falcons 28 Panthers 20
• Broncos 27, Browns 6
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