New York Giants: Top 5 Eli Manning career wins against Cowboys

2. 2011 Week 17: 31-14 Giants win

You wouldn’t normally expect a week seventeen contest between two eight-win football teams to be a monster of a game that had all kinds of implications, but that’s exactly what this early January game was, as both talented – yet underachieving – teams were fighting for the right to make the playoffs. Only one of the two teams ended up actually showing up though, as Eli Manning turned in one of his most masterful games ever as the quarterback of the New York Giants on his way to a 31-14 rout of the Cowboys.

Eli set the tone early with a 74-yard touchdown strike to Victor Cruz, and he and the team never looked back. A second passing touchdown, this time to Ahmad Bradshaw, put the Giants up 21-0 going into halftime. Although Laurent Robinson (in the game of his life) would do his best to make this one close – as he hauled in two touchdowns of his own to bring this game to within one score – Eli and the Giants would take control in the fourth and finish strong.

Manning ended the frigid cold, Sunday Night Football ‘game of the week’ with 346 yards passing, three touchdowns and zero picks. Tony Romo played alright, but turned the ball over twice as Cowboy fans began to seriously question if the big lights were too bright for the talented signal-caller.

There’s no stating just how big this win was for the franchise, as it doesn’t take a math expert to realize that if the Giants don’t win this football game, there is no 2011 Lombardi Trophy. Many love to act like all Eli did was beat the Patriots twice, while conveniently leaving out games such as this that gave his team the opportunity to even be there in the first place.