Giants 13, Dolphins 10

Giants leave winless Dolphins in a London fog

Associated Press

WEMBLEY, England -- For art, they could have gone to the British Museum. For something grand, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace were a train ride away.

Instead, what the fans got on this history-making Sunday in London was old-fashioned, muck-it-up football -- not very entertaining and not pretty at all, unless you ask the New York Giants, who came out with a 13-10 victory over the still-winless Miami Dolphins

We won, so obviously it was worth it," said Giants defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora, who was born in London.

Eli Manning threw for only 59 yards but ran for New York's lone touchdown to lift the Giants to their sixth straight victory, a mud-caked slog through the unfriendly pitch at torn-up Wembley Stadium in this, the first regular-season NFL game played outside North America.

The Giants (6-2) had more riding on this game, and were in no mood to take a 3,500-mile trip to help the league expand its international presence. But Brandon Jacobs helped make the journey a success, running for 131 yards, the second straight week he's hit a career high.

And helped in part by a steady rain that made offense nearly impossible, the New York defense allowed only 254 yards and held the Dolphins (0-8) out of the end zone for the first 58 minutes.

"I'll be glad to give my opinion to the commissioner with the issues that came up," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said when asked if the trip was worth it.
Most issues had to do with jet lag, transportation and the general inconvenience of coming this far to play a game. Whether that or the sloppy conditions had more to do with the less-than-scintillating game is up for debate.

But there were brief moments of intrigue, especially when Cleo Lemon drove the Dolphins 80 yards to pull them within 13-10 on a 21-yard pass to Ted Ginn Jr. with 1:54 left. But Jay Feely's onside kick went out of bounds -- "The field was like ice," Feely said -- and the Giants kneeled on it three times to seal the game, ignoring the loud boos from a crowd of 81,176 that wanted more.
Coughlin said that was the only off-note he noticed from the enthusiastic crowd.

"You'd have to know a lot about football to understand that," he said.

BOX SCORE
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/recap?game_id=29301&displayPage=tab_recap&season=2007&week=REG8