EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The calendar says there’s still another seven weeks to play. But we don’t need that long to discover the pecking order in the NFC East.

It’s the Dallas Cowboys, followed by three teams that can only wish they were the Dallas Cowboys. I’ve seen enough to know that. How about you?

How much better are the Cowboys than the New York Giants, the next best team the division has to offer? Well, Dallas beat New York by 10 points in Week 1, and by 11 on Sunday in Giants Stadium. And if they happen to play again somehow, I’d like the Cowboys by 12. So give me Dallas by double-digits against the rest of the NFC East, and call me when you’re ready to concede the argument.

In back-to-back weeks, Dallas has gone on the road within the division to beat Philadelphia and the Giants by a combined 69-37. The Cowboys are 8-1 overall, 7-0 in the NFC, 3-0 in the division, 5-0 on the road, and haven’t lost away from Texas Stadium in the regular season in more than a year — since a Week 9 defeat at Washington on Nov. 5, 2006.

Whether or not Dallas is bound for supremacy over the entire NFC is a matter that probably won’t be resolved until the Cowboys play host to Green Bay (8-1) in Week 13. But Wade Phillips‘ team just took the best shot that a fellow NFC East team could deliver, and didn’t flinch. The Cowboys’ 31-20 mashing of the red-hot Giants wasn’t dominating from start to finish, but it was decisive when it mattered, with Dallas outscoring New York 14-3 to break a 17-17 halftime tie.

“Our team came out in second half just about like we have all year, and we played well,” Phillips said. “When the pressure’s on they seem to play better. We just told them [the score was] was nothing-nothing. We’ve done that all year. The second half is ours, so just go out and do it.”

The Cowboys went out and did it in the second half against a Giants team that was trying to pull into a tie for the division lead, and win its seventh in a row for the first time since 1990 — New York’s most recent Super Bowl season. During its six-game winning streak New York had allowed just 79 points, an average of 13.1 per game. But against the Cowboys, the Giants looked more like the team that had gotten hammered 45-35 at Texas Stadium on the first Sunday night of the season.

Yes, the regular season is only nine games old. But instead of being tied for the division lead, the Cowboys have what amounts to a three-game lead over the second-place Giants (6-3) with seven remaining. Dallas still has three games left with the Redskins (5-4) and Eagles (4-5), but this division race is over, and the Cowboys can start shifting their focus to bigger and better things.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Peyton Manning was poised to turn one of his worst games into one of his most memorable.

Then Adam Vinatieri missed a 29-yard field goal attempt with 1:31 left, and the San Diego Chargers held on for a wild 23-21 win over the defending Super Bowl champion Colts on Sunday night.

Manning, who set a Colts franchise record with six interceptions, had driven the Colts to the Chargers 12. Vinatieri, who had won two Super Bowls for New England with last-second kicks, pushed his kick just wide right.

The Chargers led 23-7 going into the fourth quarter even though their offense was as waterlogged as the field on a rainy night. Had Vinatieri’s kick gone through, it would have been the 29th time that Manning rallied the Colts from either a fourth-quarter deficit or tie to win.

Darren Sproles , San Diego’s speedy little return man, brought back the opening kickoff 89 yards for his first NFL touchdown, then ran back a punt 45 yards for his second score later in the first quarter.

But the Colts (7-2), who started the season 7-0 before losing 24-20 to New England a week ago, scored two touchdowns and a two-point conversion in 23 seconds early in the fourth quarter to pull to 23-21.

Manning threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to running back Kenton Keith on the first play of the fourth quarter and then a conversion pass to Bryan Fletcher to close to 23-15.

On third-and-10 from the 8-yard line, Philip Rivers went back to pass and the ball slipped out of his hand and into the end zone. After a wild scramble, Colts linebacker Gary Brackett picked up the ball for a TD with 14:28 to play. Joseph Addai was stuffed on the two-point conversion attempt, and the Colts trailed by two points.

Cornerback Antonio Cromartie celebrated his first NFL start by picking off Manning three times.

San Diego (5-4) took over sole possession of first place in the anemic AFC West.

Manning’s final pickoff came on a desperation pass as time ran out.

Manning completed 34 of a career-high 56 attempts for 328 yards. Rivers was horrible, going 13-of-24 for 104 yards and no touchdowns, with two pickoffs.

Two weeks after breaking Johnny Unitas’ franchise record of 287 touchdown passes, Manning passed the Hall of Famer again, but not in a way he’ll want to remember. The previous franchise records for interceptions was five, done seven times, including four by Unitas. Manning had thrown just four interceptions coming into the game.

With two touchdown passes, Manning pushed his career total to 291 to pass Unitas and take sixth on the on the all-time list.

The Chargers bounced back from a 35-17 loss at Minnesota in which they allowed rookie Adrian Peterson to set the NFL single-game record with 296 yards rushing.

Sproles and Cromartie were nothing short of sensational.

Three Colts were left grasping air as Sproles returned the opening kickoff, and no one had a decent shot on his punt return until punter Hunter Smith missed at about the 1.

Cromartie was equally exciting as he filled in for injured cornerback Quentin Jammer . After getting zero picks as a rookie last year, Cromartie now leads the Chargers with six.

The third pickoff was a beauty. A week after scoring on the longest play in NFL history, a 109-yard return of a missed field goal at Minnesota, Cromartie burned Manning by reaching up with his right hand and pulling the ball down to his chest in one motion.

It was the 11th time a Chargers player had three interceptions in a game, and it set up Tomlinson’s 4-yard TD run to make it 23-0.

Vinatieri missed a 42-yard field goal try as the second-quarter clock expired.

The Browns are getting close, just as these two cities are close, about a two-hour drive apart. And with help from two big kickoff returns and one crucial video review, the Browns almost took the Steelers to overtime.

But Phil Dawson’s 52-yard field-goal attempt, sailing through the raindrops, failed to clear the crossbar. It fell a few yards short with six seconds left at Heinz Field, sending the Steelers to 7-2 and the Browns to 5-4.

“I think they got a little nervous,” Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel said of the Browns. “They were loud and laughing and screaming in the first half. It flipped on them.”

The reversal came after Cleveland held a 15-point lead late in the first half on the passing of quarterback Derek Anderson, who threw for three touchdowns. Perhaps the Steelers were flat after a short week following a victory against Baltimore on Monday night.

But Anderson and the Browns looked cautious in the second half and the Steelers looked confident in taking advantage of the N.F.L.’s worst defense in terms of yards allowed. Making the most of his opportunities was Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger not only passed for two touchdowns and 278 yards, but he also ran for a touchdown and carried five times for 49 yards. Many of his completions, and his 30-yard touchdown run, came after his pass pocket collapsed and the plays seemed doomed.

So, after Roethlisberger completed 23 of 34 passes to rally a sluggish team, is it time to talk about him alongside top-echelon quarterbacks like Tom Brady of New England and Peyton Manning of Indianapolis?

“I talk about them, too,” Roethlisberger said, smiling, sidestepping the question the way he ducked pass rushers in the pocket and dodged tacklers in the open field. “Maybe, someday, I’d like it.”

After Roethlisberger looked shaken after one of his carries, did his coach, Mike Tomlin, offer discouraging words about his running?

“I haven’t heard any yet,” said Roethlisberger, who is 6 feet 5 inches and 241 pounds.

The victory was Pittsburgh’s ninth in a row and 15th in their last 16 against Cleveland.

“It’s big,” Roethlisberger said. “We didn’t want to have to be tied with the Browns for first.”

His touchdown run, on third down, gave the Steelers their first lead, which became 24-21 after a successful 2-point conversion with 11 minutes 32 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

But Cleveland seized it right back on a 100-yard return by Joshua Cribbs, who muffed the kickoff, picked up the ball and took off on a twisting sprint down the right sideline.

“Guys was coming at me like slow bullets — Voom! Voom!” Cribbs said. “It was like a video game.”

Earlier, Cribbs had set up Cleveland’s second touchdown with a 90-yard kickoff return.

Another Cleveland touchdown came on a diving catch by Braylon Edwards that gave the Browns a 21-6 lead late in the second quarter. The play was ruled incomplete until a video review revealed that his feet were in bounds.

But a review failed Browns Coach Romeo Crennel when he called a timeout and then appealed the winning play, a 2-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Heath Miller with 3:13 left. Officials ruled Miller had held the ball long enough, and Cleveland was out two timeouts.

The Browns’ final drive was damaged when a holding penalty negated a good punt return by Cribbs and moved the ball back 29 yards from where it was first spotted. Anderson seemed irked during his hurry-up offense, arguing with officials.

He spiked the ball quickly to stop the clock when there might have been time for more plays. Anderson said this was partly because Joe Jurevicius, a receiver, was hurt. “He could barely even stand,” Anderson said.

Cribbs said Willie McGinest, the veteran linebacker, called his teammates together in the locker room afterward and said that they should not blame one another.

“I’m strong, put it on my shoulders, I’ll take it,” McGinest told reporters.

McGinest said these two rivals might meet in the playoffs.

“I hope we see them again,” he said.

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 12, 2007; Page E01

Brian Westbrook’s 57-yard prance to the end zone late in the fourth quarter did not decide this football game — the plot was far too convoluted — but it was a rare virtuoso performance on an afternoon of blunders. Westbrook, like a cross between a ballet dancer and a sprinter, turned a simple screen pass into a backbreaking excursion, stunning players on both sidelines and putting the Philadelphia Eagles ahead for good.

Without it, perhaps Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs would not have been asked about coaching decisions, wasted timeouts, penalties and another blown lead after a 33-25 defeat at FedEx Field. The outcome rejuvenated an important rival — at 4-5 the Eagles are alive in the NFC — and stunted the Redskins (5-4) ahead of road tests at Dallas and Tampa. The Redskins committed 11 penalties — the defense extended drives with third-down infractions; the offense succumbed to procedural mistakes near the goal line — and for the 13th time since 2004 they lost a game in which they led at the half, most in the NFL.

We’ve got to learn how to put the dog away, point blank,” cornerback Fred Smoot said. “I felt like we were the better team, but they played better, and guess what happened? They won the game off our mistakes.”Gibbs said he remains baffled by the second-half letdowns — “I don’t think anyone has the answer to that,” he said — and fretful over mounting injuries. Wide receiver James Thrash’s superb effort was ended by a high ankle sprain and the Eagles posted 158 yards and four touchdowns after Sean Taylor, the anchor of a deep zone defense, sprained his knee late in the third quarter. Beyond that, the offense again failed to cap drives with touchdowns (settling for field goals from the 3 and 5; fumbling at the 29), to cloud quarterback Jason Campbell’s 16th start.

Westbrook, too, rose above the muck. The DeMatha graduate accounted for 183 combined yards and scored three touchdowns, reaching the end zone to open and close this game. Westbrook touched the ball seven times on the Eagles’ opening drive, for 47 yards, including a four-yard touchdown catch. Smoot aided that possession with an illegal contact penalty on third down, and though he claims receiver Kevin Curtis ran directly into him, Gregg Williams, assistant head coach-defense, has been infuriated by the recent rash of third-down penalties.

“Don’t put [the referee] in position to have to make good call or a bad call,” Williams said. “That’s our fault.”

The Redskins answered in the second quarter on Thrash’s third-down touchdown catch (it was Campbell’s first touchdown pass to a wide receiver since last December, a span of 44-plus quarters), but Shaun Suisham missed the extra point. The miss prompted Gibbs to try a two-point conversion after Campbell and Thrash hooked up for a 12-yard touchdown on Washington’s next drive (Thrash also caught two 31-yard passes on that drive — Washington’s first receptions of that length since Oct. 7).

By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The first day of O.J. Simpson’s criminal evidentiary hearing was marked by dramatic audio recordings and a collectibles broker who testified he set up the meeting that ultimately led to armed robbery charges against the former football star.

The second day of the hearing to decide if Simpson and two other men should stand trial on 12 criminal charges was set for Friday. Defense lawyers were expected to try to undercut the testimony of Tom Riccio, who captured the events on a digital recorder.

Riccio testified Thursday he hid a recorder in the hotel room where Simpson is accused of leading the armed robbery.

Simpson, 60, gritted his teeth and laid his gold-framed reading glasses on the defense table as the echoes of a voicemail he left for Riccio hung in the air of the courtroom.

“Hey Tom. It’s O.J. What are they talking about a gun? All I wanted was my stuff back again,” Simpson says on the 35-second recording.

On the recording, Simpson refers to hundreds of items taken from memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley on Sept. 13 as his “stolen stuff.”

“Nobody had a gun, you know?” he says. “Ain’t nobody had any guns. They’re feeling guilty so they’re trying to make up something.”

Those calm words contrasted to the chaotic bellows, barked orders and curses heard during a six-minute recording of the confrontation in a room at the Palace Station Hotel Casino that ends with a single voice.

“We were just robbed at gunpoint man,” a man says. “We were just robbed at gunpoint by O.J. Simpson.”

Defense lawyers for Simpson, Clarence “C.J.” Stewart and Charles Ehrlich lost a last-minute bid to get a judge to exclude the audio. They were to open the second day of testimony cross-examining Riccio, whose account of the confrontation painted the event as an almost comical caper gone wrong.

Riccio said he later sold a copy of the recording to a tabloid Web site before handing it over to police.

Prosecutors allege Simpson, Stewart, Ehrlich and three other men who have taken plea deals conspired to rob Beardsley and Fromong and then say no guns were used.

Former co-defendants Michael McClinton, Walter Alexander and Charles Cashmore are expected to testify that Simpson asked for guns to be brought along to show they were serious about retrieving items that he claimed were his.

Simpson has maintained in interviews and through his lawyers that no guns were displayed, that he never asked anyone to bring guns and that he did not know anyone had guns.

Simpson, 60, and Stewart and Ehrlich, both 53, face armed robbery, kidnapping and other charges. A kidnapping conviction could result in a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. An armed robbery conviction could mean mandatory prison time.

Fromong testified Thursday he had expected to meet with an anonymous buyer on Sept. 13, when Simpson arrived with others “in a military invasion fashion.”

Fromong and Riccio were the first two of eight witnesses prosecutors said they expect to call during the hearing.

Asked during a break what he thought of the proceedings, Simpson smiled, shrugged and said, “It is what it is.” He has been instructed by his lawyers not to talk to the media.

During cross-examination by Simpson attorney Gabriel Grasso, Fromong acknowledged that at the same time the dealers were calling police to report they had been robbed, he and Beardsley also were calling a syndicated TV show to try to make money from the experience.

Fromong also acknowledged that he has gone to the online auction site eBay to peddle memorabilia items he has dubbed, “Identical to the items O.J. stole from me!”

He waffled about whether he has been shopping a book deal about the experience, but confirmed he has discussed the idea. At one point, he joked that he’d like Jack Nicholson to play him if a movie is made.