Simms Passes for 296 Yards, but Giants’ Troubles Continue : Interconference: After leading, 17-7, defending Super Bowl champions fall to Bengals, 27-24.

New quarterback, same old problems for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants Sunday.

They got three touchdown passes from Phil Simms, making his first start of the season in place of injured Jeff Hostetler, and they built a 10-point second-half lead against a Cincinnati Bengal team that had won only once all season.

But it all came apart in a familiar way. The offense fizzled, as it has for much of the season, and the defense and special teams self-destructed with the game on the line, helping the Bengals rally for a 27-24 victory.

Jim Breech’s 35-yard field goal put Cincinnati (2-11) ahead to stay, and Mitchell Price returned a punt 78 yards for a clinching touchdown.

“We beat ourselves,” Giant Coach Ray Handley said.

Now the Giants (7-6) might be out of chances. Their last three games are against Philadelphia, Washington and Houston.

Breech kicked a 35-yard field goal to cut the lead to 17-10 late in the third quarter. The Giants then turned the ball over on Mark Ingram’s fumble and committed three third-down penalties to help the Bengals drive 58 yards for a tying touchdown.

A roughing-the-passer penalty on Pepper Johnson and two pass-interference penalties on Everson Walls set up Harold Green’s one-yard run that tied it, 17-17, early in the fourth quarter.

Simms then threw three incomplete passes, and a banged-up Boomer Esiason led the Bengals to the go-ahead points. Esiason, playing with a sore passing shoulder and hand, threw a 38-yard pass to Eddie Brown to get within field-goal range. Walls had another interference penalty on the drive.

Breech’s second 35-yard kick put Cincinnati ahead with 7:10 left, and the Bengals--last in the NFL with only 11 sacks in 12 games--had consecutive sacks to force another punt from Sean Landeta. Price took it, weaved through the first line of tacklers and ran for the third-longest punt return for a touchdown in club history.

Simms threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Ingram to pull New York to within 27-24 with 1:02 left. But Eric Thomas recovered the onside kick to let Cincinnati run out the clock.

Simms, making his first start since last Dec. 15, also threw touchdown passes of 15 and 13 yards to Stephen Baker in the first half to get his 15th team passing record. He has a club-record 175 touchdown passes, two more than Charlie Conerly.

Simms completed 26 of 44 passes for 296 yards without an interception. He took over last week when Hostetler suffered a back injury and led the Giants to a 21-14 victory over Tampa Bay.

The Giants’ Lawrence Taylor missed only his second game in 11 years because of a sprained left knee, forcing the Giants to shuffle their linebackers. It worked until the Giants self-destructed.