Giants Hand Ryan, Cardinals Another Loss, 20-17 : NFC: Brown passes for two touchdowns and New York defense sacks McMahon twice late in game to preserve victory.

A winner in town? Not quite yet, Buddy.

Buddy Ryan’s first public utterance when he was hired in February to coach the Arizona Cardinals came back to haunt him Sunday.

New York’s Dave Brown completed a pair of 1-yard scoring passes to Howard Cross in the first half, and Michael Brooks and Keith Hamilton sacked Jim McMahon on consecutive plays late in the fourth quarter to preserve a 20-17 victory that dropped Ryan’s Cardinals to 0-2.

Ryan, who came to the Cardinals from his job as defensive coordinator at Houston after punching fellow assistant coach Kevin Gilbride in the final game of the 1993 season, was 43-35-1 in five years with the Philadelphia Eagles and predicted quick success for himself in Arizona.

He had organized an honors-laden defense, hiring former players like Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons and Wilber Marshall.

But the Giants had Ryan’s vaunted “46” defense on the ropes in the end, running off 10 consecutive plays to kill the clock.

“No question about it, whenever you don’t beat people in your own conference, it’s pretty bad. We’re treading water, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get there,” Ryan said.

McMahon replaced Steve Beuerlein, who completed 10 of 22 passes for 108 yards in his second subpar performance in a row, with 5:47 left in the third quarter.

McMahon’s second pass became Phillippi Sparks’ second interception, but the Cardinals got the ball back and the 35-year-old McMahon pumped up the crowd of 60,066 with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Ronald Moore with 10:52 to play.

“I had to make a decision. I felt we needed something at that time,” Ryan said. “We had gotten down. It worked because the fans got into it.”

Brown responded by taking the Giants on two consecutive time-consuming marches. The first ended with an interception by Lorenzo Lynch and a 23-yard return to the Arizona 34. But Brooks and Hamilton threw the Cardinals back to the 16 with the sacks.

The next time, New York drove from its 34 to Arizona’s 15, and Brown knelt on three snaps.