Special Teams Take Spotlight

It was billed as a showdown between mentor and apprentice. Instead of Kurt Warner vs. Eli Manning, the New York Giants’ special teams stole the show Sunday.

Manning bounced back from a poor first half to throw for two touchdowns in New York’s 42-19 win over the Arizona Cardinals. But the Giants’ highest-scoring game in more than two seasons had as much to do with kick returns as it did with Warner’s being upstaged by his former teammate.

Willie Ponder returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown and Chad Morton, signed a week and a half ago, returned a punt 52 yards for another. New York accomplished both types of returns in the same game for the first time in 50 years.

Tiki Barber and rookie Brandon Jacobs ran for touchdowns for the Giants, who scored 21 points in the third quarter to take command of the game.

The last time they returned a punt and kickoff for a touchdown in the same game was on Oct. 30, 1955, against Washington.

Playing against the quarterback who helped guide him through his rookie season with the Giants in 2004, Manning finished 10 for 23 for 172 yards.

“I thought Eli looked poised,” said Warner, who was 27 for 46 for 264 yards. “It was one of those games where, fortunately for him, he wasn’t called upon to do a whole lot. They had a lot of big runs and he had a couple of screens that were probably his biggest plays. I think the game played out the way they wanted it to. They took the pressure off him, which allowed him to continue to grow and get better.”

Ponder’s return was crushing for the Cardinals, who had closed to within two points at 21-19 on a two-yard touchdown pass from Warner to Larry Fitzgerald with 7:04 left in the third quarter. It came on a do-over; the Cardinals were penalized for being offsides on a kickoff one play earlier, and rather than take Ponder’s return to the Giants’ 17, Coach Tom Coughlin chose to take the penalty.

Ponder caught the second kick and darted down the left sideline to give the Giants a 28-19 lead.

“I didn’t know they were offsides. I saw the flag when I was getting up,” Ponder said. “But they said we were going to return it again and I figured, ‘OK, this is an opportunity.’ ”