NFL Rewind

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By David Elfin

STORY OF THE WEEK

The New York Giants suddenly have made the NFC East a lot more interesting.

After enduring a 1-5 skid that cost them the division lead, the Giants rallied from a 10-point deficit late in the second quarter and then held off the visiting Dallas Cowboys 31-24 on Sunday after the Philadelphia Eagles crushed the Atlanta Falcons.

With four weeks remaining in the regular season, the Washington Redskins (3-9) are an afterthought, but Dallas and Philadelphia are tied for first at 8-4, a game ahead of New York. No other division has three winning teams. In fact, the NFC South, NFC West and AFC East only have one team apiece above .500, and Indianapolis already has clinched the AFC South.

This week the Giants play host to the Eagles, who pounded them 40-17 in Week 8. The Cowboys finish the season against the Eagles, whom they surprised 20-16 on the road in Week 9. And the Redskins, who pushed the Cowboys, Eagles and New Orleans Saints to the brink the past three weeks, could be spoilers in Weeks 15 and 16 against New York and Dallas.

The NFC East has been better, but no division should be more fun to watch down the stretch.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

ARIZONA CARDINALS

A week after surrendering a 99-yard, game winning drive to the Tennessee Titans, the Cardinals rebounded to play their best game since Super Bowl XLIII, upsetting Minnesota 30-17 in a matchup of likely division winners. Thirty-eight-year-old Kurt Warner, back from a concussion that sidelined him against the Titans, bested 40-year-old Brett Favre in a duel of aging, Hall of Fame-bound gunslingers. Arizona's offensive line deserves major kudos for keeping NFL sacks leader Jared Allen and the rest of Minnesota's league-leading pass rush away from Warner. That only can enhance the resume of line coach Russ Grimm, a perennial head-coaching candidate. The Cardinals likely will clinch the NFC West again this week.

FIVE TRENDS FROM WEEK 13