EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The television screens inside the New York Giants' interview room and locker room read "0:00" late Saturday afternoon. The display was misleading from the perspective of the Giants, who reset the clock on their season with one week to play.
But for the New York Jets, time has almost certainly run out.
Victor Cruz' 99-yard touchdown catch gave the Giants the lead for good, and the Giants' defense dominated the second half Saturday in a 29-14 victory over the "crosstown" Jets in front of 79,088 at MetLife Stadium.
The win was just the second in the last seven games for the Giants (8-7), but it created a winner-take-all duel for the NFC East crown against the visiting Dallas Cowboys in next week's season finale. The Giants' win also eliminated the surging Philadelphia Eagles from playoff contention.
"It started last week: We knew that if we won two games, we would be the winner of the NFC East and be in the playoffs," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "We have one under our belt. And now, just to be honest with you, we need to put this one aside as fast as we can and go to work on Dallas."
There's little doubt, though, that the Giants will savor this win the rest of the holiday weekend and relish the fact that they all but knocked the Jets - who reached the AFC Championship Game as a wild card team in each of the previous two seasons - out of the playoff hunt.
Jets coach Rex Ryan declared he wanted to take over the city by beating the Giants, while the Jets were typically talkative in the days leading up to the once-every-four-years game between the MetLife Stadium cohabitants. But the Giants didn't take anything too personally until they arrived Saturday morning and saw the Jets had covered, with a black partition, the mural alongside the wall leading to the Giants locker room that honors the franchise's four Super Bowl appearances and three wins.
"I won't mention what I thought," Coughlin said.
"He can shut up," Giants running back Brandon Jacobs said of Ryan, with whom he had a heated exchange during post-game handshakes.
"We want to celebrate this win. And I'm gonna let him have the worst Christmas he can have."
The Jets' playoff hopes were badly damaged by the loss. The Jets (8-7) fell behind the Cincinnati Bengals (9-6) in the race for the final AFC wild card spot and can only reach the playoffs if they win a multi-team tiebreaker at 9-7. Five AFC teams are 9-6 or 8-7, including the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders, each of whom beat the Jets earlier this season.
"It's not in your control anymore," Ryan said. "We'll see what happens."
The Jets were in control until Cruz's record-setting touchdown. Mark Sanchez capped the Jets' first drive with a five-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end John Baker, and the Jets limited the Giants to one field goal and three three-and-outs on their first four possessions.
But on 3rd-and-10 from their own one-yard-line just before the two-minute warning, Cruz caught a short pass from Eli Manning, eluded a pair of tackles by Kyle Wilson and Antonio Cromartie and raced up the right sideline for the 13th 99-yard touchdown catch in NFL history. Cruz finished with three catches for 164 yards and has a Giants-record 1,322 receiving yards this season.
"I thought that was the one guy that could give us that kind of play and he certainly did give us that kind of play," Coughlin said. "We all got a tremendous lift when he went coast-to-coast."
The Giants' defense dominated the Jets for most of the second half, during which the Jets gained just 134 yards on 47 plays spread out over nine possessions. Sanchez was sacked four times, had several passes tipped or batted down and threw a pair of interceptions.
Sanchez (30-for-58, 258 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions) pulled the Jets within 20-14 on a one-yard touchdown run with 7:17 left and had a chance to author his fifth fourth-quarter comeback of the year and the 10th of his career when the Jets took over at their own eight-yard-line with 2:24 left. But he was sacked by Chris Canty for a safety on the next play, and Ahmad Bradshaw's 19-yard touchdown run - his second score of the day - on the Giants' next play from scrimmage provided the final margin.
"I thought our defense last week in practice [played] with more energy and more enthusiasm and greater speed than we had I think in a long time," Coughlin said. "And the way they practiced is the way they played tonight. They were exceptional."
GAME NOTES: The victory was the Giants' fifth in a row against the Jets in the quadrennial series. The Jets last beat the Giants on Halloween 1993… Eli Manning's 99-yard touchdown pass to Victor Cruz was the longest pass in Giants history. Earl Morrall threw a 98-yard touchdown pass to Homer Jones on Sept. 11, 1966…Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez set a career high with 58 pass attempts, shattering his previous high of 44.
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