Two faulty power feeders weren’t the only things turning out the lights on the Giants yesterday.
Cowboys fill-in quarterback Jon Kitna did a pretty deadly job of that, too.
The 38-year-old veteran had been so bad since taking over for the injured Tony Romo last month that Cowboys fans had been begging for someone — anyone — to take over instead.
But Kitna inexplicably looked like the second coming of Troy Aikman against the NFL’s No. 1-ranked defense, lighting up the Giants — even when there was little actual light at outage-plagued New Meadowlands Stadium — for a 33-20 victory.
“It was easy,” said Kitna, whose only sack resulted from his own teammate tripping him. “They were running open. If you’re an NFL quarterback, you better make those throws or you’re not going to be in this league.”
In one of the best days of his journeyman career, Kitna tormented the Giants both short and deep while throwing for 327 yards and three touchdowns and helping the Cowboys forget their miserable 1-7 start with an afternoon full of big plays.
It was Kitna’s first win since Dec. 23, 2007 — over the Chiefs as a member of the Lions — a span of 10 games.
Kitna, who threw four interceptions in a blowout home loss to the Jaguars three weeks ago, came out firing in the Cowboys’ first game since Wade Phillips’ dismissal and finished by completing 13 of his 22 throws.
Interim coach Jason Garrett, who had been the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, decided to let it all hang out in his debut. That was obvious when Garrett had Kitna throw deep for impressive rookie Dez Bryant almost from the outset.
The Giants’ previously stout secondary was no match, as Kitna stunned them with a 46-yard connection to Bryant late in the first quarter over Terrell Thomas that set up a 13-yard scoring strike to Bryant on the next play.
The 46-yarder to Bryant was the first of many big plays Kitna and the Cowboys notched against the Giants on a weird afternoon. Dallas ended up completing six passes of 30 or more yards against a Big Blue defense that had allowed just five of them in the season’s first eight games combined.
When Kitna wasn’t killing the Giants with pinpoint deep throws, he was torturing them with short screens that took advantage of their aggressive pass rush.
The biggest of those came two plays after the first electrical outage in the third quarter, when Kitna found running back Felix Jones with a short toss that turned into a 71-yard touchdown and made it 26-6.
“It’s about throwing the ball to the guys that make plays, and that’s all I really did tonight,” Kitna said. “There weren’t any throws that were like, ‘Wow, that was unbelievable!’ It was just guys making plays, and that’s my job.”