EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – For once, the Giants’ offense didn’t have to manufacture a last-minute comeback. Instead, their defense stopped one by Dallas. The Giants built a 17-0 lead yesterday and then hung on to beat the Cowboys 17-10 to take sole possession of first place in the NFC East.

In four games this season, New York has rallied from deficits late in the fourth quarter behind the timely passing of Eli Manning. With the second-year quarterback struggling yesterday, the Giants relied on a defense that produced four sacks, two interceptions, and two fumbles, and pressured Drew Bledsoe into a 15-for-39 performance.

Antonio Pierce returned one of the fumbles for a 12-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half to give New York a 17-0 lead. Defensive tackle Kendrick Clancy forced the fumble when he got into the backfield a split second after Bledsoe received the snap and attempted to hand off to Julius Jones.

The ball bounced out of the pile right into Pierce’s hands and the middle linebacker ran into the end zone untouched.

“I didn’t know he was in the end zone,” Clancy said. “I didn’t know the ball was fumbled or if he was just running. I saw it when I looked at the replay up on the screen.”

The play loomed huge when Dallas closed within a touchdown in the third quarter on a 34-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff and a 7-yard touchdown pass from Bledsoe to Terry Glenn.

But unlike in earlier losses to Dallas, Minnesota, and Seattle, the Giants’ defense held fast in the final minutes. Safety Gibril Wilson tipped Bledsoe’s pass intended for Keyshawn Johnson and Brent Alexander intercepted off a deflection with 1:47 left. Dallas got the ball back once more but couldn’t move past the Giants’ 44 at the final whistle.

On the afternoon, the Giants defense allowed just 206 yards allowed and one touchdown, that on a drive of all of 7 yards after Eli Manning threw an interception that gave Dallas the ball there.

Michael Strahan had two sacks on the day and Pierce contributed six tackles, but perhaps the biggest impact came from Osi Umenyiora, who plays the opposite defensive end from Strahan and, in his third season, is emerging into the same kind of impact player as his linemate. Perhaps the defining play of the game for Umenyiora came early in the third quarter. Jones seemed to have free sailing around left end on a second-and-3 from his 36. Umenyiora, all 280 pounds of him, ran down Jones from behind and stopped him a yard short of the first down.

On third down, Bledsoe threw an incomplete pass and the Cowboys punted

“For the first time all year, I felt the other team played better than we did,” said Drew Bledsoe, who entered the game with a passer rating of 91.8, sixth in the Efland finished 15-of-39 for 146 yards with four turnovers. “I’m talking their defense against our offense. They played better than we did.”

The Giants survived another missed field goal by Jay Feely, who a week earlier blew three potential game-winning kicks in a 24-21 overtime loss at Seattle. Yesterday, Feely clanged a 33-yard attempt off the upright with 5:18 left that would have given the Giants a 20-10 lead and some breathing room.

Feely received a huge cheer from the crowd when he kicked the extra point after Brandon Jacobs’s 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

New York also won despite a shaky performance from Manning, who was 12-for-31 for 152 yards and was intercepted twice by Dallas cornerback Aaron Glenn, filling in for the injured Anthony Henry. Tiki Barber gained 115 yards on 30 carries for the Giants.

The Cowboys face an uphill battle in the division race with games left against Kansas City at home, at Washington and Carolina before closing at home against St. Louis. They can take solace in the fact three of New York’s final four games are on the road, and two are against division rivals Philadelphia and Washington.

“There’s a month of football to go,” Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said. “To be judgmental now with just the one game separation would be premature. If you look at this like it’s a disaster, then that’s what it will turn out to be. If we look at it like we can bounce back, then that’s probably what will happen.”

The Giants haven’t won anything yet, of course. But coaches and fans alike must be comforted to know that the Giants can play game-altering defense when they offense is stuck in the mud.

“It was an outstanding, tough, hardnosed, difficult NFC East win,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said.

Manning’s streak of consecutive games throwing a touchdown pass ended at 12. It had been the NFL’s longest active streak .

The teams split the season series for the first time since 2001. The Giants swept in 2002 and 2004 and the Cowboys swept in 2003.