EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Minnesota Vikings reversed two negative trends yesterday despite having their worst offensive day of the season.

The Vikings became the first team in NFL history to return a punt, kickoff, and interception for touchdowns, then their offense came to life long enough to set up Paul Edinger’s 48-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in a 24-21 win over the Giants.

Minnesota (4-5) entered the game having lost nine of its last 13 games to the Giants (6-3), including four of its last five. The Vikings were also 0-4 on the road this season.

Vikings safety Darren Sharper had three interceptions, including one he returned for a 92-yard touchdown in the second quarter. On special teams, Koren Robinson returned the second-half kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown and teammate Mewelde Moore ran a punt back 71 yards for a score later in the quarter.

The Vikings also confused Giants quarterback Eli Manning all afternoon with shifting coverages, and the second-year quarterback finished 23-of-48 for 291 yards and four interceptions.

“We had a plan where we were going to bait him into calling certain things and then move,” Vikings coach Mike Tice said. “When we did that, we had to be where we were supposed to be when the ball was snapped. And we’ve had a problem with that this year. But we didn’t seem to have too many problems with that today.”

Manning drove the Giants deep into Vikings territory in the second quarter when he threw for Plaxico Burress near the goal line. Sharper stepped in front, grabbed the pass and took off down the right sideline, chased by Manning, who appeared to have a bead on him before Sharper cut back across the field.

“He had an angle and I saw him with his head down, running, and I thought, ‘He’s not even looking at me,’ so I went ahead and cut back,” Sharper said.

Minnesota appeared to have the game in hand when Sharper intercepted Manning for a third time with 3:48 left and the Vikings leading 21-13. But the Giants got the ball back and drove 67 yards, tying the game with 1:21 left on a 3-yard touchdown run and 2-point conversion run by Tiki Barber.

Brad Johnson (17-for-30 for 144 yards) then drove the Vikings 42 yards in eight plays, completing four passes in the drive to set up Edinger, who had missed earlier from 40 and 32 yards.

The Vikings had their worst offensive performance of the season with 137 total yards, and were held to six yards in the first half. But the Giants couldn’t capitalize despite racking up 405 yards of offense. In addition to Manning’s four interceptions, Willie Ponder fumbled the opening kickoff, and the Giants were penalized nine times for 75 yards.

“It was a very poor performance by our team,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “We fumbled the opening kickoff, had a punt returned against us for a touchdown, a kickoff returned, an interception when we were knocking on the goal line. It’s beyond belief that we would play that poorly.”

The Giants defense still has not allowed a touchdown since early in the third quarter against Denver on October 23 – a span of 208 minutes, 26 seconds, or nearly 14 quarters.