Jets take Big Apple honours

Eli Manning's inexperience was exposed in his latest pre-season game as the New York Giants went down 17-10 to local rivals the Jets.

The top choice in this year's NFL draft struggled to cope with the Jets' defensive wiles as the Giants lost the annual exhibition match against their neighbouts for the ninth straight year.

Giants starting quarterback, the veteran Kurt Warner, led his team to a first-quarter touchdown on Ron Dayne's nine-yard run, but Manning fared less well.

His first pass was intercepted by Donnie Abraham and he was also intercepted by Reggie Tongue in the third quarter.

He went four-for-14 for 20 yards with two interceptions, two sacks and a fumble. Warner was nine-of-11 for 104 yards.

In all, the Jets had five sacks, including John Abraham's in the second quarter on which Manning fumbled.

In other pre-season action, Jacksonville edged Green Bay 9-7, with Josh Scobee kicking all of the Jaguars' points from field goals.

Brett Favre played a half for the Packers, throwing a 52-yard touchdown pass to Robert Ferguson in the second quarter.

St Louis dealt Washington a 28-3 defeat, having scored just 13 points in their first two pre-season games.

Bulger tested the patience of Rams' fans

Starting QB Marc Bulger drew boos after overthrowing to wide open receivers on several occasions.

Daunte Culpepper went 20-for-27 for 204 yards and a touchdown, as Minnesota beat San Francisco 23-10 - the 49ers third straight loss.

The Vikings outgained San Francisco 326-61 in total yards in the first half and took a 16-0 lead into half-time before allowing the 49ers to close the gap.

New Orleans third-string quarterback JT O'Sullivan set up his own go-ahead TD run with a long pass as the Saints won 17-13 at Chicago.

A sloppy game at Soldier Field took 3½ hours to play and featured 30 penalties, including 18 on the Bears.

Jake Plummer threw for 159 yards as Denver downed Houston 31-17.

The Broncos scored on drives of 68 and 85 yards after managing just four field goals their first three pre-season games.

In San Diego, rookie quarterback Philip Rivers got made a good start before going off the boil at the Chargers lost 26-20 to Seattle.

Rivers, the fourth overall pick in this year's NFL draft who ended his contract hold-out earlier this week, completed his first three passes for 72 yards.

But he misfired on his next seven throws, two of which were intercepted.