EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New York Giants continue to be at their worst with a little extra rest.
Sparked by Pro Bowl cornerbacks Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison, the Miami Dolphins frustrated Kerry Collins en route to a 23-10 victory over the New York Giants.
Matched up against wide receivers Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard, Surtain and Madison more than held their own. Surtain intercepted Collins twice and Madison also had a pick.
"We wanted to challenge their receivers," Surtain said. "The most important thing is we got the win.
"Almost every play was pushing and shoving," Madison said. "It was a physical game. We were playing aggressive defense. We just wanted to contain them and we did."
The Giants (2-2) committed four turnovers overall in falling to a woeful 1-6 under coach Jim Fassel following a bye. They are 3-12 overall after their bye week.
Collins didn't blame the Giants' rust on the week off.
"We turned it over way too much and that's the bottom line," said Collins, who completed 31-of-43 passes for 276 yards. "It's a good football team we played and we can't turn it over like I did."
"It's a very disappointing loss," Fassel said. "We can't lose the turnover battle like that."
With their defense leading the way, the Dolphins (3-1) were able to win their third straight game despite Ricky Williams rushing for just 39 yards on 22 attempts. Williams did score on a one-yard TD run with under five minutes to go, giving the Dolphins a 23-10 lead.
The Giants also suffered a blow to their special teams when kicker Matt Bryant went down with a right hamstring injury after making a 43-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.
Bryant's injury proved costly after the Giants put together a 17-play drive on their opening possession of the third quarter. Trailing 13-10, the Giants reached the Dolphins 11 before their drive stalled. Punter Jeff Feagles came on for his first career field goal attempt, but badly missed to the right.
"I never did it in high school or college," said Feagles, who is in his 16th NFL season. "The only time it counted was in the street playing ball back when I was a kid."
That was the best drive of the second half for the Giants, who were held off the board by one of the NFL's top defenses over the last 30 minutes.
The Dolphins gained some momentum after Feagles' miss and moved 50 yards in 11 plays. Jay Fiedler kept alive the march with a nine-yard completion to Chris Chambers on a 3rd-and-7 play to the Giants 33.
Fiedler completed 14-of-26 passes for 167 yards.
Miami was unable to pick up another first down and Olindo Mare drilled a 48-yard field goal 2:46 into the fourth quarter, giving the Dolphins a 16-10 lead.
After the Giants went three-and-out, the Dolphins put away the game with a 12-play, 64-yard drive that lasted nearly seven minutes.
Fiedler made the big play on the drive, finding tight end Randy McMichael for a 24-yard completion down the right sideline on a 3rd-and-9 play to the Giants 17.
Five plays later, Williams plowed over from one yard to give the Dolphins a 23-10 lead with 4:16 remaining.
Williams, who had carried 76 times the last two games, never got going against the Giants. His longest run of the day was nine yards.
"If everyone is keying on Ricky we have to use everyone else on the field," Fiedler said. "It helped us use everyone else on the field when they commit more guys to Ricky."
In the second quarter when the Giants committed to Williams, it proved costly.
After taking a handoff from Fieldler, Williams handed the ball to James McKnight on a reverse. McKnight picked up a series of blocks down the right sideline and made a few nice cuts and raced 68 yards for a touchdown, giving the Dolphins a 10-7 lead.
"When I was going to get the ball from Ricky I saw those guys keying on number 34 and we knew that was going to be their plan," McKnight said. "We ran the play several times in practice this week and it worked in practice and it worked in the game."
"It was kind of funny because Norv (offensive coordinator Norv Turner) put that in because they're going to chase me around," Williams said. "I think he realized the whole game that they were keying on me and he called that play, it was huge."
Three plays before McKnight's jaunt, Tiki Barber's three-yard TD run had given the Giants a 7-3 lead. Barber's touchdown was set up when defensive end Michael Strahan knocked the ball away from Fiedler and tackle Cornelius Griffin recovered for the Giants at the Dolphins 16.
Barber rushed for 71 yards on 20 attempts.
A turnover also helped the Dolphins extend the lead when Hilliard fumbled and nickel back Terrell Buckley recovered for Miami at the Giants 46 with 4:43 left in the second quarter.
On the ensuing drive, Fiedler hooked up with fullback Rob Konrad for 25 yards to the Giants 5. But Williams was stuffed for no gain on first down and Fiedler threw a pair of incompletions, bringing on Mare for a 23-yard field goal that made it 13-7 with 1:29 left in the half.
Collins had a 21-yard completion to Toomer and 12-yard connection to Hilliard as the Giants moved into field goal range before the half, where Bryant converted from 43 yards.
Collins' favorite target was volatile tight end Jeremy Shockey, who had 11 catches for 110 yards. Hilliard finished with eight receptions for 73 yards and Toomer had three for 38.
"A lot of mistakes that we made today were simply on us," Toomer said. "We are all trying to make plays and it didn't work out for us. Offensively we just made too many mistakes.
