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BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- You just can't beat Jim Fassel in December. Despite a slew of injuries and the inability to sign a kicker with long range, Fassel improved to 9-0 in December as Cary Blanchard kicked a 48-yard field goal -- his fourth of the game -- with 40 seconds left in the New York Giants' 19-17 win over the Buffalo Bills. "We take a lot of pride in our record in December and it's really amazing," Fassel said. Blanchard, signed when Brad Daluiso was injured earlier in the season, was 4-for-4 on field goal tries to improve to 13-of-14 for the season. He tucked his longest of the season over the crossbar to give the Giants (7-6) the lead and watched as Doug Flutie could not direct the Bills (8-5) into field goal range with his limited time. "I had confidence on that kick," Blanchard said. "I was 3-for-3, so I had confidence I was going to make it. ... As sure as you can be, when you don't have a job you are disappointed, especially since I have been known to be a consistent field goal kicker. I'm just trying to go where he (Daluiso) left off." New York tried to sign a kicker to handle long-range duties and kickoffs during the week, but could not because of salary cap limitations. That once again left all duties to Blanchard, who thanked his teammates for pulling him out of some bad kickoffs. The Giants trailed, 17-16, with 2:09 left when the banged up defense made the break the team needed. Facing a 4th-and-1 at the New York 41, Bills coach Wade Phillips elected to try for a first down instead of punting or attempting a very long field goal. Jonathan Linton was stuffed at the line and the Giants took possession. Kerry Collins drove the Giants to the Bills 31, keeping alive the drive with a 15-yard pass on 3rd-and-15 to running back Tiki Barber. After a completion to tight end Pete Mitchell, the field goal unit rushed on the field and the Bills took a timeout before Blanchard booted the game-winner. "I didn't talk to him on the last drive," Fassel said of Blanchard. "I don't talk to kickers at all. I just say, 'Go and kick the damn thing through the uprights.'" "We made a great play there, we stuffed them down," said Giants linebacker Jesse Armstead. "I got up under there. Sam (Garnes) hit him high, I came under. My thing was to stay as low as I could. The defense rose up." Phillips explained the call. "We weren't going to kick the field goal. It was over 50 yards," he said. "We could punt and try to pin them back, but they've still got two minutes left. If we make the first down, we pretty much win the game. I was riding on one play for us to win, so I thought that was the decision to be made." "They knew we were gonna run," Linton said before taking responsibility for getting stopped. "That's on us, that's on me. ... That's never gonna happen again, I promise you that." Collins completed 23-of-44 passes for 240 yards with one touchdown and one interception, hitting Barber eight times for 90 yards. Rookie Joe Montgomery had 77 yards on 20 carries as the Giants held a 334-237 advantage in total yards. Flutie was 15-of-32 for 184 yards with a touchdown and was intercepted by Bashir Levingston on a "Hail Mary" attempt on the game's final play. He could not take advantage of a Giants team that was missing injured starting cornerbacks Jason Sehorn and Phillippi Sparks. "We felt coming in with a young secondary we needed to help them out a lot," said Giants defensive end Cedric Jones, who had a sack. "We wanted to make sure they couldn't be double-dimensional. We wanted to stop the run and keep pressure on the quarterback. We wanted to keep him (Flutie) on the run. That is what we did." Flutie added a team-high 25 yards on six carries as the Bills had their 10-game regular-season winning streak against the NFC East halted. Not included in that streak are four Super Bowl losses to teams from that division. Things were going in the Giants' favor as New York, with a 16-10 lead, drove into the Buffalo red zone. But Phil Hansen got a hand on a pass by Collins and fellow defensive end Marcellus Wiley grabbed the ball out of the air and raced 52 yards to the New York 22. Flutie hit tight end Bobby Collins for a 13-yard gain on 3rd-and-10 to the Giants 9 and Linton eventually cashed in with a two-yard TD run to give the Bills a 17-16 edge with 9:34 left. Steve Christie, who was wide right on one attempt and hit the upright on another, opened the scoring 5:44 into the game with a 50-yard field goal, but Blanchard countered with a 42-yarder less than five minutes later. "When another kicker misses, it boosts your confidence," Blanchard said. Blanchard hit from 21 yards to give the Giants a 6-3 lead 2:51 into the second quarter but running back Thurman Thomas, in the lineup for the first time since injuring his liver on the first play of the season, scored on a 23-yard reception from Flutie. Down 10-6 with 1:51 left before the half following Thomas' touchdown, Collins drove the Giants 67 yards in 10 plays, giving them a 13-10 lead with a 14-yard scoring pass to Amani Toomer four seconds before halftime. "If anything has been a plus for us all year long, it's our two-minute drill," said Fassel about the Giants offense, which has awoken in recent weeks after being among the worst in the league for most of the season. Blanchard added another 21-yarder with 4:28 left in the third quarter to increase the Giants' lead to 16-10. The Giants have not allowed a run of more than 10 yards in the last three games and held Linton and Antowain Smith to a combined 36 yards on 14 carries. Eric Moulds had three catches for 55 yards and Andre Reed had three for 40, becoming the fifth player in NFL history to break the 13,000-yard mark.
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