EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Adewale Ojomo took another step toward making an NFL roster and helped the New York Giants and New England Patriots avoid a coach’s worst nightmare in the preseason finale — overtime.

Ojomo’s sack and forced fumble set up a 32-yard field goal by Lawrence Tynes with 1:03 to play Wednesday night, and the Giants defeated the Patriots 6-3 in the final warmup for the regular season for the teams that met in the Super Bowl in early February.

This one was hardly as interesting but the Giants (2-2) again scored late to win. Defensive tackle Marcus Thomas rumbled 12 yards with the fumble following Ojomo’s strip-sack against Brian Hoyer, giving New York the ball at the Patriots’ 17.

It set up Tynes’ second field goal and will force the coaching staff to again think about him. Ojomo, a rookie free agent out of Miami, has caught their attention with a team-high four sacks.

“The coaches have got to evaluate the film,” Ojomo said. “I think the (strip-sack) will work in my favor but there’s a lot of different phases of the game they have to evaluate.”

Ojomo plans to be confident heading into Friday’s final cut to the 54-man roster.

“It would be a great honor to be a Giant,” Ojomo said. “They’re a first-class organization. Aside from the high taxes and high rent, it would be great to be a Giant. I’ll be confident Friday; I won’t be nervous. They have to make tough decisions, so you have to go out and do what you need to do to make it not so tough for them.”

Steve Gostkowski kicked a 20-yard field goal in the second quarter for the Patriots (1-3), who rested almost every starter.

“Everybody who played got an opportunity to show us what they could do,” New England Coach Bill Belichick said.

The Giants will kick off the NFL season next Wednesday at home against Dallas. The Patriots will open Sept. 9 at Tennessee.

The Giants iced it with 13 seconds to play on an interception by Laron Scott.

Eli Manning and most of the Giants’ starters played just over a quarter, with receiver Hakeem Nicks making his preseason debut. Fullback Eric Kettani and defensive tackle Brandon Deaderick were the only starters on the Patriots’ depth chart to play.

“I wanted to open it up a little bit and I wanted to get my body back used to it,” said Nicks, who had one catch for 6 yards. “That’s what I needed.”

After collecting only four first downs and 69 total yards in the first half, the Giants took the second-half kickoff and went 64 yards in 13 plays with Tynes tying the game with a 34-yard field goal. Andre Brown rushed nine times for 51 yards in what has to be a late bid to make the club.

“I like how we came out in the second half and figured out how to win a football game,” Coach Tom Coughlin said. “I didn’t like the way we started the game.”

NOTES: Spencer Paysinger and Dwayne Hendricks led the Giants with six tackles each. Matt Broha and Craig Marshall, who started at defensive end for the Giants with Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyoira out, both had 11/2 sacks. Jermaine Cunningham had two sacks for New England. Mike Rivera had 12 tackles to lead the Patriots. Zoltan Mesko of the Patriots and Steve Weatherford of the Giants punted nine times. each. Quarterback David Carr (11 of 18 for 136 yards) played the final three quarters for New York. Quarterback Ryan Mallett (8 of 15 for 40 yards) played the first half for New England and Hoyer (9 of 15 for 96) finished the game.

 

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