Smith’s two touchdowns lead Cardinals past Giants

Just like the old days in Dallas, Emmitt Smith made life miserable for the New York Giants on Sunday in Tempe, Ariz.

And the Giants aided greatly in their own demise.

Smith rushed for a pair of touchdowns and Arizona sacked Kurt Warner six times, including four by Bertrand Berry, in the Cardinals’ 17-14 victory over New York.

Smith rushed for 67 yards on 19 carries – and 30 of those yards came on Arizona’s go-ahead touchdown drive. He had scoring runs of 2 and 3 yards en route to passing 18,000 yards rushing in his career.

It was the first time in two seasons that Smith had run for two scores in a game.

Arizona won its second straight, improved to 3-1 at home and is just a game back in the weak NFC West.

After a 4-1 start, the Giants have lost three of four. Tiki Barber rushed for 108 yards on 21 carries, but had only 28 on nine attempts in the second half.

Panthers 37, 49ers 27

Muhsin Muhammad caught three touchdown passes from Jake Delhomme in the second half, and Todd Sauerbrun made the go-ahead field goal with 4:25 left as Carolina rallied to beat host San Francisco.

Delhomme was 19 of 34 for 303 yards – 123 on six passes to Muhammad – as the Panthers overwhelmed the Niners’ terrible defense with 34 points after halftime.