EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant scored two touchdowns in the second half to give his team a 31-28 comeback win over the New York Giants Sunday night at MetLife Stadium.

The Giants, who had jumped out to a 21-10 halftime lead, quickly reverted to their disturbing brand of sloppy football in the second half, particularly on defense, where they gave up huge chunks of yardage due to blown assignments and missed tackles.

The Cowboys, meanwhile, overcame their biggest halftime deficit on the road this season to bounce back by simply staying the course and not getting down on themselves.

“I think it says a lot about the character of our guys and their ability to focus, their mental toughness,” Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said. “We have this expression, ‘Do your best regardless of the circumstances,’ and we just had to regroup at halftime and make a commitment to each other to play one play at a time, and to fight.”

Fight they did, as the Cowboys took the lead on 14 unanswered points against a Giants team that suddenly couldn’t do much of anything right.

The first Cowboys score in the comeback came on a 45-yard touchdown catch by receiver Cole Beasley, his first score of the season.

The second score, Bryant’s first touchdown of the game, was set up thanks to an Eli Manning interception by Cowboys safety Barry Church on his 3-yard line, a play that snuffed out a Giants scoring drive.

“I just threw it high,” Manning said of the ill-fated pass that was intended for receiver Preston Parker over the middle. “(There is) no excuse; the guy was running open and I gotta hit him.”

The Giants did regain the lead briefly, when Manning found tight end Adrien Robinson in the end zone on a 1-yard touchdown play with three minutes left.

However, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, who finished 18 of 26 for 275 yards and four touchdowns, had practically all day to stand back in the pocket on a 2nd-and-2 from the Giants’ 13-yard line to find an open receiver for the game-winning score. That receiver was Bryant, who finished with seven receptions for 86 yards.

What the Cowboys said:

“Yeah. It’s better than having seven.” — QB Tony Romo, when asked if it means anything to have eight wins with five games to go.

What the Giants said:

“I guess I have to thank my mom for the long fingers.” — WR Odell Beckham Jr., who made an acrobatic, fingertip reception on a 43-yard, second-quarter touchdown pass from Eli Manning that gave the Giants a 14-3 lead at the time.

What we learned about the Cowboys:

1. The Cowboys are this year’s version of the “Road Warriors.” Their win against the Giants is their fifth straight road victory this season, making them the only NFL team who has not lost on the road. This is also the Cowboys’ longest road winning streak since they ran through 10 wins on a streak that began on Nov. 12, 2006 at Arizona and ended on Dec. 22 at Carolina.

2. The Cowboys are resilient. Despite having those moments where they were flustered — Dallas had four unsportsmanlike penalties following a positive Giants play — the Cowboys stayed the course, banded together and made the plays that needed to be made to overcome an 11-point deficit on the road to win the game.

–QB Tony Romo completed 69.2 percent of his passes against the Giants, making this the 10th game this season in which he has hit the 60 percent mark or better.

–WR Cole Beasley’s 45-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter that cut the Giants’ lead to 21-17 was his first touchdown reception this season and his longest reception in his career, eclipsing a 23-yard reception last season against Denver.

–RB DeMarco Murray finished with 121 yards rushing on 24 carries. It was his 10th 100-yard rushing game of the season. Murray needs just one more 100-yard rushing game to tie the Cowboys’ team record of 11 games set in 1995 by Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith.

–WR Dez Bryant has now caught at least one touchdown in each of his last four games. He has also caught two touchdown passes in each of his last two games. Bryant, who remains the Cowboys leader in touchdowns scored, now has 10 receiving touchdowns on the season.

What we learned about the Giants:

1. Odell Beckham Jr. is a star. Sometimes a player looks like a star in practice only to fizzle out when the game time rolls around. Not Beckham Jr., however. After making some dazzling catches in the pregame warmup, practice made perfect for the Giants’ first-round pick when he came up with a catch for the ages, a fingertip reception on a 43-yard pass by quarterback Eli Manning that gave the Giants a 14-3 lead at the time.

2. The Giants need to forget about any hope of getting into the playoffs. Despite weekly proclamations from head coach Tom Coughlin and the players about how well the team practiced, how much energy there was, and how focused they are, these Giants continue to make the same mistakes every week to lose games. From breakdowns in the pass protection, which started toward the end of the first half, to letting receivers run free over the middle to failing to tackle or to get a pass rush, this Giants team right now is stuck in a vicious wash-rinse-repeat cycle that it appears to have little chance of escaping.

–QB Eli Manning’s career record against the Cowboys fell to 11-11, which includes the lone postseason game the Giants have played against Dallas in Manning’s tenure. Manning has now lost five of his last six starts against Dallas.

–OL James Brewer was active for the first time this season. Brewer, a 2011 fourth-round draft pick by the Giants, served as the backup tackle with Justin Pugh inactive this week and Charles Brown having been sent packing on Saturday. Brewer came into the game in the fourth quarter after LT Will Beatty had to exit after being poked in the eye.

–OL Adam Snyder, who got his first start as a Giant, had to leave the game in the second half after suffering a knee injury. Snyder, who had replaced Weston Richburg at left guard, was replaced by Richburg following the injury.

–WR Odell Beckham Jr.’s 146 receiving yards was his second-highest single-game total, falling 10 yards shy of matching his season high of 156 yards (on eight receptions) in a Week 9 loss to the Colts.