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The Associated Press

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - No Tom Brady. No Eli Manning.

The New England Patriots and New York Giants took no chances with their quarterbacks in a pre-season finale on Thursday night that matched February's Super Bowl opponents.

This time there was nothing at stake, except a few jobs before the final roster cutdown on Saturday, and David Carr took advantage.

Shaking off the frustration of recent seasons, Carr took advantage of Manning's rare night off, throwing two touchdown passes and leading the Giants on four long scoring drives in a 19-14 victory over the winless Patriots at Giants Stadium.

"This is the best I have felt since early in Houston," said Carr, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2002 draft. "I did feel good."

Carr was outstanding. He finished 20 of 29 for 192 yards in likely nailing down the backup spot to Manning. Anthony Wright seemingly had the edge in that race until hurting his back a week ago against the Jets.

"I have played decent games where I have not felt good," Carr said. "I felt I sporadically made plays and things lucked into happening. Tonight I was in control of what was going on and that hasn't happened in a long time."

With Brady out with an injury to his right foot, little has gone right for the Patriots (0-4) in an imperfect pre-season.

The offence looked anemic until fourth-string quarterback Kevin O'Connell came on in the fourth quarter.

The good news for New England fans is that Brady, the NFL MVP, says he will be ready for the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sept. 7.

"When the regular season starts, it's a whole new ballgame," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "We know that. Is it nice to win the games? Yeah, but it doesn't mean anything. We've had good records in preseason, we've had bad records in preseason. What counts is how you play in the regular season."

Chiefs 21 Rams 17

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Brodie Croyle directed two quick touchdown drives against the St. Louis reserves and the Kansas City offence grabbed some much-needed momentum with a 21-17 victory over the Rams on Thursday night.

The only projected Rams starter who did not take the night off in the final pre-season game was centre Nick Leckey. Everyone else was either a second- or third-teamer as coach Scott Linehan took a long look at players competing for the final roster spots.

The Chiefs, coming off a demoralizing 24-0 shutout at the hands of a Miami team that was 1-15 last season, had a more urgent craving. They were looking for confidence and momentum going into their regular-season opener next week at New England.

After the start of the game was delayed one hour, 26 minutes by a rain and wind storm, Marcus Riley recovered Dantrell Savage's fumble on the kickoff and the Rams took a 3-0 lead on Josh Brown's 35-yard field goal.

But the rest of the quarter belonged to the Chiefs.