Just what you expected this week in the NFL, big wins from the Cowboys and Broncos

The second half of the NFL season is starting out just like the first — from week to week, we don’t know what to believe.

We’re as in the dark as the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants, whose game was stopped for 12 minutes Sunday because of a power outage at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

Are the last-place Cowboys one of the worst teams in the league? They sure didn’t look that way in their 33-20 stunner over the first-place Giants, who had won five in a row and were favored by two touchdowns. It was quite a debut for Cowboys interim Coach Jason Garrett, who six days earlier was promoted to replace the fired Wade Phillips.

And what about two-win Denver, who three weeks ago gave up 59 points to Oakland? Those same Broncos just crushed first-place Kansas City by 20, at one point holding a 35-0 lead.

Even the euphoria in Denver couldn’t match that in Buffalo, where the Bills won for the first time this season, beating Detroit, 14-12.

“Relief!” cornerback Leodis McKelvin exhaled to reporters. “We won. We’re not going to be talking about being an 0-16 team or nothing like that. It feels great to get a win and get that off our chests.”

It wasn’t out of the blue that the Bills would win. Despite coming into the game at 0-8, they were favored by three and were facing a franchise that now has lost a record 25 in a row on the road.

It also wasn’t a jaw-dropper that fast-rising Cleveland nearly beat the New York Jets before losing in overtime. That game pitted the Ryan twins — Rex, coach of the Jets, and Rob, defensive coordinator of the Browns. The game almost ended in a tie, but with 16 seconds left in the extra period New York’s Santonio Holmes caught a short pass from Mark Sanchez and turned up field for a 37-yard touchdown.

Holmes was conflicted after the game, and even looked for Rob Ryan to apologize. Rex essentially told him to forget that stuff.

“At 1 o’clock, everybody becomes nameless, faceless objects — whether it is your twin brother or a friend,” Rex told reporters. “I feel bad for Cleveland. They played their hearts out. I don’t want to do this game over.”

The Miami Dolphins were feeling a little ambivalent too. They picked up their first home victory of the season, but lost their two top quarterbacks to injuries: Chad Pennington and Chad Henne. That makes third-stringer Tyler Thigpen the starter against Chicago on Thursday, meaning he has four days to prepare, having taken zero snaps with the first-string offense in practice.

“It’s huge getting this win,” Dolphins Coach Tony Sparano said. “This is November. If you don’t win in November, you’ve got no chance.”

No need to remind the Minnesota Vikings. They had a chance to claw their way back into the NFC North race Sunday, but lost at Chicago, 27-13, with three interceptions and a fumble by Brett Favre.

“Honestly, it’s a gut-check time,” said Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, putting a vaguely optimistic spin on a hopeless situation. “It’s getting old. Same song and dance, different game. We’re just inconsistent.”

Maybe that’s a good thing. If they were consistent, every one of their games would be a disaster.

Look who’s talking

Randy Moss didn’t make much noise in his Tennessee debut — and he wanted to make even less noise after it.

Moss, released two weeks ago by the Vikings, caught one pass for 24 yards with four minutes left in a 29-17 loss to Miami. Afterwards, he shooed away reporters.

“Bro, I ain’t doing no interviews today! No. Nothing!” he said, according to AOL Fanhouse. “Conversation over.”

Well … maybe not over. He later relented, possibly because the league fined him $25,000 the last time he refused to talk to the media.

“My debut, man, it was actually a bad game for me,” he said in a brief appearance at the lectern. “I think I just tried to be as much help to them as I could, just to play within the offense. So I felt comfortable out there, but I don’t think that I had a very good game overall.”

Showstopper

The Jacksonville Jaguars often complain they’re seldom featured on national sports highlight shows, whether they win or lose. That shouldn’t be a problem this week, as they had Sunday’s most exciting ending.

Mike Thomas won the game when he caught a 50-yard Hail Mary pass on the final play of a 31-24 shootout with Houston. The ball was batted into his hands by Texans cornerback Glover Quin, who was trying to knock it to the turf. It was the fourth regular-season game in NFL history to end on a TD pass of 50 yards or more.

“It was definitely a surprise,” Thomas said. “You don’t expect that kind of play to go the way it’s supposed to go. It was shocked and a little stunned.”

And, on the strangest of Sundays, it fit right in.

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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