Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth probably had to go back into their memory bank to recall how to call a close game. It had been that long.

Dallas’ 31-28 victory over the Giants broke a remarkable nine-game streak of routs (closest victory margin was 18 points) on Sunday night. A compelling game obviously helped the ratings. NBC did a 14 overnight rating, up from the 11.9 final rating for New England’s 42-20 victory over Indianapolis the previous week.

Meanwhile, the highest-rated game of the week was Denver-Miami on CBS. The game did a 17.4 overnight rating, its second best of the season.