– The Associated Press

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t impressive. And it certainly wasn’t a blowout like a week ago.

The New York Giants simply found a way to keep winning Sunday, and the error-prone and road-awful Detroit Lions helped them along the way.

Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes and the Giants (4-2) held on for their third straight victory with a 28-20 decision that sent the Lions to an NFL record-tying 24th straight road loss.

“Games aren’t always going to be blowouts,” Giants offensive tackle David Diehl said of last week’s 34-10 win over Houston. “Games aren’t just going to click where everything happens. This was a grinder game and we stuck together and made it happen. We have a lot of confidence in each other.”

Safety Deon Grant preserved the win by forcing and recovering a fumble by Lions receiver Nate Burleson at the Giants 42 with about 5 minutes to go and New York ahead by four points.

Ahmad Bradshaw, who finished with 133 yards, ran for 45 yards on the first play after the fumble, setting up Brandon Jacobs’ second touchdown run, a 6-yarder. Jacobs also scored from 4 yards out.

Manning’s TD passes covered 33 yards to Mario Manningham and 1 yard to Travis Beckum.

“If you lose this one, you go back and talk about all the opportunities you had to win,” defensive tackle Barry Cofield said.

“The reality is you’re just happy to take any win, any way it comes. This team (the Lions) won 44-6 last week so obviously they are doing some things right.”

The difference was the Giants made fewer mistakes than the Lions, who had three turnovers and 11 penalties for 91 yards, including two that kept New York touchdown drives alive.

“This game resembled our first four when we started 0-4,” Lions Coach Jim Schwartz said. “Till the end, we were a play away. There were some really good things but there were things that caused us to be on the wrong side of the score.”

Drew Stanton, who took over at quarterback for the Lions after Shaun Hill broke his left arm late in the first half, had an 87-yard scoring pass to Calvin Johnson in the fourth quarter and moved Detroit to the Giants 38 in the closing seconds before safety Antrel Rolle intercepted his desperation heave at the 16-yard line.

The Giants had their own blunders. Punter Matt Dodge dropped a snap to set up Detroit’s first touchdown, and Rolle took a horrible angle on the long touchdown pass to Johnson.

The bottom line was that the Lions’ futility on the road continued. They have not won on the road since Oct. 28, 2007, and this latest setback tied their own league record for consecutive road loss (24), set in the 2001-03 seasons.