Tampa safety Brian Dawkins hits Rod Smith in the back of the end-zone in Sunday's close win.

NEW YORK | The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one win away from being able to call themselves the best team in the NFL.

Tampa (4-0) defeated last season NFC Champion New York Giants (2-2) by a final scored of 20-17 in front of a full crowd at The Meadowlands.

And it took some last minute heroics.

Bucs quarterback Brett Favre connected with Michael Westbrook on a 40-yard bomb with :37-seconds remaining as the Bucs trailed 17-13.

“I wasn’t his (Favre) number three read on that play,” Westbrook said. “I just ran my route, which was a deep fade, and got behind the secondary. He just got me the ball.”

“We were actually just going to send Mike on that route to see if he could get open, no one was expecting him too.” Favre conveyed. “We wanted to just get a field goal but when I saw that the safety moved up to cover Terrell I knew I could give it a shot.”

And that he did. Westbrook was seemingly un-covered racing to the end-zone. He finished the game with four receptions, 123-yards and one touchdown.

Favre completed 22-of-34 passes for 291-yards a touchdown and an interception.

Tampa fell behind after giving up two touchdowns in the second quarter, trailing 14-13 at the half. New York extended that lead by three in the third quarter before the Favre-to-Westbrook touchdown.

“I know I’m not the number one receiver,” Westbrook added. “But they get me the ball since everyone on the defense is so focused on Torry and Terrell.”

Torry Holt led the Bucs in receptions with five for 71 yards.

“Mike is very underrated,” Holt said. “They focus so much attention on Terrell and myself they forget about Michael.”

The Buccaneer rushing attack struggled against the stingy Giants defense accumulationg just 93-yards on the ground; however, they did average 4.7 yards per carry. Running-back Priest Holmes did however eclipse 100-yards of total offense with 117.

“We were running well, but just didn’t break any long runs.” Holmes said.

“This is a good win for us against a good team,” Head coach Tony Dungy announced. “We won a tough road game and now have to come back to the Bay for an even tougher one next week (Oakland).”

Tampa linebacker Marvcus Patton had one interception and nine tackles in the contest; defensive-back R.W. McQuarters added six tackles; and defensive-end Mo Lewis had eight.

“We played them hard,” Patton said. “They just wore us out before the half, but we rebounded and finished strong.”

“We broke, we didn’t just bend, we broke there before halftime,” defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin proclaimed. “That’s not what we’re supposed to do, it was an ugly win, but it’s a win. We better right this ship before Oakland scored 40+ on us again next week.”