After letting the Giants talk all week, Orlando Scandrick let them have it Sunday night.
The Cowboys’ nickel cornerback went off on Big Blue after Dallas’ 24-21 victory at the gun at MetLife Stadium, mocking their pregame chatter and actions while reserving particular ridicule for their two most prominent talkers in Jason Pierre-Paul and Terrell Thomas.
“They talked and they talked and they talked,” Scandrick said after shutting down Giants star Victor Cruz. “I’ve never in my life heard a team that was 4-6 talk like that. We were 5-5, and we knew we had no room to talk.”
At the urging of coach Jason Garrett, Scandrick and the Cowboys had refused to return the verbal fire last week after Pierre-Paul vowed there would “be a lot of blood spilled out there” and Thomas predicted a Giants victory.
But after the Giants intentionally interrupted the Cowboys’ pregame meeting a midfield, setting off a scrum that had to be broken up by the officiating crew, and then Dallas won on a walk-off, 35-yard field goal by Dan Bailey, Scandrick couldn’t contain himself any longer.
“I don’t know what the hell that was,” he said of the Giants’ bulletin-board material and pregame antics. “You just need to be quiet sometimes and do your talking with your play. I feel like it started as soon as the game ended for them last Sunday.
“Jason Pierre-Paul was like, ‘There’s going to be bloodshed.’ Did he even record a stat on the final stat sheet?’’’
For the record, Pierre-Paul had one solo tackle and no sacks of Tony Romo in the Cowboys victory, earning him another dig from Dallas defensive tackle Jason Hatcher.
“I just finished eating a Giant, and there’s some leftover blood,” Hatcher joked when asked about some blood from an apparent cut on his face. “They said blood was going to be shed, right?”
Scandrick, an emerging player who has a legitimate shot to make the Pro Bowl this season, knows Thomas from Southern California and said he approached the Giants cornerback after the game to tell him how foolish Scandrick thought his prediction was.
“I talked to him after the game and said, ‘T, just go about your business and play. You can talk with your play,’’’ Scandrick said. “The one thing about this league is, you’ve got to respect everybody. Look what happens around this league. Anybody can beat anybody.”
Scandrick said the Giants made the situation worse by trying to bust up their huddle at the end of pregame warmups, a move Scandrick declared intentional because the Cowboys are known for congregating at midfield.
Dallas players were laughing about that when they got back to the locker room, according to Scandrick.
“That was just the New York Giants being the New York Giants,” Scandrick said. “They know we do that, and they just decided they wanted to meet us there and stare us down. You’re not going to be able to talk your way to a victory. You’re not going to scare anybody.”
Scandrick felt comfortable blistering the Giants because he had a terrific day individually, too. When Scandrick was matched up with him, Cruz had just one catch for 5 yards, which Scandrick helped strip away from him and into the arms of safety Jeff Heath, who returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.
But while Scandrick was amused by the words coming from the Giants players, he was puzzled that they came with Tom Coughlin’s blessing.
“They have a great coach,” Scandrick said. “I don’t have any earthly idea why he let them talk like that.”