You don’t bury a division rival at the midpoint of the season, but linebacker Michael Boley said he knows if the Giants beat the Cowboys on Sunday, you could at least grab a shovel.
“That would definitely put us in the driver’s seat’’ in the NFC East, Boley said.
All of the Giants know the most direct path to victory is to bring out the worst in Tony Romo.
And, as the evidence has shown, the worst is pretty darn bad, just as the best is, well, precisely what Romo did to torch the Giants in the season opener.
“He’s a streaky guy,’’ Mathias Kiwanuka said yesterday. “I don’t think you can look at the trajectory of his season or his career at any point because at any point he’s liable to go out and throw for 400 or 500 yards or he can, you know, have a game that’s just as bad as any he’s ever had. So for us we have to make sure we prepare for his best and try to get him out of his rhythm.’’
The Giants saw the best of Romo on Sept. 5, when he passed for three touchdowns and 307 yards to direct the Cowboys past the Giants 24-17. The entire football-watching public three weeks later saw the worst of Romo when he tied his career high by firing five interceptions against the Bears on Monday Night Football.
Is there any way to predict which Romo you will get?
“It’s not cyclical,’’ Kiwanuka said. “It’s very up and down. He can get on a roll in a game that he’s not expected to win and come out looking great.’’
The other extreme is also possible, though, as linebacker Chase Blackburn said, “He plays pretty well against us.’’
The Giants believe they are much more equipped to deal with Romo now than they were seven weeks ago.
“I think we’re much more settled,’’ defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said. “We labored a little bit in that first ball game in terms of healthy bodies.’’
The Giants were shorthanded at cornerback in the opener and Romo took advantage of the inexperience (Michael Coe, Justin Tryon in fill-in roles) on the back end. The expectation is that won’t be the case in the rematch.
With a victory, the Giants (5-2) would open up a three-game lead on the Cowboys (3-3), which would be “huge’’ according to Justin Tuck, and also a remarkable cushion, considering the Cowboys got a jump on the season by beating the Giants in the opener.
“That team is so dangerous. … It seems they can find a way to get hot and win a lot of games in a row,’’ Tuck said of the Cowboys. “That’s another important factor for us.”
With a win, the Giants would be the first team in the NFC East with two wins in the division, which would also be quite surprising, considering they started out 0-2 in the division.
“Not too often will you come from an 0-2 division standing to being kind of a little bit in charge and kind of being in control of our own destiny,’’ Blackburn said. “It’s still early but we got an opportunity.’’
The opening loss put the Giants into an immediate hole, and it was a game they would like to forget. Antrel Rolle remembered the defense “stunk up the whole entire second half’’ as the Cowboys took control.
Now it’s the Giants trying to take something back.
“You want to try to take, seize and be in control where you can control your own destiny,’’ right tackle Sean Locklear said.
“It’s a big opportunity for us to take over the division and that’s the number one thing for us, trying to create a path for ourselves to get to where we want to be, which the ultimate goal is the Super Bowl,’’ added tight end Martellus Bennett. “So this is a big step. They’re in the way, so we’ve got to go down there and go through them and make sure we come back with a win.’’
paul.schwartz@nypost.com