NFL

Giants trying to ignore praise

They have always reveled in being Home Wreckers, and there is no home Eli Manning and the Giants want to wreck more right now than Jerry Jones’ palatial home. The home where more than 100,000 howling Cowboys fans have been invited and implored by their championship-starved owner to help their desperate team kick Big Blue butts.

The Giants have made it a habit of being Home Wreckers at Cowboys Stadium these past three seasons, but this is the first time they get to strut in there as defending Super Bowl champions.

And for this home invasion that they know can go a long way toward the eventual burying of the Cowboys, the Giants have decided that the best way to keep their eyes on the prize, that precious Lombardi Trophy, is not merely to see no evil and speak no evil, but to hear no evil as well.

Best Team in Football?

Can’t hear you.

“We try our best not to listen to that. You’ll probably see me not responding on Twitter and things like that,” Justin Tuck said Wednesday. “You come to my house, you’ll notice that my TV is never on any news channel as far as ‘SportsCenter’ during weeks like this because I don’t want to hear that nonsense. Because that’s what it is.”

You just heard it.

“I know. This’ll be the last time I talk to y’all this week, too,” Tuck said. “So hopefully we understand what we’re getting ourselves in going down there. And everybody tells [the Cowboys], ‘You never beat [the Giants] down here.’ You best believe we’re gonna get their best shot, and I feel as though they’re gonna get ours. That’s why I think it’s gonna be a great football game.”

Best Quarterback in Football?

“I’m gonna just try to be the best quarterback for the Giants and get wins,” Manning said, and chuckled.

Is it flattering when people say that?

“Sure. I’ll enjoy the compliments, but it’s not gonna go to my head,” he said, and smiled.

On the other end of the spectrum is Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall adding to the garbage pile of anti-Giants comments from players (Packers, 49ers) around the league that could make a team feel like Rodney Dangerfield: That game-winning, 77-yard Manning-to-Victor Cruz touchdown pass?

Hall: “I feel like we gave them that. It wasn’t something where he (Manning) was a rocket scientist and figured something out.”

Manning: “I appreciate him giving it to me. I didn’t think it took a rocket scientist to figure it out either. You got a guy running open, you hit him. … You just laugh at it, and you shake your head.”

Luckiest Team in Football?

Can’t hear you.

“I could care less,” Cruz said. “I mean, guys take shots at us all the time. San Fran took shots at us. It is what it is.

“We just make plays to win the football game, and whatever they say after they take a loss, I could care less.”

But Victor Cruz a game-breaker? Victor (Bleeping) Cruz?

“It’s definitely a little disrespectful, but we can’t dwell on it,” Cruz said.

Tony Romo hasn’t played quite that well since he beat the Giants on Opening Night?

Can’t hear you.

“You can throw all that out the window when he plays us,” Tuck said. “I believe he’ll have his ‘A’ game against us. Games like this, it’s kinda like an Alabama-Auburn game or Notre Dame-SC game, or those big rivalry games between college teams. It really doesn’t matter what teams have done in previous weeks, it just seems like games like this, everyone gets up for and everyone kinda brings their ‘A’ game and plays better, so that’s what I’m expecting down there from both sides.”

Romo shredded the Giants the first time.

“That slant play hurt us a lot and they kept going back to it so we’ll have something to kinda give him some different looks, hopefully make him hold it a little bit longer to give our rush the time to get there,” Tuck said. “But there’s no excuses about it, whatever they decide to do, we gotta find a way to take ‘em out of it.

“I know a lot of people give him grief when he gets on a streak where he’s not playing well, but when he’s on a streak playing well like he was that night, he’s one of the best in the league hands down. I’ve seen to where he’s completely [taken] over games, whether that be with his scrambling for long plays or just standing in that pocket, he can do it all.

“The times we’ve had success against him have been the times we’ve been able to get some hits on him and get him rattled a little bit, or take away some of his first and second reads, and get him second-guessing what he looks at.”

The Cowboys fanatics?

They’ll hear them.

“Their crowd’s gonna be into it, they’re gonna be amped up about it and excited, and I know for a fact that can propel you to play a little bit above your head, so hopefully we can kinda take that crowd out of the game early,” Tuck said.

When the Home Wreckers are finished?

Can’t hear them.