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He can dazzle you with his smile, charm you with his personality, devastate you with his arm, demoralize you with his legs. He is the marquee attraction, the star of the show, the savior of the Redskins.
If ever there is a reason for the Giants not to suddenly forget how to play like champions, it is Robert Griffin III.
This is the time of the year when you can’t just dominate Aaron Rodgers one week and show up the next week fully expecting to be Supermen again.
This is the time of year when you refuse to let this or any precocious phenom quarterback speed 100 mph on the bridge you are building to New Orleans.
“You could see it in everyone’s eyes, the way everybody’s practicing and preparing and how everybody really wants it,” fullback Henry Hynoski said. “We definitely got the ability and the talent and the coaching staff, we’re very blessed to have great coaches and great leaders on this team.
“If any team could repeat, it’s us.”
This is the time of year when your two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback plays like a two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback against the 31st-ranked pass defense (301.4 yards per game).
This is the time of year when you stop cursing the football gods for putting RG3 in the NFC East and get him again now, while you still can in only his 12th NFL start.
This is the time of the year when you walk into his raucous house and silence Griffinsanity.
One problem:
No rookie quarterback is supposed to have the wherewithal to stand up to the defending world champs in a game with monumental implications for both teams.
This one does.
This one doesn’t care about the circumstances, this one never encountered a big game that was too big for him.
This one wants the ball in his hands with the game and the fortunes of his team and his mesmerized football nation on his shoulders.
This one acts like he’s been there before. This one doesn’t care the Giants have been there in 2008 and 2012 and plan on being there again in 2013.
This one has a head coach who knows exactly how to use him and a rookie running back and a big downfield target back from the trainer’s room and an entire team that believes in him.
This one has thrown eight touchdown passes and one interception in his last two games to join the MVP conversation and a 67.4 completion percentage overall.
The Giants have been singing his praises all week and now Perry Fewell has to make sure his defense doesn’t show up off key with Kenny Phillips unavailable for his diabolical three-safety package and Jason Pierre-Paul questionable with back spasms.
“He’s fast, he’s quick, everybody knows that,” Mathias Kiwanuka said. “But he’s got the down-field mindset as well. And he’s got the ability to squeeze it in. He’s not afraid to take deep shots, and so we have to play him honest.”
RG3 is the classic example of how a franchise quarterback can bring hope to a franchise. If you don’t have one, if you fail to find one, you are doomed. He isn’t only must-watch TV, he is already a clear and present danger to Big Blue designs on grabbing a stranglehold on the division so they don’t find themselves with their backs against the wall fighting for their playoff lives again.
“We don’t want to dig our own grave,” line-
backer Spencer Paysinger said. “We do have that same hunger, but we don’t have to wait ’til our backs are against the wall to succeed.”
The Giants believe you won’t see the team that lollygagged it in Cincinnati again. They believe the belief is growing.
“It’s starting to become a familiar feel around here,” Chris Canty said. “When you had an opportunity to have all three phases playing together, that’s who we are, that’s what we’re about.”
Tom Coughlin has implored the Giants to maintain the energy level they brought back from the bye.
“I don’t think it’s about defending, I think it’s about making another run, I think it’s about pushing this point of the year the same way we did last year so that we could have the same result,” Kiwanuka said. “I’m not worried about defending so much as I am about going for the next one.”
This fellow named RG3 happens to be standing in the middle of the bridge between the next one and the last one.
steve.serby@nypost.com