NFL

Blanked vs. Cowoys, Giants Big Three hot to hit Buccaneers QB

The word used by Justin Tuck was “alarming.’’ Osi Umenyiora countered with “troublesome.’’ The man in charge of the defensive operation, Perry Fewell, called it “an eye-opener for me.’’

Rarely has so much conversation been created by so little action. The Giants are accustomed to getting so much out of Tuck, Umenyiora and Jason Pierre-Paul, and what they got out of them in the season opener was, well, nothing.

When was the last time the Giants got shut out with these renowned pass rushers?

“Never,’’ Pierre-Paul said. “Never.’’

The Big Three turned into The Big Dud against the Cowboys with the least-productive game they’ve ever assembled together. The Sack Attack of Tuck, Pierre-Paul and Umenyiora failed to register a sack in a game for the first time since the middle of the 2010 season, when Pierre-Paul was just starting to emerge as a force. Now, sacks aren’t the only measure of a player’s contribution, but there’s something wrong in a game when the two interior linemen, Linval Joseph and Rocky Bernard, are able to get to the quarterback and the much-ballyhooed defensive ends get nada.

“Every one of us can have a bad game,’’ Pierre-Paul said. “I expect if Tuck has a bad game, I should have a great one; and if I have a bad game, Osi will have a good one; if Osi and me have a bad game, Tuck should have a great one. That’s how I expect it to be. It wasn’t like that last Wednesday.’’

Not even close. The Giants have tucked away their 24-17 loss to the Cowboys and say they’ve had a rejuvenated week of practice heading into Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers. The one area that needs a charge more than any other is the pass rush, which can best be described as dormant.

The Giants didn’t rough up Tony Romo and, as a result, Tuck estimated, “I don’t think Romo was rattled at all.’’

Up next, Josh Freeman is no Romo as far as mobility or escape-ability. Tuck likened him to Ben Roethlisberger as far as a big dude who is difficult to bring down. Freeman is 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds and he was sacked twice in last week’s season-opening victory over the Panthers.

All premier pass-rushers insist sacks are not the only gauge of pressure and, in fact, there are times when the sack total is highly misleading.

“I’ve been in games where we had five sacks and those were the only five times we hit the quarterback and they still whupped our butt,’’ Tuck said. “We’ve had games where we haven’t had many sacks, but we were pressuring and the time we don’t pressure he still feels us and makes an errant throw. Sacks are overblown, but it’s a good stat to have.’’

Here’s the more incriminating evidence from the opener: Tuck, Pierre-Paul and Umenyiora were not credited with a single quarterback hit. The only two hits on Romo were the two sacks. Fewell said he considers it a solid performance if his defense gets 9-10 “legal hits’’ in a game, with about six coming from the defensive line. His three heralded ends didn’t get any. Pierre-Paul was by far the most active of the three.

“[Pierre-Paul] played a nice game,” Fewell said. “It wasn’t his best game, but he was disruptive.’’

But no hits.

“Hits are the most important thing, hits and pressures,’’ Umenyiora said. “Sacks, I’ve seen games where I’ve had the best game of my life, I didn’t get a sack, and I’ve played games where I played terrible and I got there once or twice and it might look like I had a good game when in actuality I didn’t. Hits on the quarterback, that’s a test of true skill, that’s you really getting there and we just didn’t do a good job of that vs. Dallas.’’

None of the three anticipates this being a situation that will linger.

“Because it happened once I think it possibly could happen again, but if I was a betting man I would probably say no,’’ Tuck said.

Asked if he was a betting man, Tuck responded, “No. But I’d probably still say no.’’

paul.schwartz@nypost.com