If Jason Pierre-Paul said it, Antrel Rolle has his back.
“If JPP says there will be blood then there will be blood,’’ Rolle said Tuesday on his weekly WFAN spot.
Well, Pierre-Paul did say it. Looking ahead to Sunday’s NFC East showdown against the Cowboys after clinching the 27-13 victory over the Packers with an interception return for a touchdown, Pierre-Paul said: “We’re going to put it on ’em, man. It’s going to be a fight, it’s going to be a dogfight, and there’s going to be a lot of blood spilled out there.’’
Rolle didn’t add to that rhetoric, but he did say: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is definitely a must-win game. Every game from this moment on is a must game because we dug a hole for ourselves so deep.’’
Prince Amukamara added Pierre-Paul’s statement fired the team up.
“This is a huge game for both of us,” he told The Post at a Muscular Dystrophy awareness fund-raiser at Chelsea Piers. “The NFC East is pretty rocky — no one knows where it’s going. This is a huge game, and a bloodbath is a great word to describe it.”
The Giants are on a four-game winning streak after their 0-6 start, beating up on a series of subpar quarterbacks to plow back into contention. That will not be the case this weekend. Tony Romo is far better than the quarterbacks the Giants have feasted on lately.
Rolle’s retort?
“Well, he’s going up in class as far as the defense,’’ Rolle said. “We’ve played Tony Romo before, we’ve beaten him before. I think Tony Romo is a great quarterback. I think he’s very athletic. When this guy gets hot, he can be one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in this league. I think he throws exceptional on the run. We understand what we’re facing, but at the same time we’re not the same defense he faced the first time around. I expect for things to be a little bit different this time around.’’
Asked if he buys into the widespread notion Romo is prone to the big mistake at the big moment, Rolle agreed he has heard that assessment of the Cowboys quarterback.
“Watching him and seeing how certain games have played out, I can understand why people might say that,’’ Rolle said. “Going against him, I can’t say I personally experienced that. I think he plays the game just as any other quarterback plays the game, things are going to happen throughout the course of a game. Against us, I think for the most part, Tony Romo has played fairly well pretty much every game I played against him. Personally speaking, no, I can’t say that, but outside looking in, I’m sure why they would say that.’’
The Cowboys beat the Giants 36-31 in the season-opener as the Giants committed six turnovers to put their defense in many difficult spots.
“Overall I think defensively we did a pretty good job,’’ Rolle said. “Could it have been better? Absolutely. Will it be better? Absolutely. We’re just looking forward to Sunday, man.
“Even with all that [six turnovers] we were right there at the end of the game. We don’t really worry too much what the offense does. Did they get the better of our offense? Absolutely. Any time you can get six turnovers obviously you should win the game, hands down. I think Eli [Manning] and the rest of the offense did a phenomenal job fighting back, bouncing back, unfortunately we weren’t able to close it out. But like I said this is a different team right now, we have a different mentality and we’re going for a different outcome.’’
Although he has only played 10 NFL regular-season games, rookie right tackle Justin Pugh is aware of Sunday’s stakes and is confident the Giants will emerge victorious.
“It’s going to be a fight come Sunday,” he told The Post. “[When] we were in Dallas, it was a fight. We know what to expect coming into this one. It’s a divisional game. It’s a lot on the line. We need this win. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be one of those games we’ll be able to talk about as a turning point in the season.”