Tuck concerned with Giants' mental lapses

A guy with a beard set up in the corner of a mall and people waited on line to tell him what they wanted.

Santa Claus? No.

Try Justin Tuck, who was at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus on Monday night with some teammates collecting toys and books for the Boys and Girls Clubs. Most people who stopped by had the same request for Tuck and his fellow Giants: Beat the Cowboys.

"I got that a lot," Tuck said after two hours of signing autographs.

The Giants' season comes down to the final four games, two of which will be against the team Tuck and the fans love to hate the most. "That will never change," he said of his disdain for Dallas. "I just don't like the fact that everybody calls them 'America's Team.' "

They trail the Cowboys by one game in the NFC East, but if the Giants play with the same kind of effort and intensity they brought to Sunday's Packers game -- a game they lost on a last-second field goal -- they should be able to make up that ground Sunday night in Dallas.

The key, though, will be replicating that enthusiasm. The Giants generally put the same players with the same ability on the field each week, but once they get out there, the level of passion they will play with is anybody's guess. It's enough to keep the defensive captain up at night.

"Physically, I think we can play with anybody in the country," Tuck said. "Mentally, I think sometimes we have those lapses. Why? I don't know."

The Giants can no longer afford the emotional ups and downs that have plagued them this season. Tuck said he can sense it immediately when the game begins. "You start to worry instantly," he said.

And it's not something that can be easily turned around the way adjustments to a game plan can be reconfigured. Other players have been trying to figure out why the Giants can be up and down so much.

Antrel Rolle shrugged when asked about it on his weekly WFAN radio appearance. "Some things are just unexplainable," he said yesterday. Perry Fewell took his defense to the public woodshed last week to give them a spark, a move Tuck said was probably made out of desperation. Tom Coughlin's future with the Giants -- and as an NFL head coach -- may very well depend on how the Giants handle their mood swings in the next month.

"If we go out there and we play with the intensity and the emotion and the passion that we had this past Sunday? Man, those teams are in trouble," Rolle said of the upcoming opponents. With this team, though, that's a big "if."

Tuck said it's hard to get up for every game when your body hurts and each week feels like Groundhog Day. "I know a lot of people can't understand that, they say you're making a million dollars to play a game, but it's just the way it is," he said.

Tuck added that sometimes players have to trick themselves and play mind games to inspire themselves.

The Giants' fragile psyche has been playing mind games with Tuck this season.

"What kept me up was I know the Saints are a great football team, but no one would say that the Saints are better than the Packers," Tuck said. "So how did we come out one week and play like we did [in New Orleans] then and come out this week and play like we did then?

"I mean, it doesn't make any sense to me," he said. "Do I need to go see a shrink?"

If the Giants show up flat against the Cowboys on Sunday, there will be a lot of fans who may need some therapy.

Rolle wants rematch

A fourth straight loss did little to dampen Antrel Rolle's belief in the Giants. In fact, it may have made it stronger.

Last week, on his weekly WFAN appearance, Rolle was asked if he thought the Giants would make the playoffs. He said he did. That was coming off an embarrassing loss to the Saints. This week, Rolle was asked the same question after a last-second loss to the Packers.

"Will we make the playoffs? Without a doubt! Without a doubt!" he said Tuesday. "We will be in that postseason. And we all know once you get in the postseason, that record is 0-0-0. Let's go to work."

The Giants said after their loss to the 49ers that they were hoping for a rematch against them. Now they can add the Packers to their revenge list.

The Saints, 49ers and Packers would likely be standing in the Giants' way if they make the playoffs.

"If we are ever put in that situation again, I'm sure things will be different,"

Rolle said of facing the Packers in the playoffs.

"I gotta have that rematch, baby!" he said. "I gotta have it! I gotta have it!

Challenge-challenged

Tom Coughlin is on a losing streak, and it has nothing to do with the last four games. Once considered among the most shrewd head coaches in terms of challenging calls, Coughlin has lost the last six times he has yanked out his red flag.

Coughlin won his first three challenges this season, improving his career record to 43-41, but the six straight losses have dropped him to 43-47 overall and 33-38 with the Giants.

"I've been overly aggressive with those calls, not waiting for any kind of advice from upstairs," Coughlin said.

Boley sore

Michael Boley played for the first time in two weeks on Sunday, and on Monday his body was paying the price. "Coming back, it was sore," the linebacker said. He'd missed two games with a hamstring injury -- two of the most deflating losses of the season, it should be noted -- and returned to face the Packers in a somewhat limited role.