Coaching change makes it tough to prepare for Cowboys

The Giants face the Cowboys twice a year. They played them in Dallas Oct. 25. There are few teams in the NFL the Giants know more about than their NFC East rivals from the Lone Star State.

This week, though, that might not be very helpful. With Jason Garrett taking over for Wade Phillips as Dallas' coach, the Giants are left to simply guess at what kind of differences the new regime will institute.

"There are a lot of hours in a day and I'm sure that they're going to do whatever is in the best interest of their team regardless of what they've done in the past," Tom Coughlin said Wednesday. "We've got to somehow be ready for all of that."

Garrett never had served as a head coach, but the Giants do know about his tendencies as a play-caller from his 3 1/2 seasons as offensive coordinator in Dallas. They are less familiar with Paul Pasqualoni, the Cowboys' defensive line coach who has been promoted to coordinator, replacing Phillips. Coughlin said the coaching staff has gone back to review Pasqualoni's tenure as defensive coordinator with the Dolphins.

"We've done a little research on that," Coughlin said. "Whether or not there will be something we would be surprised by, I'm not sure."

"You can expect a change," linebacker Michael Boley said. "As far as how much change, we don't know. We don't know if he's going to keep things the same and tweak some little details or if it's going to be an overall revamp of what they've been doing. We'll see come Sunday."

Linebacker Keith Bulluck said he expects to see the Cowboys focus more on running the ball in this game (perhaps because Garrett himself has pointed to that as a goal). Only the Broncos have a worse rushing offense than the Cowboys, who are averaging 75.6 yards per game on the ground and have only two runs of more than 20 yards this season.

"They've just kind of abandoned it or they just haven't gotten it going," Bulluck said. "Usually good offenses channel through their running game."

One thing the Giants are expecting from the Cowboys has little to do with scheme. Many players figure a coaching change - and the accompanying ultimatum levied by owner Jerry Jones that no job is safe - will inspire the Cowboys to play hard.

"It's an opportunity for them to start over and [say] 'Hey, we've got a new season,' " Eli Manning said. "It's under a new coach and they'll be hyped up and ready to play and we have to match that intensity."

The fact that this is a division game also will fuel the Cowboys, Boley believes.

"They're playing spoiler right now," Boley said. "They want to try to be that team that says, 'We took the Giants' wind away from them.' We're not going to let that happen."

Whatever changes await them, the Giants say they'll be ready. They are very familiar with the personnel and ultimately, some of them say, there are only so many changes that can be made to the Dallas philosophy.

"Every team can throw different things at you every week," center Rich Seubert said. "It's still football, 11 guys on 11 guys and players on the field decide the outcome."