For Giants' D, it's all on the line

Kevin Boothe and Chris Snee, veteran guards who have seen it all, were in the huddle before a two-minute drill in practice last week when Boothe peeked over his shoulder and saw this along the defensive front:

Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul, Mathias Kiwanuka.

"I just shook my head and looked at Chris," Boothe recalled. "I said, 'Chris, do you see what they have over there? That's a lot of speed.' "

Snee remembered the conversation, too.

"I said, 'Yeah, that's tough,' " he said. "It's not what you want to see on third-and-long. It's not something any offensive lineman wants to see."

Said Boothe: "Who do you double? Who do you help? Who do you single up with that group? It's not a spot that I want to be in."

Fortunately for Boothe and Snee, it is not a spot they are in outside of practice. The Giants' speedy pass-rushers will be the Falcons' problem Sunday.

The Fleet Four long was mostly a theoretical weapon, but when Tuck returned to health in time for the Jets game Dec. 24 and Umenyiora joined him on New Year's night against the Cowboys, it became a reality.

By that time, Pierre-Paul had blossomed into a dynamic young star and was selected to the Pro Bowl, joining Umenyiora (2005, '07) and Tuck ('08, '10) to give the Giants three Pro Bowl ends.

When Kiwanuka moves in from linebacker in obvious passing situations, look out.

"As you can see last Sunday, we got after the quarterback pretty good," Pierre-Paul said.

They sacked Tony Romo six times, one of them by Pierre-Paul, who celebrated his 23rd birthday by raising his sack total to 161/2, the most for a Giant since Michael Strahan's 181/2 in 2003.

Strahan, the standard by which modern Giants ends are judged, helped mentor the young Umenyiora, who joined the team in 2003, and Tuck, who arrived in '05.

On Thursday, Strahan interviewed Pierre-Paul for Fox's pregame show, then said this about the package the Giants call "NASCAR" (for obvious reasons): "I think it's great. I would have loved to have been able to play with those guys. It's fun. All those Pro Bowlers and you feel like the level of play never drops off when you're out of the game."

Strahan called Pierre-Paul "phenomenal," but as a TV analyst, he can only watch from afar. Tuck and Umenyiora have returned the favor of Strahan's guidance by helping Pierre-Paul, also an All-Pro.

"They tell me good stuff and I listen," Pierre-Paul said. "I'm young and I'm still a sponge on the game. I'm trying to soak everything in while I can."

Even in a locker room full of gifted athletes, the 6-5, 270- pound Pierre-Paul stands out.

"His arms are so long, he can kind of reach around you and do whatever he wants," Boothe said. "And he's still learning, which is scary."

Umenyiora found himself moved from right end to left upon returning from a four-game absence so as not to disrupt the rising star.

"I haven't seen anything like it," he said of Pierre-Paul. "He's playing at a very, very high level."

Dave Tollefson, a backup end who has managed five sacks of his own, cautioned against being misled by Pierre-Paul's eye-popping athleticism, as seen in a popular YouTube video in which he does a series of backflips as a collegian.

"He's a big, strong man," Tollefson said. "People kind of have him pigeonholed as this great athlete, but he's powerful, and I think that's a really underrated part of his game."

The strength of the Giants' front, Tollefson said, is that "everybody's comfortable everywhere. That's important, because with as many mouths as we have to feed in that room, you have to get 'em to where you fit in."

Pierre-Paul said the challenge has increased as opponents have caught on to his skills. "I'm getting a whole lot of chips and double-teams and tight ends," he said. "But who cares, man? At the end of the day, I'm going to go out there and play football and try to get to the quarterback.

"When they double-team me or chip me, somebody's free, and that's a good thing. All respect."

Given all the kudos, how is he managing to keep his head on straight? "I don't really do networking and things like that," he said. "I just keep quiet and let it go on, and if I hear about it, I hear about it. If they give me props, I'm doing good, that's OK."

Players such as Tollefson and tackle Chris Canty played important roles as the Giants waited to get fully healthy. But now there is, as Tollefson said, "an embarrassment of riches."

Said Kiwanuka: "It's awesome. It's an unbelievable thing when you get them all clicking as one."

There was an example of that early in the Cowboys game, a sack in which Umenyiora and Tuck worked together to confuse the offensive line and get to Romo.

"A lot of times, we don't even look at each other," Umenyiora said, referring to Tuck. "But I know exactly what he's going to do and I know exactly how I'm going to play off of him because we've been in there so long together."

Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell called Umenyiora "the missing piece."

"We've been waiting for that to happen all year long, but we just could never get them on the field at the same time," Fewell said. "That was a fun game for me to call."

Umenyiora said that as encouraged as he is, the pass rush is not yet where it was four years ago during the Giants' Super Bowl season, which he called "crazy" and a "free-for-all." But it's getting there.

"You never know what those guys are going to do," Canty said, calling the approach "organized chaos."

Canty said it's fun to watch from the sideline, and a delicate matter when he is on the field. The idea, he said, is "don't mess it up. Don't get in their way. Take care of my rush lane and take care of my guy, but don't get in their way."