Giants hoping to force Romo into mistakes

After two weeks of Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, the Giants are glad to finally be facing a quarterback who is, well, human.

Tony Romo has thrown nine interceptions this season and only two in the last six games, but compared to perfectionist passers like the last two the Giants have gone up against, he must look to them like Mr. Bean walking into walls and bumbling around on the field. And they see a player and a team that can be goaded into costly errors.

"Our whole thing is to go out there and put them in position to make mistakes," safety Deon Grant said Wednesday. "We're not looking at Tony Romo as a guy who can make mistakes. We're looking at it like we're going in there to create mistakes."

"That's every defensive player's dream, to make a quarterback make mistakes," defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul said. "If he makes mistakes, we've executed our plan."

Romo has a history of them. Just ask the Jets about how Romo can be loose with the football and gave them the season-opening game in September. Or those three interceptions against the Lions and two against the Dolphins on Thanksgiving.

Sometimes the Cowboys try to eliminate the mistakes and it costs them anyway, as it did against the Patriots and just last week against the Cardinals. They played it safe and wound up losing both of those games.

Many pointed the finger for the Cardinals loss at coach Jason Garrett and his poor clock management at the end of the game. He settled for a 49-yard field-goal attempt from his rookie kicker to try to win the game, mismanaged his timeouts, and wound up icing his own kicker.

What, you thought Romo was the only one who costs the Cowboys wins?

"I heard about it," Grant said of Garrett's miscalculations. "I don't care, as long as they lost."

Of course, Romo is still dangerous. He can scramble, he has an assortment of weapons, and he is 4-3 as a starter against the Giants. He's also in first place in the NFC East.

"Tony Romo is very capable of . . . kicking your butt if you underestimate him," safety Antrel Rolle said. "We understand that and we're going to go out there and play like we're playing the best of the best."

But they know they're not. They've already seen what that looks like when Brees and Rodgers scorched them for a combined 732 passing yards and 87 points in the last two games. The Giants feel comfortable against a Cowboys offense that they feel is not quite at that level.

"They're a good offensive unit," Rolle said. "That's all you can say about them. They get things done. But we're a great defensive unit at the end of the day. When we play together and we play with a lot of attitude and a lot of poise and a lot of fire, we're the best of the best out there."

Tom Coughlin was very complimentary about Romo.

"If you play the position, one day you're criticized, the next day you're congratulated," he said. "It's just the nature of the job. He's certainly has had his moments, but he's hung in there this year and done well."

But he's no Brees. He's no Rodgers. He's no Tom Brady, another nearly flawless quarterback the Giants faced this season. Of course, the Giants aren't in the business of ranking quarterbacks. Normally.

"You'll have to ask ESPN about that one," Pierre-Paul said when asked if Romo stacks up to those others. Then, after a moment's pause, he came around to the unmistakable reality.

"Maybe not."