Giants know exactly how the Cowboys feel

The Giants should know how the Cowboys will feel coming into Wednesday night's game. Because it wasn't too long ago that they felt it, too.

That gnawing rage that lasts all offseason over an opportunity that slipped away. Knowing that everything was nearly wrapped up neatly only to have it scattered into chaos. The lingering frustration of watching another team -- a hated team -- go on to enjoy the success that you had been so close to accomplishing.

For the Giants, it was the devastating loss to the Eagles in late 2010 when they blew a three-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter and missed the playoffs. For the Cowboys, it was last year's home loss to the Giants in early December when they led 34-22, were just a little more than three minutes away from virtually clinching the division title, but lost, 37-34, as the Giants blocked a field goal as time expired.

That the Giants beat the Cowboys again three weeks later to formally win the division and advance to the playoffs only adds to the angst the Cowboys must be feeling as they come to New York looking for revenge.

"That was a tough loss," Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said of the Jan. 1 defeat in the finale in particular. "It still sits there . . . That feeling that you have, you want to bottle it up and use that every day in the offseason. I think that you can use that as motivation."

The Giants turned their depression into a Super Bowl title some 13 months later, and it was an underlying theme for the entire 2011 season. The Cowboys are looking to take the first step in that kind of rebound Wednesday night. The Giants went to Philadelphia and beat the Eagles in one of the most emotional games of the season last year. They know that the Cowboys are coming to their house for a similar exorcism.

"I think us winning [seven of the last nine games against the Cowboys] just puts them a little bit on edge," Justin Tuck said this week. "They definitely want to come here and ruin our Opening Night, celebrating the Super Bowl . . . They have a lot of motivation. Not that Cowboys-Giants on a plain day wouldn't be a lot of motivation, but they're going to have a lot of motivation to come in here and play well."

When he was asked this week about the overthrown pass from Romo to Miles Austin, who had gotten behind cornerback Aaron Ross, which would have iced that Dec. 11 game for the Cowboys, coach Jason Garrett shrugged it off.

"That feels like a lifetime ago," he said. "Last season was last season. The games against the Giants and everybody else are way, way, way, way, way behind us."

Talk about being over-wayed. Whether Garrett says it or not, the Giants recognize that the Cowboys want revenge.

"We know the minute that we beat them in the division to take over last season, this was a game they had circled right from the get-go," tackle David Diehl said.

Of course the Giants also have plenty to play for. They want to get off to a fast start and avoid having to make a late push just to get into the playoffs.

The Cowboys always seem to be next on the Giants' schedule at a big moment. Since they met in the playoffs after the 2007 season, seven of the nine games have been decided by less than two touchdowns. Five were decided by a touchdown or less.

"I think the Cowboys bring the best out of us, and we bring the best out of them," Tuck said. "It's just one of those rivalry games where it's turned up a notch. It's almost in a way kind of a 'Hip Hop Hooray' party for us because we enjoy playing those guys. We know that they're going to come to play."

They know, because last year, they were the ones feeling it all the way to the Super Bowl.