Giants not talking trash against reeling Cowboys

How big of a deal is this Giants-Cowboys game Monday night? So big that you can't even hear it coming.

Usually, the week preceding a Giants-Cowboys game is filled with back-and-forth comments and remarks, trash-talking and any number of players using the word "hate" freely and forcefully. The teams are bitter rivals and usually face each other in high-stakes games that can get feisty on and off the field.

In recent years, that has included, among other things, Jerry Jones leaving NFC Championship Game tickets for his players before they faced the Giants in a divisional playoff game, Flozell Adams tripping Justin Tuck and injuring his shoulder (and virtually ruining his 2009 season) and Terrell Owens giving a teary-eyed "That's my quarterback" postgame speech.

Emotions run high when these teams meet.

But this week? Hardly a peep. Maybe most of the civic energy on both sides was focused on the Rangers and Yankees in the ALCS. But more than likely, the stakes in this game are just so high that they go beyond words.

For the Giants, there's no point in chirping and giving the sparkless Cowboys any reason to snap out of their 1-4 slumber. And for the Cowboys, well, they've done very little this season to back up the sort of yapping they might usually engage in. Losing can suck the bravado even from a team like Dallas.

The players have noticed the lack of verbal vitriol.

"We like it that way," Tuck said. "I can care less about that part of it. We understand that me talking about it isn't putting any points on the board and it isn't keeping any points off of it. I would like to think that the reason why it's quiet is that we're focused on going down there and playing and letting our play do the talking for us."

Even Brandon Jacobs, who never shies away from discussing his contempt for the Cowboys and their ubiquitous fans, chose to sidestep the issue. "There's no talking to be done," he said this weekend. "We're going to talk on Monday night, that's how we're viewing it."

The Giants might not be saying it out loud, but they understand that a win could shut up the Cowboys for good. And if it doesn't, they'll get another chance to silence them when they meet again at New Meadowlands Stadium on Nov. 14.

"The people that know what it's all about know how big this game is," said linebacker Keith Bulluck, who is about to get his first taste of this rivalry. "[Coming back from] 1-5 is tough . . . We hope we can put them into a tough situation, and it would be a better situation for us going into our bye week."

The Giants not only have been avoiding talk of hating the Cowboys, they've gone out of their way to compliment them. Better than their record. Lots of talent. Always a difficult opponent. Maybe they're trying to smother the Cowboys with kindness. More likely, they want them to stay just the way they are.

"We understand that this is a football team still kind of searching, and we definitely don't want them to find it against us," Tuck said. "Dallas is a very talented team. We understand that if they put it all together, they can really cause some problems. So our plan is to go down there and make sure they don't put it together."

And to do so as quietly as possible.