Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul: 'I think we can run the table'

Have you written off the Giants' chances of making the playoffs this season?

Jason Pierre-Paul hasn't.

"I think we can run the table," the fifth-year defensive end said after practice Friday. "I promise you, I honestly do. I think we can run the table. We did it before -- with a whole group of guys that was different. We got a different group of guys now, and I'm pretty sure we can do it, you know what I mean? Don't count us out yet. Don't count us out yet. We made it hard for ourselves; we can dig ourselves out of this hole."

It's a deep hole. The Giants are 3-7, four games behind the Eagles and Cowboys, who are tied for the NFC East lead at 7-3.

Pierre-Paul was a second-year player in 2011 when the Giants won three of their last four games -- including two wins over the Cowboys -- to capture the division title at 9-7. They then swept through the playoffs and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.

Of course, to get to 9-7 this year, they'd have to win six straight games. And they've lost their last five.

The one thing they have going for them is that they face their NFC East rivals along the way: They host the Cowboys on Sunday night, host the 3-7 Redskins on Dec. 14 and host the Eagles Dec. 28. (The one thing they don't have going for them is that the Cowboys and Eagles still have to face each other twice.)

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"They've got to come through here," Pierre-Paul said. "They've got to come through here. And I'm not talking [trash] or whatever, but . . . any team that comes through here, we're going to be playing our hardest. And we've still got something to play for. We made it hard for ourselves in this predicament that we're in right now, we can dig ourselves out of it by winning all these games. We got six games left; let's win them. I think we can."

It would help if Pierre-Paul can replicate the two-sack performance he had Oct. 19 against Dallas. Those were his last two sacks. Still, the Cowboys always seem to bring out his best.

"When it comes to the Cowboys, I always play great against them," he said, though he added that he's unable to explain why. "I just do my job. I'm out there to make plays and play football."

Notes & quotes: RT Justin Pugh (quad) is out for Sunday's game, as are LB Jacquian Williams (concussion) and DT Cullen Jenkins (calf). Coach Tom Coughlin said OL Geoff Schwartz, who was activated this week, has practiced and has looked good, but he would not say if Schwartz will take Pugh's place. T James Brewer is a possibility and G Adam Snyder could be in the mix, too . . . Eli Manning took over as the starting quarterback on Nov. 21, 2004 -- 10 years ago Friday. "It's a heck of a move by me, wasn't it?" Coughlin said with a chuckle . . . Coughlin was asked about 2010, when the Giants' game at Minnesota was shifted to Detroit on a Monday night, just as Sunday's Jets-Bills game has been moved to Detroit on Monday night because of the snow in Buffalo. Coughlin recalled that the Giants already were on the way to Minneapolis when the game was moved. They landed in Kansas City before moving on to Detroit. "The thing that was most impressive about that whole circumstance for the players was, it's 'midstream adjust,' is the phrase we used," he said. "And they handled it well."