Romo anticipates he'll face Giants

If the question is 'Who plans on playing quarterback for the Cowboys this Sunday?' Tony Romo can at least raise his bruised right hand at this point.

"I expect to play," Romo said on a conference call Wednesday, just a few days after he injured his throwing hand against the helmet of Jason Babin and sat out most of the 20-7 loss to the Eagles on Saturday. He and Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said there was still some swelling in the hand, and he was limited in Wednesday's practice while wearing a glove, but by the time the game starts Sunday night Romo expects to be ready.

"I was able to do some things with the ball that we weren't sure about, so it was a good start to the week," Romo said. "We are going to keep working on it and get all the treatment and stuff. We should be good to go for this weekend."

Garrett was optimistic, but less certain, as coaches often are in these cases.

"I think he is making progress and we will see how he will respond to the work he got today," Garrett said. "We hope that he will get more and more as the week progresses and be ready to play in the game. We'll see."

As for the glove, Romo said he has played while wearing one before. "But as of now, I'm not anticipating playing with the glove."

Romo was never known as a physically soft quarterback, but his ability to play through injuries this season has earned him even greater respect. He played earlier this year with broken ribs and a punctured lung.

"I think when you play quarterback in the National Football League, you have to understand that you are going to have bumps and bruises throughout the way," Romo said. "Every week is important and you just have to go out and play. That is the way you have to approach it. I love competing and playing and that is why you get out there and play every week."

The Giants defense expects Romo to play, which may be some measure of respect. But they also know that he's at least a little wounded and they'll be looking to see just how effective he is . . . and trying to make sure he is uncomfortable.

"During the course of the game you get a sense of whether a guy is at full-go or not," linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka said. "The only thing that changes is you want to get after him a little harder, you want to get there a little faster."

The Cowboys knew that the Giants had beaten the Jets on Saturday, so they had an opportunity to keep Romo and running back Felix Jones (hamstring) on the sideline. On Sunday, they'll be afforded no such luxury.

"Once the Giants won the game, the few guys that we had that were on the border and injured type guys, we just felt like it was in the best interest of our football team to rest those guys to get them ready for this week," Garrett said. "I think we played hard in that game [against the Eagles] but not well enough. That game is behind us and we are pointing towards the Giants and looking forward to the opportunity."