GEARING UP: Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, who has been nursing a sore back, returned to practice yesterday. (Joseph E. Amaturo)
Justin Tuck, Jason Pierre-Paul and Osi Umenyiora all sat out practice last week with, respectively, aches and pains to their shoulder, back and knee. Miraculously, all three were on the field yesterday.
Out in Irving, Texas, tight end Jason Witten worked with his teammates, though he’s dealing with a lacerated spleen and the Cowboys haven’t even issued him medical clearance.
Rosters are (mostly) set, Labor Day is around the corner and the summer mindset is gone, replaced by the welcome reality that in four days the Giants as defending Super Bowl champions — but hardly 2012 Super Bowl favorites — get the honor, as reigning kings of the NFL, of kicking off the new season with a prime-time midweek opener. That it’s the Cowboys coming to MetLife Stadium makes this curtain-raiser all the more attractive.
The last anyone saw of the Giants was the finishing touches of their remarkable 6-0 closing run to turn a 7-7 regular-season malaise into a second Lombardi Trophy in a four-year span.
“We won’t be able to say if there is a carryover until Wednesday night,’’ safety Antrel Rolle said. “We’re trying to make a mark for ourselves extremely early in the season, and no better way to start than Wednesday night.’’
It is sure to be a highly charged, emotional evening, but Eli Manning, on cue, tried to make it all about the preparation, not the pomp. The Giants are the defending champs, and surely that means they will feel differently as they take the field for the first game of the entire NFL season.
“There’s nothing different,’’ Manning countered. “There’s no special feeling or anything different you have to do. It’s just a matter of going in there and playing your hardest and working hard all week.’’
From far and near, players are hearing the siren song of the real season and limbs and ligaments are healing. Linebacker Michael Boley, out the entire preseason with a strained hamstring, was back to work and declared he’s ready to go. Rookie cornerback Jayron Hosley, so impressive this summer but banged up recently with a painful turf toe condition, said there is “no soreness’’ and is on schedule to play.
Hakeem Nicks, back from a broken foot, said this of the pain he is sure to have: “It’s a matter of, you know, football, pain is weakness leaving the body.’’
The Giants used the Cowboys as a springboard not once, but twice in 2011. They ended a four-game losing streak with a come-from-behind 37-34 victory in Dallas, secured only after Pierre-Paul blocked a potential tying field goal with zeroes on the clock. Three weeks later, with the division title awaiting the winner and playoff elimination for the loser, the Giants surged to a 21-0 lead and gave their home crowd a New Year’s present, winning 31-14 to head into the postseason on a roll.
It is no wonder Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently admitted he’s sick of watching the Giants beat his team. Earlier this summer, he told a gathering of team sponsors the Cowboys will “kick the Giants’ [butts]’’ when they play each other in Dallas.
“Last time I checked I haven’t seen Jerry Jones in pads,’’ Rolle said.
As for the many slights directed at the Giants — 49ers and Packers players calling them lucky for beating them in the playoffs — Rolle said, in one ear and out the other.
“We’ve already shown people who we are,’’ Rolle said. “We can care less about that, we leave that up to the spectators and people who actually care about what anyone says about the Giants. We can care less about what kind of recognition we’re getting or about who’s crowning us and who’s not crowning us.’’
As the defending champions, though, the Giants must know they are now the hunted.
“We do talk about the fact that we have set the bar,’’ coach Tom Coughlin said. “And, of course, once you do that, everyone you play feels if they can play well against the team that won the Super Bowl the year before, they have to call themselves a contender. That adds to the motivation and the inspiration for people that play against us, and also gives us the idea about the pride with which we hope to play.’’