Giants still haunted

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - There stands just off Rt. 3, within a couple of Matt Dodge punts from the Giants' practice facility, a billboard. It says, simply, "Revenge."

Apparently, it touts ABC's new drama.

But it might have been erected by the Giants themselves, their recent history with the Eagles in mind.

The Giants have lost six in a row. The last two, painfully; the last one, in humiliating fashion, a Meltdown at Meadowlands, Game 14.

It stank like Jersey swamps and the 2007 Mets.

Some of the Giants, but not all, admit that they haven't quite washed off that smell. When a team blows a 21-point lead in the last eighth of an NFL game, it takes more than a few months to scrub off that kind of stench. Still, the Giants insist that they will not let last season's chokes or the six straight losses affect the team's game Sunday in Philadelphia

What.

Ever.

Defensive end Justin Tuck said after the Giants' win Monday night against the visiting Rams that the loss will "linger" with him until he dies, and he said the feeling is prevalent throughout the locker room.

Offensive lineman Stacy Andrews, who spent 2009 with the Eagles, admitted that the Giants peeked ahead even as they prepared for the Rams.

"Last week, we started talking about the Eagles early," Andrews said.

His insight to the teams' rivalry?

"It basically came down to who wants it more," said Andrews, who played for Seattle last season before the Giants signed him for 2011. "Who's going to go out there and fight. To the end."

Tuck, a linguist, declined to talk yesterday - he was absorbed in winning an online Scrabble game at his locker - and, the euphoria of defeating a pathetic group from St. Louis diminished, Tuck's teammates were nowhere near as honest.

Veteran safety Deon Grant said that could not escape the haunting image of quarterback Michael Vick's 130 rushing yards, or, with the game tied, punt returner DeSean Jackson flying toward the end zone, jogging and taunting along the goal line as the final seconds ticked away.

There is more to it.

The Eagles also beat the Giants a month earlier, obliterating a Giants comeback in Philadelphia with a 50-yard touchdown run by LeSean McCoy on fourth-and-1 inside of 4 minutes, then added a field goal after Eli Manning, untouched, coughed up the football after a successful fourth-down scramble inside of 3 minutes.

Matters are heated further by the summertime Twitter feud between Giants end Osi Umenyiora and McCoy, Eagles running back.

McCoy tweeted that Umenyiora is "underrated 'n soft."

Umenyiora then told the Newark Star-Ledger that he replied that he "hates" McCoy; that McCoy is referred to by the Giants as "Lady Gaga;" called him a "girl;" said McCoy was a "Twitter gangsta;" and accused McCoy, who also is black, of launching racial barbs at him during games.

"I don't think it lingers," said Manning.

Nothing like having your finger on the pulse of the locker room. Of course it lingers.

"For more than one reason," Grant said. "Those are two games we let get out from under us, and we weren't playing in the postseason because of that [second] game."

Also, his hometown peeps wouldn't let him forget the Game 14 collapse. In Augusta, Ga., he said, people are "Bar none. They give it to me raw. Of all the other games we lost, that was the game they pointed out. They weren't going to let it die."

He wasn't the only one. Long snapper Zak DeOssie spent the lockout conditioning himself, planning his wedding . . . and forgetting about how, on Jackson's game-winning return, Eagles receiver Jason Avant ear-holed him with the best block of 2010.

"I knew I was the last hope. I never saw him coming," said DeOssie, who has suffered the highlight for 9 months. "It was all over. It's one of the biggest plays in the history of football."

But, to a man, the Giants swear the loss did not affect their annihilation the next week at the hands of the Packers.

"That didn't have anything to do with Philly. They outplayed us. They had a better game plan," Grant said. "Aaron Rodgers, he was a beast, and their defense did their thing. They were just the better team."

Which, of course, implies that the Eagles were not.

Given their offseason additions, and given the Giants' catastrophic injury issues, the Eagles might be much better now, even if Eagles quarterback Michael Vick misses the game with the concussion he suffered in Atlanta on Sunday.

Third receiver Domenik Hixon was lost for the season Monday with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the second such tear in 15 months. It is the Giants' fourth season-ending ACL tear since the start of training camp, including rising star cornerback Terrell Thomas, who has 10 interceptions over the past two seasons.

Starter Mario Manningham is coming off a concussion that cost him the second half of Monday night's game. Unemyiora, 5 weeks removed from arthroscopic knee surgery, is unlikely to play Sunday. He seldom speaks with the press.

The Giants added former Colts receiver Brandon Stokely last week. They have second-year wideout Victor Cruz, a rookie free agent last season who has two catches in five games as a professional.

This is a battered team. Including Hixon, they have seven injured players who were expected to regularly contribute to the team. Add the lingering issues with Umenyiora and Manningham.

Meanwhile, Vick, top Dream Teamer, has a sore neck.

Oooh, the Giants don't like that Dream Team stuff.

"It's not like they're just God on the field," Grant said. "A Dream Team is in basketball."

Maybe if the Giants were healthier, they would more readily acknowledge their clear and human urge to avenge six losses and two gags.

"I don't worry about revenge. To me, that's a kiddie word," snarled Antrel Rolle. "We don't worry about what's taken place in the past. I'm not talking any more about the past."

After which he promptly talked about the past.

"There's nothing like it. It's going to be a great show. It always goes down to the wire," Rolle said. "Hopefully, it won't go down to the wire again."

Because he knows what happens then.