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.
