Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Phil Simms shows the intensity of the New York Giants' rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys by pointing to a scar on his chin.

Unlike this weekend's National Football League matchup, it wasn't even a playoff game in 1980 when Cowboys Hall of Fame lineman Randy White slammed the Giants' quarterback to the ground so hard it opened a cut that required 15 stitches.

``As I hit the ground, I went, `Oh my gosh,'' Simms, the Most Valuable Player of the 1987 Super Bowl, said in an interview. ``I reached out and held my chin and there was blood everywhere. I mean everywhere. And I'm groaning, because it hurt. And Randy White says, basically, `Shut up, you big baby. Quit crying and just play.'''

The Giants will face the Cowboys at Texas Stadium in two days to do something the teams haven't done in 91 previous meetings: play a postseason game. The Cowboys are 7 1/2-point favorites, after beating New York both times they played this year during the regular season. Dallas receiver Terrell Owens caught touchdown passes of 22, 25, 47 and 50 yards in those wins.

``It's a bad, bitter memory, to be honest with you,'' coach Tom Coughlin said in a news conference this week.

The two teams first met in 1960 when the Cowboys franchise was 10 games old and have played in the same division since 1970. The National Football Conference East this year sent three of four teams -- Dallas, New York and Washington -- to the playoffs. Only the Philadelphia Eagles missed the postseason, with an 8-8 record.

Bad Feelings

Playing each other twice a season generates plenty of enmity, even when division rivals have never met in the playoffs, said Dave Jennings, a four-time Pro Bowl selection during a 14-year NFL career as a punter with the Giants and Jets.

``Any time you play a team multiple times in the same season, you'll have more trouble than in an out-of-division game,'' Jennings said in a telephone interview.

The Cowboys have faced only two teams -- Washington and Philadelphia -- more often than the Giants. Of the last 18 meetings, 11 have been decided by one touchdown or less, with three overtime games.

Though the two teams are tied for most playoff appearances in NFL history with 29, Dallas hasn't won a postseason game in 11 years. The Giants' first playoff win in seven years came last weekend, at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs with their 13-3 record, tied with the Green Bay Packers for the best in the conference.

Overtime Win

Former Giants quarterback Scott Brunner remembers a game in 1981, when New York had to beat the Cowboys to clinch a playoff berth for the first time since 1963. Dallas, which already had secured the division championship, still played its starters. The Giants won, 13-10 in overtime.

``You want to go out there as a Giant and as a Giants fan and put it to the Cowboys,'' Brunner said in a telephone interview.

This weekend's game pairs teams that might be going in different directions, said Jimmy Johnson, who coached the Cowboys to consecutive Super Bowl wins after the 1992 and 1993 seasons. Dallas lost two of its final three games, while the Giants came within four points of giving the New England Patriots their only loss of the season on Dec. 29. New York then beat the Buccaneers 24-14 on Sunday.

Giants quarterback Eli Manning's past two games generated his best statistics of the season. Since the Cowboys' 37-27 win against Green Bay on Nov. 29, quarterback Tony Romo threw three touchdown passes and five interceptions.

``Eli Manning and the Giants have played very well the last couple of weeks,'' said Johnson, now an analyst for Fox Sports. ``The Cowboys were hot early in the season but really haven't played well since the Green Bay Packers game.''

Simms, now an analyst with CBS Sports, said any meeting between the Giants and Cowboys promises intensity -- maybe even more than he reveals in his story about that 1980 game and his run-in with White.

``I'm cleaning up what he said to me,'' Simms said. ``That's what it was like.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kuriloff in New York at akuriloff@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 11, 2008 00:18 EST