GIANT NOTES

Will the lack of any real playoff incentive help or hurt the Giants today against the Bills?

When confronted with the pressure of must-wins the past few weeks, the Giants folded, losing three straight. Now 4-7, they are squarely in play-out-the-season mode.

“It’s probably easier,” Tiki Barber said. “The way we’ve been playing, we have nothing to lose. We can go out with a little bit of reckless abandon and not feel any inhibition about making mistakes. We can just play football and hopefully get better as the weeks go on.”

The Giants climbed back to .500 with a victory over the Jets on Nov. 2, but they haven’t won since, outscored 74-30.

“We still have a job to do; no matter what, our job is to win games,” Amani Toomer said. “I think the worst thing for people to do is look upon our record and the standings and think that has anything to do with this weekend or the next five weeks. We don’t want our record to be this way, but that shouldn’t affect our play in any way.”

* Buffalo has an NFL-low 12 takeaways and its minus-11 turnover ratio is the AFC’s worst. The Giants’ 27 giveaways and minus-8 ratio are tied for next-to-last in the NFC. The Giants are 25th in the league in points scored, the Bills are 31st. The Giants have lost three straight, the Bills four in a row . . . The previous four Giants-Bills games, including Super Bowl XXV, have been decided by four points or less . . . Buffalo QB Drew Bledsoe needs three touchdown passes to tie Phil Simms for 25th place on the NFL’s career list with 199 . . . Kerry Collins needs 185 passing yards for his fourth consecutive 3,000-yard season.