Michael Johnson wasn’t going to put salt in the Giants’ wound, he was going to put salsa.

The week leading up to Cincinnati’s game with the New York Giants began with A.J. Green, the Bengals stellar second-year receiver, telling a New York radio show co-hosted by Boomer Esiason that the Giants defense “had a lot of holes.”

Harmless — and true — as it may be, that’s all the tabloids needed to spice up a game between the defending Super Bowl champs and a team that had lost four straight games.

And it helped, of course, that Giants safety Antrel Rolle took the bait. After all, he’s a Bengals bully like few others . He once intercepted Carson Palmer three times in a game, and returned two of the picks for scores.

“Honestly, I don’t give a flying (blank) about what he says,” Rolle sniffed. “I’ll talk with my pads come Sunday. If (he) sees me coming, he better duck.”

Green now says his comments were “really blown out of context, man. It’s definitely not in my character to disrespect an opponent. That’s not what I meant at all.”

A couple of other Bengals players, though, seemed to relish Green’s brashness.

“Man, it was no secret — that’s A.J. Green,” Johnson, the towering 270-pound defensive end said. “He’s one of the best wide receivers in the league — period! Everybody knows that. It wasn’t a secret. The Giants knew who they were going against. Oh yeah, the Giants knew!”

Fellow lineman Pat Sims nodded in agreement: “Everything happens for a reason and maybe (Green’s comment) helped make this all happen. We backed it all up today.”

The Bengals certainly did, and it was Green who set the tone at the start of Sunday’s game at Paul Brown Stadium.

Never having to duck once all day, he caught Andy Dalton’s first three passes, the last one for a 56-yard touchdown jaunt less than 2 ½ minutes into the game.

After that the rout was on. Cincinnati dismantled New York, 31-13, on a day when one Bengal after another victimized the Giants.

Dalton spread his four touchdown passes — a career first — to four different receivers: Green, Andrew Hawkins, rookie Mohamed Sanu and tight end Jermaine Gresham.

Meanwhile, the Bengals’ defense completely rattled Eli Manning, sacking the Giants quarterback four times, forcing him into one of the team’s two fumbles, picking off two of his passes and not allowing him a TD pass.

Sims — a 335-pound butterball of a defensive tackle who was activated for his first game this season — made the first interception and returned it 3 yards to the Giants’ 12-yard line.

“I did envision running with it, but the guy had me by the ankle and he was holding on tight,” Sims said almost giddily afterward. “It’s my first NFL interception, so I might give it to my son … or my Pops.”

Johnson wished Sims had lumbered into the end zone.

“I was hoping he was gonna score ‘cause we had a celebration for it,” he said. “We would have had to salsa dance.”

The salsa is the trademark touchdown celebration of Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.

“Hey, no disrespect, but we would have had to do it,.” Johnson grinned. “It would have been fun.”

None of this — neither Green’s pregame comment, nor the intended TD celebration — really has anything to do with the Giants. It’s just the Bengals trying to reignite their own effort and then being overjoyed when the spark really did catch hold.

Green’s comment may have helped awaken a team that seemed to be doubting itself and, if you listened to coach Marvin Lewis, playing too nice.

“Like Coach said, we needed to be more nasty and I think the past two weeks people did get their edge on in practice,” Green said. “In practice we did talk trash and there was a new energy.”

As Johnson said, the team was tired of being an also-ran.

“Look, there’s no award for second place,” he said. “We have a saying: ‘Knock, Knock.’

“’Who’s there?

“’Second place.

“’Second place, who?’

“Nobody knows who loses. It’s not good enough to play well and not win.”

The Bengals had their most convincing win of the season Sunday, and afterward Sims said the defensive performance may have been the best he’s seen in his five years here.

Defensive tackle Domata Peko agreed: “We saw on film, if you get a lot of pressure in Manning’s face, he tends to short-arm some throws and just throw the ball up in the air. We made him pay when he did that. It’s a huge win for us. A big shout out to all the Cincinnati fans, Who-Dey baby!”

Johnson felt the same way: “Finally everything went right. We got the bitter taste from last week out of our mouth today and it’s a very good feeling — one we’re gonna chase the rest of the year. I mean it just feels great.

“It’s been a long time since we sang the fight song in here after a game. I didn’t forget the words though. I’m happy about that … It was a good day.”

Sunday he did manage a song, even though he missed out on a dance.