In the weekly game of musical chairs that is this year's NFC playoff race, the Giants suddenly find themselves sitting in the driver's seat with one week to go.
|  | | Kerry Collins has thrown for 3,289 yards, the most by a Giant since Phil Simms' 3,359 yards in 1988. |
After beating the Jaguars at East Rutherford on Saturday, the rest of the NFC playoff hopefuls is playing for second place. The road to the Super Bowl will run through cold, windy and otherwise inhospitable Giants Stadium, where the home team would be one of the more improbable No. 1 seeds in the history of the NFL playoffs.
Ever since former 98-pound weakling Jim Fassel flexed his muscles a month ago and publicly guaranteed that his slumping 7-4 team would make the playoffs, the Giants have played like a 980-pound gorilla. After five straight victories, they enter the playoffs with confidence.
They have home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs and get a coveted week off. And, they have stayed on Fassel's good side.
Home-field advantage and a bye week are two things every legitimate Super Bowl contender needs, but, as tough a talker as Fassel has become, staying on his good side might be the most important benefit from the Giants' win Saturday.
"I've already driven (the benefits) home to our players, and there's a definite value between the No. 1 and 2 (seeds)," Fassel said before the game. "We've pushed really hard these last four weeks. We've had long road games, gotten back at 5 or 6 in the morning and had to go back to work. It's been a hard row to hoe.
"I told our team if they want to hand our coaches the finest Christmas present that money can buy, then win this game and let the coaches be home for Christmas because, otherwise, we're working."
Doesn't this guy ever let up? He's gotten almost as much mileage out of his playoff guarantee as Joe Namath did for guaranteeing a victory in Super Bowl III. He also slapped a gag order on virtually everyone in the Giants' organization and steadfastly refuses to stray from his one-game-at-a-time approach when talking to the media.
But there's no disputing that when Fassel went to the whip, his team responded.
"You get a guarantee like that, we better do this," quarterback Kerry Collins said. "It brought us closer together. We don't want to make our coach look stupid."
The only way Fassel can look stupid now is if the Giants go one-and-out in the playoffs like they did in his first season in 1997. That was also the last time the Giants won the NFC East title.
But even going in as the No. 1 seed, the Giants will be the NFC team with the most to prove in the playoffs. Tough talk from the coach won't make them a Super Bowl team; tough actions on the field will. And right now the Giants pale in comparison with NFC No. 1 seeds from the recent past such as the Rams, Vikings, Packers, Cowboys and 49ers.
As has become his custom, Fassel isn't content with winning a division title and making the playoffs. He's sticking with the whip.
"By no stretch of imagination am I looking at this as the top of the mountain or we've reached the pinnacle or anything else," he said. "This week, the goal changes to position ourselves the best we can for the playoffs, and then to get after the ultimate goal that we all shoot for."
The Giants didn't look like a team capable of reaching the Super Bowl a week ago, when they had to rally from a 13-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the pitiful Cowboys 17-13. But since losing back-to-back home games to the Rams and Lions in November, they have won five in a row. In an NFC burdened by the lack of a dominant, well-rounded team, that makes them the hottest team in the conference, if not the best.
That might be good enough this year. The formula for winning playoff games has always been to play stout defense and run the ball on offense, and those are two things the Giants do well.
Their two-headed, change-of-pace running game ranks 10th in the NFL even though halfbacks Tiki Barber and Ron Dayne found the going tough at Dallas against a defense that has allowed three 200-yard rushers this season.
Meanwhile, Collins has matured into a quarterback who can make defenses pay for loading up on the line of scrimmage. He's thrown for 3,289 yards, the team's highest total since Phil Simms passed for 3,359 yards in 1988.
The Giants' emerging defense represents its best hope for a long playoff run. Led by lineman Michael Strahan and Keith Hamilton and linebackers Jessie Armstead and Micheal Barrow, they have given up 10 or fewer points seven times this season. They've allowed just one 300-yard passer and one 100-yard rusher.
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 Maybe somebody needed to make a statement, but ... it only mattered because these guys backed it up. They made it happen." ” |
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— Jim Fassel, Giants head coach |
In their four games before the victory over the Jaguars, the Giants had alloweded a paltry 37 points. For the season, only three teams, all in the AFC, have allowed fewer than their 14.7 points per game.
The Giants have a running game, a defense and momentum. However, there is nothing about them that is overpowering, not one area where they physically dominate. But they might get by with that in an NFC that has produced no clear-cut favorite.
"We have a team capable of competing against anybody," Fassel said. "We just have to play better than they do. We didn't play good games against teams when we lost. When we play a real good game against a real good team, it will be a dogfight.
"We've managed to keep most of our guys on their feet and in uniform this season, which gives us the best chance of being at our best. The next thing is if the attitude is right, and our attitude is right. The way I look at it right now is that if we continue to focus and work and not get happy with where we are, we'll continue to play good. I believe in these guys and that we can play good enough in every game."
If not, they'll have to contend with Fassel.
"This team is going to stay focused," he said. "I'm not going to let anybody get out of whack on that thing."
Tough talk aside, Fassel is downplaying his now-famous playoff guarantee. He said the Giants improved from last year's 7-9 record because they focused on the task at hand, played hard and got better as the season wore on. They won on the road (going 7-1), they won back-to-back games and they came from behind to win -- all things their critics said they couldn't do.
"Maybe somebody needed to make a statement, but ... it only mattered because these guys backed it up," Fassel said. "They made it happen."
If the Giants can't make it happen in the playoffs, Fassel's brave words will have a hollow ring to them.
'99 QB Class gets first taste of playoffs
Heading into the season's final weekend, five teams have qualified for the NFC playoffs. Four of them -- the Eagles, Vikings, Buccaneers and Saints -- have quarterbacks taken in the Great Quarterback Draft of 1999.
How did so many second-year quarterbacks achieve such stunning success this season, especially when all of them saw limited or no action as rookies?
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| McNabb |
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| Brooks |
Talent is one reason. Being surrounded by a good supporting cast is another. But the biggest reason is coaching.
Quarterback might be the toughest and most cerebral position in sports, and the Eagles' Donovan McNabb, the Vikings' Daunte Culpepper, the Buccaneers'
Shawn King and the Saints' Aaron Brooks all benefitted from excellent instruction by the coaches they work with on a daily basis.
Here are the coaches most responsible for the remarkable success of the second-year quarterbacks this season:
McNabb: Offensive coordinator Rod Dowhower and quarterbacks coach Brad Childress.
Culpepper: Offensive coordinator Sherm Lewis and quarterbacks coach Alex Wood.
King: Offensive coordinator Les Steckel and quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen.
Brooks: Offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy and quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti Jr.
Martz didn't do the right thing
As the Rams' offensive coordinator last season, Mike Martz directed the most uninhibited offense in history on the NFL. And when he replaced Dick Vermeil as head coach after the Rams' Super Bowl victory, Martz promised to attack more than ever on offense.
Martz remained true to that philosophy for almost 15 full games this season. However, with a 35-31 lead over the Buccaneers and three minutes, 33 seconds to play Monday night, he got cold feet. His conservative play-calling at the end contributed to the Rams' devastating 38-35 loss.
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 They had to score a touchdown, and I did not want to stop that clock. I still believe it was the right thing to do. We just didn't finish the game. ” |
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— Mike Martz, Rams head coach |
Needing one first down to put the game away and clinch a playoff berth, Martz called three straight runs up the middle by Marshall Faulk. He even changed a play-action pass on third-and-6 into a run, then punted the ball to the Bucs with 2:22 left.
Essentially, Martz decided to leave the outcome up to a defense that has allowed 30 points per game, the worst mark in the NFL. Even though the Bucs aren't known for their offensive prowess, they marched 80 yards for the game-winning touchdown.
"Two things that were in my mind were very big," said Martz, defending his play selection. "They had to score a touchdown, and I did not want to stop that clock. I still believe it was the right thing to do. We just didn't finish the game."
Saints take their turn atop NFC West
With the Rams' loss to the Bucs, the Saints clinched the NFC West title and completed a five-year cycle that would make the late Pete Rozelle proud.
All five NFC West teams have won a division title in the last five years.
Since the 1996 season, the NFC West has been won, in order, by the Panthers, 49ers, Falcons, Rams and Saints. Three of those winners -- the Panthers, Rams and Saints -- catapulted from worst to first in the division standings.
The amazing thing about that development is that no division in the NFL had resisted parity like the NFC West. From 1981 through '97, the 49ers won 13 of the 16 available division titles (there was no division winner in the strike-shortened 1982 season).
No defending Vikings' defense
An update on the Vikings' defense, which had been respectable all season against weak competition but collapsed in back-to-back losses to the Rams and Packers.
In those two games against high-powered offenses, the Vikings gave up 73 points, 60 first downs, 942 yards, 6.9 yards per play and a 75.7 completion percentage. The defense had two sacks and no turnovers. It forced only two punts and allowed the Rams and Packers to convert 17 of their 25 third-down plays.
The Vikings had their 30th consecutive game with 300 or more yards on offense Sunday against Green Bay, breaking the NFL record set by the Rams from 1949 to '51, but their hopes of winning a Super Bowl, which looked so good two weeks ago, have all but vanished because their defense can't contain a quality offense.
Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal writes a weekly NFC column every Thursday for ESPN.com.
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