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Sunday, January 14
Giants surprise again in NFC title game
Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Underrated and understated, the New
York Giants are going to the Super Bowl. That's guaranteed.
On the eve of the NFC championship game, coach Jim Fassel
considered the task ahead. The longshot Giants were facing a tough
Minnesota team, dismissed so thoroughly that they were the first
No. 1 seed in the playoffs to be an underdog at home in many years.
|  | | The Giants made good of the coach Jim Fassel's guarantee and delivered a Super Bowl berth. |
"Coming into a game like that, I'm sure a lot of people had
their doubts about us. Is the game too large, too much?" Fassel
said. "I never felt that way at all."
So Fassel offered an observation to the Giants.
"I told this team last night, there's one team in this league
that already calls itself America's Team," he said. "I said, `You
know what? We're living the American dream. We're the American
Dream.' "
The dream continues, punctuated by a 41-0 blowout of the Vikings
that has the Giants convinced that Fassel knew what he was talking
about all along.
This was a team staggering through the season so badly that the
coach felt obliged to take the heat off with one of those
grandstand guarantees.
His midseason assurance that the Giants would make the playoffs
was mostly shrugged off as an empty promise.
Except in the team's dressing room.
"I knew we had the talent," safety Shaun Williams said. "I
knew once we came together and played as a team, we had the
capability. We went out and did it."
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Good Omen
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With their win over the Vikings, the Giants remain perfect in conference championship games since the AFL/NFL merger. Among teams with at least two appearances, only New York and Cincinnati have perfect records in championship games. And after each of their two previous victories in the NFC Championship game, the Giants went on to win the Super Bowl.
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Win Pct.
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W-L
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Giants
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1.000
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3-0*
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Bengals
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1.000
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2-0
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Broncos
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.857
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6-1
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Redskins
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.833
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5-1
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Bills
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.800
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4-1
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* 2-0 in Super Bowls
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Lomas Brown, part of a reconstructed offensive line, endorsed
the promise.
"We had been shooting ourselves in the foot," he said. "It
gets to the point where you have so much pride, you don't let
anything stop you. The defense has always been a step ahead. Once
the offense caught up, we did what we needed to do."
And that was to start winning on a consistent basis.
Fassel started the season on the hot seat, given just a one-year
extension on his contract after last season.
The Giants made the playoffs just once in three years and then
bailed out badly, blowing a nine-point lead in the final two
minutes of the wild-card game against Minnesota in 1997. At the end
of that game, Giants players were bickering with each other on the
sideline.
That was followed by 8-8 and 7-9 seasons that marked this as a
mediocre team, no threat to the elite of the league.
The NFC powerhouse was St. Louis, the defending Super Bowl
champions. The class of the division was Washington, fortified with
a fistful of big-name, free agent signings.
The Giants?
Strictly also-rans, especially after a winless preseason.
Fassel had the trap door positioned directly under him. One more
ho-hum season and he'd almost certainly be gone.
With that hanging over him, Fassel set out on this season.
Taking advantage of a weak schedule, the Giants zipped to a 7-2
start. Then came the crisis. The Giants were blown out by the Rams
and then lost to Detroit in a game in which they fell behind by
28-0 before losing 31-21.
Consecutive losses at home cast a pall on the team. The offense,
operated by retread quarterback Kerry Collins, seemed listless. The
defense seemed ordinary. This was a team on a treadmill, headed
nowhere.
That's when Fassel stepped forward.
"This is a horse race and we're coming around the far turn,"
he said. "I see the finish line. I want no ambiguity on where
we're going to go. I'm going to define it completely. Things are
changing right now because we're getting around the far turn and
heading for the home stretch."
The Giants then went on a tear. They finished the regular season
with five straight wins, clinching the division and home field
through the playoffs. Fassel's guarantee was delivered, punctuated
by playoff wins against Philadelphia and Minnesota.
"I don't think it transformed them into a Super Bowl team,"
Fassel said, referring to his promise. "It lit a match. And that
fire has been burning since then."
Now he needs the flame to last for one more game.
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