Redskin Task: Beat New York and New Jersey : Giants, With 2 Previous Wins Over Rivals, Are Big Favorites

The question here is not whether the New York Giants will beat the Washington Redskins today for the NFC title at Giants Stadium.

The Redskins, of course, have no chance. Forget it. Next question, please. If it’s problems you want, try the one over which state gets the Giant victory party. New York City has to know. There are streets to clear and confetti to order.

New York Mayor Ed Koch said last week that his city would not use taxpayer’s money for a parade to honor a “foreign team.”

The Giants, of course, have for a decade played across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

A controversy raged until Friday, when a major credit card company agreed to pick up New York’s parade tab.

Still, the city of Newark, N.J., plans its own celebration. So does East Rutherford.

More interesting than all the parade talk though is the unqualified assumption that the Giants are going to win this game without so much as breaking a sweat.

OK, they do have a few things going for them. Momentum, for one. This team has won 10 straight games and hasn’t lost a home game this season. The Giants have a great defense and the greatest linebacker, Lawrence Taylor.

And who doesn’t know that the Giants have already beaten the Redskins twice this season? What fool would think the Redskins could last a quarter after that hit-and-run job the Giants did on the San Francisco 49ers last week?

And what would you think if you saw the Redskin coach, Joe Gibbs, cowering behind a podium at the mere mention of the Giants.

“We have respect for the 49ers,” Gibbs told a media gathering Friday night. “We did not want to play them again. To see the way the Giants took them apart (49-3) made an impression on everyone in the football world.”

Now, a few more things you should know:

--This will be the Redskins’ third NFC title-game appearance in five years. Washington has won one Super Bowl in the decade and has played in another.

--The Giants last appeared in a title game in 1963.

--The Redskins have won 14 games this season, one less than the Giants.

--No one expected the Redskins to beat the Rams in the wild-card game. They did. No one expected them to beat the defending Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears a week later. They did.

Funny thing, but no one expects them to beat the Giants.

And Gibbs, who can “poor us” with the best of them, has to be loving it.

“The big thing is that we are tremendous underdogs,” Gibbs said. “We know that, and it’s justifiable and understandable.”

So would you rather be Gibbs, a coach without a chance to win, or Bill Parcells, a coach without a chance to lose?

Whose collar is going to tighten first?

Which team hasn’t won since 1963?

“As Giant football players, we have to live with the past,” quarterback Phil Simms said. “Because we are constantly reminded about it. Maybe we can wipe some of that away, and people will talk about the Giants of the present and not of the past.”

Still, no question, the Redskins will have to play quite a game to beat the Giants, who are on one of those steamroller rides the Bears were on a season ago.

The Redskins need some big performances from the following:

--Jay Schroeder: The question here is which quarterback will show up. In a 27-20 loss to the Giants on Oct. 27, Schroeder was superb, throwing for 420 yards. But what about the game that decided the NFC East title at RFK Stadium on Dec. 7? In that one, a 24-14 loss, Schroeder threw six interceptions.

But remember, Schroeder is going to the Pro Bowl and Simms is not. Schroeder is capable of the big performance. He threw two touchdowns in the 27-13 win over the Bears last week. One of those, a 24-yarder to Art Monk, was thrown in the face of an all-out Bears’ blitz.

--Joe Jacoby: Would you want this man’s job today? Jacoby, the Redskins’ offensive left tackle, has only to stop Taylor, the NFL sack leader during the regular season with 20 1/2, and right end Leonard Marshall, who had 12 sacks.

It isn’t easy knowing that Jacoby hasn’t done it before.

The Giants sacked Schroeder eight times in two regular-season games, and Taylor had six of them.

Not only that, but Jacoby today will be playing with a broken right hand, suffered in the win over the Rams.

--Dexter Manley: Gibbs pleaded with the controversial defensive end to keep his mouth shut last week, and Manley did. But what could Manley say, really? Giants’ left guard Brad Benson did such a job on Manley in the last game, allowing no sacks, that Benson was named the NFC’s offensive player of the week, the first such award for an offensive lineman.

Still, you can’t ignore Manley’s 18 1/2 sacks this season. He’s big (6-feet 3-inches, 257 pounds), quick and capable of making life miserable for Simms.

You know about the Giants, who keep things pretty simple. They rely mostly on their great defense and the running of little Joe Morris, who scooted through and around the 49ers last week for 159 yards.

And though the Redskins held the Bears to 93 rushing yards last week by using five-man fronts, the Giants don’t plan any great strategy changes.

“We’ll wait and see if they can stop our running game,” Simms said. “They did it against Chicago, but we’ll see if they can do it against us.”

Of course, a week’s worth of strategy might well be swept away by the rain/hail/snow storm that’s reportedly headed into town.

“If the winds are over 20 m.p.h., now we’re talking it being a factor in the game,” Simms said.

Simms was told that the gusts could range anywhere from 10 to 50 m.p.h.

“I’m glad they could pin it down,” he said.

NFC Notes

The Giants were the only NFL team to go undefeated at home this season. They are 9-0, counting last week’s playoff win over the 49ers. . . . The Giants’ best receiver, Lionel Manuel, who spent most of the season on injured reserve (knee) but who played last week “practiced very well,” quarterback Phil Simms said. “If he’s in there I won’t shy away from him.” . . . Simms said he has waited a long time for moments like these. “I’ve played in a lot of Super Bowls driving back and forth to work,” the eight-year veteran said. “I always thought that someday I’d get a chance to play in a big game.”