RAMS : Parcells Keeps Giants’ Vision Narrowed to a Game at a Time

The focus never wavers, the glare in his eyes never softens, and his team never loses. At least it hasn’t lost in 1990.

This season, Coach Bill Parcells, the grumpiest winner around, has his undefeated New York Giants playing and thinking just the way he demands them to: One victory at a time.

And while prognosticators and network visionaries are jumping ahead excitedly to the Giants’ Monday night matchup with the San Francisco 49ers on Dec. 3--a possible unprecedented game between 11-0 teams--Parcells chooses to ignore all such talk. He wants his team thinking only about this Sunday, playing the Rams, a team that he pointedly reminds them has beaten the Giants three consecutive times.

Around the Giants, nothing else is allowed.

“There’s no mention of the 49er game around here,” Parcells said. “The only people who have said anything about that are the newspapers. Our players aren’t thinking about that. We’ve got the Rams, who’ve given us a lot of trouble; we’ve got the Eagles coming up, who’ve given us a lot of trouble.

“I can assure you that our players are paying absolutely zero attention to the 49ers.”

But clearly, the 49ers and the Giants are showing that they are the class of the ’90 pack, two teams that seem destined to play each other not once but twice--the second meeting in the NFC championship game.

The 49ers’ perfect record is not surprising--the 49ers are expected to achieve. The Giants’ swing at a 16-0 season is shocking, coming as it does on the heels of a down season for 35-year-old quarterback Phil Simms and general murmuring that the Giants’ nucleus had gotten old together.

Now, with Simms the NFL’s highest-rated passer and an old-fogy defense shackling opponents to just 229.5 yards a game, the Giants are stirring echoes of their dominant 1986 team’s run to Super Bowl XXI.

Are they better now than they were then?

“No, I don’t think so,” Parcells said. “We’ve gotten through a couple of tough games in our division, but I still think it’s still a little early to tell where we are as a team.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate to be in the position we’re in, and I certainly don’t think we’re anywhere near what we were, particularly at the end of ‘86, when we were pretty dominant in several areas.

“But we have improved our team in several areas over last year, I think. One of them is the secondary; they’ve played much better this year, we’re intercepting more balls, and our pass defense is much better. And our special teams are better. So I think those two factors have enabled us to be a little bit better off than we were last year at this time, although last year I think we were 7-1.”

Parcells says his team has gradually been reformulated, step by step, since the 1986 season, and just as gradually, it has been making steps back to where it is threatening to swamp the league once again.

“We’ve been through two transitions here since I’ve been the coach,” said Parcells, whose first year was 1983. “One started in ‘84, when we really basically rebuilt the whole team with the exception of two or three players who were really young--(Lawrence) Taylor, Simms--at that time. Then after the ’86 year, we had to kind of start over again after that.

“We’ve been making pretty steady progress from a record standpoint since then. So hopefully, we can continue to improve this year and see what happens.”

Cornerback Jerry Gray, who was held out of last Sunday’s game with a sore knee, practiced again Thursday and said there was no way he would stand on the sideline against the Giants.

“I’ll play Sunday, I’ll play Sunday, believe me,” Gray said. “What happened is that I had a lot of fluid on my knee going into last week. This week, I have little to none. It’s letting me go out and make plays and make cuts, and I’m not even wearing a brace on it.”

Gray first injured his left knee in the last exhibition game, missed the Rams’ first three games, then came back and played in the next four without ever feeling 100%.

“Right now, I think in Week 9, I think I’m back,” Gray said. “I just have to go out and make plays and prove it to Jerry. I’m more critical on myself than a lot of people because I want to make the plays I know I can make. The games I played, I was frustrated because my body wasn’t letting me make them, and now, my body’s back in tune.”

Coach John Robinson, however, wasn’t quite so emphatic about Gray playing Sunday. Robinson has said he doesn’t want Gray starting again until he is completely ready.

“Jerry’s doing OK. We’re going to wait and see how he is tomorrow,” Robinson said Thursday. “He’s not accelerating particularly well. He could not play again (Sunday). It’s such a difficult thing when you’re straggling out there.

“We’re not exactly sure what to do, to be honest with you. It’s not one of those things that’s an obvious decision. The guy has struggled with the leg and we hope rest will be the answer.”

Robinson did say that even with cornerbacks Darryl Henley and Clifford Hicks coming back after injuries, he was not considering moving Gray to safety at any time this season. Before the season, before the spate of injuries, the plan was for Gray to be the starting free safety.