Collision Course : Anticipation Builds for Giants-49ers Clash Dec. 3

Ask Bill Parcells THE QUESTION and you get THE ANSWER.

“We’re not on a collision course with the 49ers,” the New York Giants’ coach says. “We’re on a collision course with Detroit.

Yeah. Sure. OK.

But try telling that to ABC, which televises Super Bowl XXIV I-II on Dec. 3.

Try telling that to talk show hosts and callers in the two cities that house the first teams to start the season 9-0 in tandem since the Bears and Lions did it in 1934.

The Giants-49ers contest has become a special spectacle in this odd season when the main topics of discussion are the loony schedule and the even loonier officiating. In fact, because parity now refers only to the 23 teams below the Giants, 49ers, Bears, Bills and Dolphins, a meeting of two good teams is a rarity and a meeting of two 11-0 teams unheard of.

Yes, next Monday night’s Raiders-Dolphins game in Miami could be a good one. But it would have been a better one if the Raiders hadn’t stumbled over Kansas City and Green Bay the past two weeks.

Which is what Parcells and George Seifert have to worry about the next two weeks against Detroit and Philadelphia (New York) and Tampa Bay and the Rams (San Francisco). You can probably scratch Detroit (it’s outdoors) and Tampa Bay, but the Rams and Eagles are another story, particularly the Eagles, whose defense looked its ferocious self for the first time this season against the Washington Redskins on Monday night.

The Giants lead the Eagles and Redskins by four games in the East; the Bears lead the Packers by four in the Central and the 49ers lead the Saints by five in the West. With seven games to go, that means the races are over--the 49ers’ magic number is two; for the Bears and Giants, it’s three.

So despite what Parcells and Seifert say, their meeting Dec. 3 is the game that saves the season (decade? year? century?) for the NFL.

Parcells even went so far as to hint Monday that trying to become the first team to go unbeaten since the 1972 Dolphins has its positive aspects.

“Yes, at this point it’s a plus factor,” he said. “The players really want to do this.”

But it’s also a plus to the team that knocks off the unbeaten team. San Francisco, with 17 straight wins, has already equaled Miami’s mark, albeit over two seasons. The Giants have 12 straight regular-season victories with an overtime loss to the Rams in last season’s playoffs the only black mark over that period.

Will the Giants use single coverage on Jerry Rice with 10 seconds left in the half and allow him to get out of bounds with a 27-yard pass to set up a field goal, as Dallas did Sunday night?

Don’t bet on it.

But will the Giants get by a trip to Philadelphia in two weeks against a team that until the opening game of this season seemed to have their number?

Don’t bet on it.

But if it’s the 11-0 49ers against the 10-1 Giants, will anyone turn off the television sets?

Again . . . don’t bet on it.