Huge Month for Giants

In three seasons under Coach Jim Fassel, the New York Giants are 9-0 in December. And the last two victories, including a 19-17 decision over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, have revived their playoff hopes.

Fassel said the streak is a point of pride among his players, and it builds confidence.

“There’s been a lot of stuff written about us and our record in December, and they start believing it,” he said. “It’s part of the whole package and they start believing that. That’s part of belief, you have to take the field believing you are going to win.”

They may need more than that Sunday, when they play the St. Louis Rams.

In Washington, the Redskin defense has improved to the point that it is no longer pitiful, though it still ranks 28th among the league’s 31 teams.

The Redskins gave up a season-low 173 yards, forced four turnovers and had five sacks in Sunday’s 28-3 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. After giving up an average of 402 yards a game in the first eight games, they have yielded an average of only 260 in the last five.

“We can beat anybody we play against as long as we don’t make major mistakes,” defensive end Marco Coleman said. “That’s been the problem. We play teams that don’t kill themselves, and we can’t do that to ourselves, either.”

In Dallas, Cowboy defensive end Greg Ellis will sit out the rest of the season after suffering a broken leg in Sunday’s 20-10 victory over the Eagles, but that didn’t stop him from showing up at Cowboy headquarters this week to watch film of the play that sidelined him.

“It doesn’t gross me out,” he said. “I want to look at it just to make sure that next time I get out of the way.”

CENTRAL / Butler Is Annoyed

LeRoy Butler, the Green Bay Packers’ all-pro safety, broke his personal media boycott this week to vent his feelings about the team’s defensive scheme: mainly, that he’s not more involved in it.

Butler spent the last decade as one of the league’s best blitzing safeties, but in new defensive coordinator Emmitt Thomas’ scheme, Butler rarely goes to the line of scrimmage. He has one sack this season.

“It doesn’t matter who it bothers, but we’ve got to get me more involved,” said Butler, still smarting from Sunday’s 33-31 loss to the Carolina Panthers, in which Panther quarterback Steve Beuerlein passed for 373 yards and three touchdowns. “It’s the only way. I believe that. . . . It’s frustrating not being the first option.

“We have to go back to the basics. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that when I make plays, we win.”

In Tampa Bay, Warrick Dunn studied film of the running back he hoped to emulate, then went out and did his best impersonation in Sunday’s 23-16 victory over the Detroit Lions.

“I ran the way Warrick Dunn ran in college and high school,” the third-year pro said after sparking a sputtering offense with a 68-yard gain on a screen pass and finishing with six receptions for 115 yards.

“I just went back and watched some film of how I ran in college and how I approached the game in college. I just tried to come back out and adjust my game.”

WEST / Puzzling Deal for Saints

It was only last April, after he traded eight draft picks to get him, that Coach Mike Ditka said Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams was the missing piece to the puzzle for the New Orleans Saints, predicting a trip to the Super Bowl.

But Sunday’s 30-14 loss to the Rams dropped the Saints to 2-11, and for the first time in their undistinguished history they’ve had four consecutive seasons with 10 losses or more. This is their worst start since they went 1-15 in 1980.

“I still think we’ve got the pieces to the puzzle,” Ditka said. “They’re just upside down right now.

“They’re not meshed very well. We’re a team that if we know where the pieces go, we haven’t put them in the right spots as coaches and as players.”

Many fans, of course, blame Ditka, who is 14-31 with the Saints and has won only five of his last 26 games.

Ditka has admitted some mistakes.

One scoring attempt this season failed, he said, when he called a play dubbed “Jumbo” because someone shouted it on the sideline. He admitted it was the wrong play.

“Just because someone shouts murder,” he said, “you don’t have to do it.”