Giants Versus Jets Would Be a Trip

A subway Super Bowl?

Well, that might be a reach. But, for the first time in 16 years and only the third time in NFL history, the Giants and Jets are both still in the playoff hunt heading into the final weekend of games. If the Giants beat Philadelphia today, they’re in. The Jets can win the AFC East if they beat Green Bay on Sunday, and New England beats Miami.

“The way we’re both playing is getting people excited about the possibilities,” Giant General Manager Ernie Accorsi said. “I think they see that we’re both hot teams right now. Both teams are alive, same weekend, same stadium, same field.”

Here’s how the New York teams match up:

OWNERS

Giants -- Wellington Mara’s family has owned the team since 1925, and he can remember the days when Vince Lombardi was a Giant assistant coach.

Jets -- Woody Johnson is in his third season as owner and has a firm grasp of the Al Groh era.

Edge: Giants.

KEY COACHING MOVES

Giants -- The team has won six of eight since Jim Fassel took over the playcalling after a loss at Philadelphia.

Jets -- Herman Edwards, who delivered a tearful speech on the importance of never giving up, made his best decision as a coach when he gave up on Vinny Testaverde in favor of Chad Pennington.

Edge: Jets.

UNDERRATED PLAYER

Giants -- Linebacker Brandon Short. He wears No. 53, the same number as Giant great Harry Carson, and he’s the type of tackler who would fit in well with that swarming defense of the 1980s.

Jets -- Receiver Laveranues Coles. He has great hands and runs crisp routes. Most important, he’s one of the toughest guys on the team.

Edge: Jets.

RECORD UNDER BILL PARCELLS

Giants -- From 1983 through ‘90, Parcells was 77-49-1 with the G-men, and 8-3 in the postseason -- including Super Bowl victories in 1986 and ’90.

Jets -- A lighter, blonder Parcells coached the Jets to a 29-19 record from 1997 through ’99.

Edge: Giants.

MOST KNUCKLEHEADED PLAY

Giants -- Holding a 7-0 lead at Arizona with 14 seconds left in the first half, the Giants took over on their own 24. Instead of running out the clock, they got greedy. An errant pass by Kerry Collins was intercepted at the 38 by Justin Lucas and run back for a touchdown, a pivotal play in a 21-7 victory by the Cardinals.

Jets -- After complaining he wasn’t getting the ball enough, receiver Wayne Chrebet caught a pass late in a game against Chicago and tried to hurdle four Bear defenders. He looked like Jerry Rice on the way up, Jerry Lewis on the way down. In order to stick the landing, he had to let go of the ball -- and the ballgame. The Jets lost.

Edge: None -- the plays were equally idiotic.

MOST NEWSWORTHY RADIO PERSONALITY

Giants -- Rookie tight end Jeremy Shockey made headlines over his insensitive comments about gays on the Howard Stern show, then was fired from his own radio show on WFAN when he twice failed to call in on time.

Jets -- General Manager Terry Bradway has his own show on Mondays, and, even in the worst of times, takes calls from Jet fans. Give him credit for that.

Edge: Giants.

So will these teams wind up meeting in San Diego next month? For that, I’ll steal a line from Parcells, who responded to an especially dumb question with this gem:

Is LSD back?

Around the NFL

AFC EAST -- Tom Brady is no Brett Favre. And, in this case, that’s a good thing. Unlike Favre, who slid at the feet of Michael Strahan last season and essentially gave the New York Giant the single-season sack record, Brady won’t be taking a dive Sunday against Miami’s Jason Taylor. With 18 1/2 sacks, Taylor is four short of Strahan’s record. Taylor said breaking that record was one of the personal goals he set before the season. “It’s not something I walk around talking about, and I’m not going to come in here and say I’m going to get it,” he told reporters. “But you always want to be the best. That’s part of it. Some of the goals I’ve set for myself I’ve passed. So the last few weeks, I had to set some new ones. We’ll see what happens.”

Buffalo’s Drew Bledsoe has cooled considerably in the second half of the season. Compared to his first eight games, his last seven have included a plunge in completion percentage, from 64% to 57%; average passing yardage, from 287 to 232; touchdowns, from 16 to seven; and quarterback rating, from 98.3 to 68.5. The only number that has risen? Interceptions, from five to 10.

Aptly named Dolphin guard Jamie Nails tore an Achilles’ tendon against the Raiders and stayed on the field two or three more plays before hobbling to the sideline. Then, last week, he left a South Florida hospital about an hour after having surgery on his knees and his Achilles’, even though medical personnel advised him to stay. “I don’t really like hospitals,” Nails explained to reporters. “I had surgery in high school on my knee and had to stay for a month because I had a staph infection. This time, once I was ready to move around, I got ready to go.”

AFC NORTH -- Tim Couch has won only 30% of his games (18-42) as Cleveland’s starting quarterback in the last four seasons, yet 10 of those victories have come after the Browns have been tied or behind in the fourth quarter. “I think that’s a sign that a quarterback wants to be known for,” Couch said. “To be able to bring his team back when everything is against you.” Couch’s biggest comeback challenge will be winning back those people whose confidence in him is dwindling by the day.

In a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Pittsburgh Coach Bill Cowher was asked if his team would put in a claim on Deion Sanders, considering starting cornerback Chad Scott has a broken hand. “No,” Cowher said, “we’re going to pass.” Within three hours, the Steelers had put a claim in on Sanders, joining four other AFC teams blocking the star player’s path to the Raiders.

AFC SOUTH -- Indianapolis running back Edgerrin James needs 97 yards rushing Sunday to reach 1,000 and collect a $1.38-million bonus. He’s coming off his worst performance of the season, a 10-carry, 13-yard debacle against the Giants. He has been slowed by injuries all season -- two sprained ankles, a pulled hamstring and pulled rib muscles -- and he hasn’t looked close to the back who was so dominant a few years ago.

Likewise, the Colts have struggled. Not only have they lost two of three, but have lost control of the division to Tennessee. Their path to the playoffs is clear-cut, though. If they beat Jacksonville in their finale, they’re in as the fifth-seeded wild-card team. Since arriving in Indianapolis in 1984, the Colts are 4-1 when their season hangs in the balance in the final week.

But making the playoffs as a wild-card team is no easy road. Since the NFL went to a 12-team playoff format in 1990, a fifth or sixth-seeded team has never made it to the Super Bowl. Baltimore and Denver recently won the Super Bowl as No. 4 seeds.

For the first time in the history of the Tennessee/Houston franchise, the team has a 3,000-yard passer (Steve McNair), a 1,000-yard rusher (Eddie George) and a 1,000-yard receiver (Derrick Mason). The club has been around for 43 seasons.

AFC WEST -- It looks as if Dan Marino can breathe easy. His single-season yardage record appears to be safe. Rich Gannon would need to roll up 475 yards passing against Kansas City today to break Marino’s mark of 5,084 -- a gargantuan task, even against the league’s worst-ranked pass defense. Gannon was on track until two weeks ago, when he threw for 204 yards in a loss to the Dolphins, then followed that with 201 yards in a victory over Denver. Second place in the record books is well within his reach, though. He needs 221 yards to surpass Kurt Warner, who rolled up 4,830 yards for St. Louis in 2001.

A Raider to watch is cornerback Clarence Love, who was released by the Ravens in 2001 and spent much of the last year working in his family’s barbershop in Jackson, Mich. He has gotten a lot more playing time than anyone expected because of injuries to starting corners Charles Woodson and Tory James, and rookie standout Phillip Buchanon. Few people expected Love to make it out of training camp.

“He was basically the 53rd player on our [53-man] roster,” Coach Bill Callahan said. “Everyone at the time wondered why we kept Clarence Love. But we saw enough in training camp to know he had speed and cover ability. He may be short on size, but he’s been a surprise for us.”

NFC EAST -- Dallas’ Emmitt Smith is a mere 38 yards away from his 12th consecutive 1,000-yard rushing season. He should pick up those yards against the Redskins, but it probably will be his last game as a Cowboy. Under his current deal, he has a $7-million base salary for next season and a $9.8-million cap number. That’s far too steep for a 34-year-old running back, even if he is the leading rusher in NFL history.

Washington’s Bruce Smith had two sacks against Houston last Sunday, giving him eight for the season. He has 194 sacks in 18 seasons, leaving him four short of Reggie White’s league record. It’s unlikely Smith will reach that milestone against the Cowboys, even though he had two sacks against them earlier this season. He’ll be 40 next season, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be back. Too bad he isn’t playing against Favre this weekend.

NFC NORTH -- Chicago will be outmanned against Tampa Bay, but don’t write off the Bears just yet. The Buccaneers have lost eight of their last 10 road games against Chicago, after all, and have never won in freezing weather.

Minnesota kicker Gary Anderson is usually soft-spoken and reserved. But even he couldn’t bite his tongue this week in discussing his 53-yard field goal that beat Miami, 20-17 -- and former Viking Cris Carter -- Dec. 21. The kick came moments after Carter dropped what might have been the winning touchdown pass. As Anderson was lining up, TV cameras caught Carter on the sideline shaking his head and apparently assuring teammates that Anderson didn’t have the leg to make the kick. “Here he is, a minute [after] dropping that game-winning touchdown,” Anderson said. “And then, in true CC fashion: ‘He can’t make that kick. He can’t make it.’ And then to see his face, his eyes following the ball, to see his face, it was good.”

NFC SOUTH -- Jim Haslett will never admit it, but his staggering Saints look a lot like they did at the end of last season when they lost their last four games by a combined 160-52. How else do you reconcile losing to Minneapolis at the Superdome, then doing a face plant against Cincinnati? That loss to the Bengals really stung, especially because the Saints had ample opportunities to seize control but couldn’t take advantage of four turnovers and a slew of penalties by Cincinnati. Rookie guard LeCharles Bentley hasn’t been in the league long, but he recognized an embarrassing moment when he saw one. “Everybody’s still in shock,” he told reporters. “We just lost to the Bengals. It’s like if I were still at Ohio State and we lost to Akron or something. That’s not supposed to happen.”

Bentley, a second-round pick, has turned into an All-Pro quote. Asked about his season-opening assignment, blocking Tampa Bay’s Warren Sapp, he told the New Orleans Times-Picayune: “You hear so much about the guy that it just works up into a frenzy. You start to think this guy is unstoppable, nobody in the league can block him. But to actually get out there.... I walk up to the line and think, ‘You can’t be for real.’ But after that first play, it all went out the window. After that, he was just another victim. My parents always told me you’ve got to bully a bully. After a while, he didn’t want anymore of us. After a while, he wanted to play linebacker.”

NFC WEST -- San Francisco Coach Steve Mariucci isn’t too pleased about having to play a Monday night game immediately before the playoffs start. The 49ers finish the season at St. Louis. “It’s 36 hours less recovery time than everybody else,” he said. “It’s a short week, and I’m wondering -- I don’t make these decisions -- but I’m wondering if a Monday night game should be played that [final] week. It could well have been both us and the Rams in the playoffs.... Let’s face it, it’s a disadvantage to have a day-and-a-half less time.”

For the first time in his career as an NFL head coach, Mike Holmgren is dealing with job insecurity. Word is, Seahawk owner Paul Allen might ask Holmgren to give up some of his control over personnel so he can focus on coaching. But Holmgren might be too proud to let go of that. After all, if he doesn’t have that control, what’s left? A $16-million golden parachute, you say?

Poor guy.