Look Who’s Having Some Holiday Jollies

Right time. Right place. Wrong teams.

Many thought that the NFC East race could have a down-to-the-wire finish, but few predicted that showdown would be between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, rather than the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

The Redskins and Giants, who were a combined 4-12 in the second half of last season, were supposed to be also-rans at this point, mere spectators in the scramble for playoff spots. But both are very much alive, and will meet today in a pivotal game at the Redskins’ FedEx Field.

“I can’t remember being happier,” said Washington Coach Joe Gibbs, whose 8-6 team can secure a postseason berth with victories today and Jan. 1 at Philadelphia. “It’s a lot to play for, and we need to take advantage of it.”

For the Giants (10-4), the path to the playoffs is even less cluttered. Win today -- or next week at Oakland -- and they saunter away with their first division title since the 2000 season.

“I almost look at [today’s game] as the last game of the season,” Giant defensive end Michael Strahan said. “I don’t think anybody wants to depend on winning in Oakland to seal our fate. This is going to be the game that determines everything for us.”

That the Redskins survived their midseason swoon is somewhat surprising. Their bid to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999 took a serious hit in November, when they blew second-half leads and lost to Tampa Bay, Oakland and San Diego in succession. Since, Washington has rebounded with three consecutive victories.

“We had three excruciating losses in a row and they responded,” Gibbs told reporters this week. “That’s a tribute to [our] leadership and character. There are any number of times where this team could have said, ‘We’re out of it,’ and get discouraged. But they didn’t.”

With some help, the Redskins could even sew up a playoff spot this weekend. They would need to win today, and get losses from Dallas and Atlanta. The final piece would be Minnesota losing at Baltimore on Sunday night.

“No doubt we’ll be watching on Sunday,” Redskin defensive end Renaldo Wynn told reporters. “ ... But we’ve got to take care of business first.”

The most notable part of the Redskins’ rise is that they’ve done it with 35-year-old quarterback Mark Brunell, who looked washed up last season. But should we be surprised? Gibbs is the coach who turned quarterbacks Doug Williams and Mark Rypien into Super Bowl winners, and Jay Schroeder into a Pro Bowl player. Brunell went to Washington with a better resume than all of those quarterbacks.

Even though their passing game has cooled in recent weeks, the Redskins still have the league’s third-most-improved air attack -- from an average of 164.5 yards passing in 2004 to 196.7 this season -- behind Arizona’s and the Giants’.

Brunell, however, hasn’t been a Giant killer. In his last two starts against New York, he has averaged 78.5 yards passing and 3.4 yards a pass. He’ll probably need to do better than that today.

The Redskins were no match for the Giants in Week 8, when New York limited them to 125 yards in a 36-0 victory. Giant running back Tiki Barber alone nearly doubled Washington’s production, rushing for 206 yards and a touchdown.

But the Giants don’t expect to run wild again. They see the Redskins as an improved team with renewed confidence, a scary foe.

“They have the talent -- it has never been a dispute over their talent level,” Strahan said. “They just haven’t always put it together and played well, and now they’re doing that. That’s what makes them dangerous.”

In some ways, the Giants are also a danger to themselves. They had 11 false starts at Seattle and five more at Philadelphia. It won’t be any quieter at FedEx Field, where a crowd of more than 90,000 shakes the place to its pilings.

“This is truly a playoff game,” Strahan said. “That’s the way you have to look at it -- the environment, the consequences, all of those things.... If we can come out of this test, I think it will make us ready for whatever else is in the future.”