Giants, Vikes Prepare for Showdown

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) â€” The New York Giants' surprising surge to the NFC championship game is rooted in a guarantee and a winning streak. <br><br>The impetus for the Minnesota Vikings' appearance

Friday, January 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) â€” The New York Giants' surprising surge to the NFC championship game is rooted in a guarantee and a winning streak.

The impetus for the Minnesota Vikings' appearance in the title game is a losing streak and the belief that the December version of the team wasn't the real Vikings.

Clearly, the Giants have taken the more conventional route. New York was 7-4 following a poor performance in a home loss to Detroit when coach Jim Fassel issued a guarantee that his team would make the playoffs. He didn't mention the upcoming schedule featured such weaklings as Arizona and Dallas and such mediocrities as Pittsburgh, Jacksonville and fading Washington.

But the Giants beat all of those teams, and the Vikings faltered in December. Suddenly, it was New York that held the home-field advantage in a conference where no road team has won a playoff game in four tries. Minnesota will try to break that trend on Sunday.

``I think the Detroit loss was the lowest point,'' Fassel said. ``I wasn't depressed over it. As much as anything, it challenged me. I was mad. I was angry.

``But I didn't look at other people and say, `Well, you've got to do this better, coaches; you've got to do this better, players.' It's up to me. I've got to get this thing changed around. I'm not going to stand for this.''

And what did the players think when Fassel stood before the media and declared his team a postseason qualifier with five weeks left in the season?

``I tell you what we were thinking: Is this guy crazy?'' defensive tackle Keith Hamilton said with a chuckle. ``When you start looking at what he did, he took a lot of pressure off of the young guys that we had here, just allowed us to go out and play football.

``I think that was the biggest thing he did. The media was all on us. He took a lot of pressure off us by saying what he did, just allowed us to go out and play football, what we do best. It's paid off.''

Sure has. The Giants (13-4) are one victory from their first Super Bowl trip in 10 years.

The Vikings (12-5) got this close in 1998, then lost the NFC title game at home to Atlanta, blowing a late lead and falling in overtime. They claim that game is a distant memory, but the three-game slide to conclude the 2000 schedule is very fresh.

By dropping those games â€” albeit to three winning teams, the Rams, Packers and Colts â€” the Vikings nearly threw away the NFC Central crown. They did force a road trip to a cold locale this week, something dome teams prefer to avoid in January.

But they also learned something from that December flop, and their 34-16 victory over New Orleans last week indicates that the real Vikings are the ones who were 11-2.

``I think you could see that from the way we came out against the Saints,'' said quarterback Daunte Culpepper, who had three touchdowns passes vs. New Orleans in his first postseason action.

``It's difficult to stay up for an entire season,'' said Robert Smith, the NFC's leading rusher with 1,521 yards. ``I think at the end of the season, it got a little difficult. I think two of those three games were on the road, we had already clinched a playoff spot. It's tough to do week-in, week-out. It's a long year.''

But they hope the year last two weeks longer and ends with a victory in Tampa.

``It's an opportunity that doesn't come along for a lot of people, even if you're lucky enough to play in professional football and stay healthy, do it for some years,'' Smith said. ``There's definitely no guarantee that you'll have a chance to play in a championship game. Certainly playing in a Super Bowl is an honor that I think, as players get older, they realize what the game is all about, winning the world championship.

``It's definitely something that you think about and something that motivates you throughout the year.''