Fassel angry after two no-show efforts all but kill Giants' playoff hopes

Having control of their playoff destiny didn't get the New York Giants to perform the past two weeks, so Jim Fassel is putting jobs on the line for what might be the season finale against the Dallas Cowboys.

Having control of their playoff destiny didn't get the New York Giants to perform the past two weeks, so Jim Fassel is putting jobs on the line for what might be the season finale against the Dallas Cowboys.

"Hell, I'm angry today, I'm not in a very good mood," Fassel said today, a day after the Minnesota Vikings put the Giants' playoff hopes in someone else's hands by beating New York 34-17.

For the game to mean anything for the Giants (7-8), Arizona (6-9) must beat the Packers (7-8) at Green Bay on Sunday. If that happens, the winner of the Giants-Dallas game would earn the final NFC playoff berth.

The Giants could get the berth even if Green Bay won, but they would have to beat the Cowboys by 60 or 70 points because of a points differential playoff tiebreaker. The exact margin would be 56 plus the margin by which Green Bay beat the Cardinals.

The chances of that happening are astronomical because the Cowboys (7-8) come into the game knowing a win will give them the playoff berth.

Whoever gets the berth more than likely will play at Washington (9-6) in a wild-card game.

"I want to play well this weekend and beat Dallas," Fassel said. "If it leads to a playoff spot, wonderful. If it doesn't, we better go out and play. We better go out and play and win the game."

What has annoyed Fassel the past two weeks in losses to St. Louis and Minnesota is that a vast majority of players put in subpar efforts.

The two plays that really annoyed Fassel were Moe Williams' 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Robert Smith's 70-yard touchdown run. Both big plays came right after the Giants scored.

Fassel wouldn't point fingers at anyone, but he made it clear that wasn't going to be accepted.

"I don't need to post guys' grades and say you did and you didn't," Fassel said. "We had a majority who didn't, a vast majority who didn't."

Fassel said that if the trend continued this weekend, some players would not be with the team next year.

Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Strahan, who had two tackles and a pressure that led to an interception on Sunday, couldn't explain why the Giants haven't got the job done with the playoffs on the line.

"That's what is frustrating," he said. "I don't know. I don't get it. Some weeks we look like world beaters and other weeks we look like Santa Claus, we're giving away gifts. I don't know how we do it."