By ERNIE PALLADINO
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

SAN FRANCISCO - The 2002 regular season revealed that momentum meant nothing on a week-to-week basis. But this is the playoffs, a different kind of season.

It is a season of hope; as in, coach Jim Fassel hopes the momentum of winning the last four regular-season games can carry his New York Giants through Sunday's wild-card game against the San Francisco 49ers and beyond.

"The momentum factor going into the playoffs is big," Fassel said. "Now, the only thing is, where does that momentum dip for you? How long can you maintain the momentum?

"With that said, I'd still like to have the momentum. Of the six teams in the NFC, only two (Tampa Bay and the Giants) won their last game. A couple dropped two out of three. I'd rather have (the momentum) than worry about it."

The Giants will have enough worries, anyway. San Francisco as a city hasn't exactly been kind to them. And that's not just regarding their previous playoff appearance at Candlestick Park, a 44-3 loss in the 1993 NFC semifinal in which Ricky Watters buried them by scoring five touchdowns.

The Giants have scored just one touchdown in their last five visits, covering 56 offensive series. In their last 20 quarters in San Francisco, dating to 1990, the Giants have kicked nine field goals to go with the one touchdown.

The Giants' most recent visit to San Francisco, in the 1998 regular season, ended in a 31-7 loss.

To summarize, bad things happen to the Giants at Candlestick Park.

But running back Tiki Barber wasn't thinking about that, much less the franchise's 3-12 road record in the playoffs.

"Our confidence level's very high right now," Barber said. "It's good to be jelling at this time of year. We've got guys here who've been through a lot."

Fassel hasn't made a major point about the negative stats. Rightfully so. Those go into the deep-history file. These playoff Giants are different than the 1998 non-playoff team, with a different quarterback, featured running back, offensive line, receiving corps and defensive group. In fact, the only starters remaining from the last playoff group in 2000 are quarterback Kerry Collins, Barber, defensive end Michael Strahan, linebacker Mike Barrow, wide receiver Amani Toomer, tackle Luke Petitgout and safety Shaun Williams.

They're even different than the team the 49ers beat 16-13 on opening night at Giants Stadium.

The offense is simpler and is scoring more points, thanks to a change in philosophy caused by Fassel's takeover of offensive coordinator Sean Payton's duties after the seventh game. The defense has held two of its last four opponents to a single touchdown each.

"We are probably a lot more vanilla in terms of what you see before the snap of the ball," Collins told the San Francisco media this week. "I definitely think you can say that we are different."

Niners quarterback Jeff Garcia agreed.

"I know they're a much better team at this point than they were at the beginning of the season," Garcia said. "I know they're a hot team right now. They're playing well in all aspects of the game."

The biggest difference now involves momentum, or at least the perception of momentum. The Giants didn't have it at the beginning of the season. Their biggest winning streak before they swept through the last quarter of the season was three games, and they followed that with consecutive losses, to Houston and Tennessee.

Whether the momentum of their last four wins carries over to Sunday, Fassel won't venture a guess. His message during the week didn't involve that. It had more to do with the general nature of the NFL this year.

"Like I've written on the board, 'Why not us?' " Fassel said. "Why not us?"

Barber echoed those sentiments.

"Why not?" he said. "It's anybody's ballgame. It's the playoffs."

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