Even before his team left Chicago, prior to boarding the flight and barely moments after a narrow but decisive road conquest, Jim Fassel started coaching for the next game as he informed the Giants of a change in Monday’s schedule.

The assistant coaches would not, as usual, accompany the players into meeting rooms to review the tape of the 14-7 victory over the Bears. Instead, the players would watch by themselves. The assistants, Fassel explained, would be upstairs, plotting and preparing for the Redskins.

Fassel recalled yesterday that the very mention of “Redskins” sent a charge through his players. No sense looking back. They all wanted to move forward, ahead to Sunday night’s nationally-televised showdown at Giants Stadium, which the Giants will enter in sole possession of first place in the NFC East.

The subtle message hit home. The significance of the upcoming game was put into immediate and urgent perspective. No time to waste. The Redskins were still 10 hours away from last night’s game against the Cowboys and here was the Giants’ coaching staff, already bunkered down, devising a gameplan to throw at the best team money can supposedly buy.

“This going to be an emotional week anyhow,” Fassel said. “I’m not going to pound the drum. They can figure this one out by themselves.”

There’s no mystery here. The Giants are 3-0 for the first time since 1994 and have not been 4-0 since the 1990 Super Bowl season. Here come the Redskins, who struck it rich in the NFL draft and broke the bank in free agency, universally considered the class of the division and a legitimate championship contender.

“We’re just fortunate they’re going to let us play the game,” said Jessie Armstead, holding in the sarcasm. “If you looked at the situation, with all the players they’ve got over there, you already predict them to win. We’re fortunate enough to be able to play in the game.”

The Giants know all about these Skins. Nightmares and scars remain from the 50-21 punishment inflicted on the Giants in the second game of last season, a loss that punctured the credibility of a defense that never imagined it could be so humbled. It was ugly and it was embarrassing and no player who was on the field for the hometown humiliation has forgotten what it felt like to be devastated so completely.

“They put up 50 against us, so I don’t need no rah-rah speeches, none of that,” defensive tackle Keith Hamilton said. “I don’t need no added incentives, no B.S. on the bulletin board about what they think or what they’re going to do to us. I remember what they did to us. I’m going to prepare like I do every week, but in the back of my mind I’m also going to remember what they did to us last year, and that’s going to turn it up an extra notch.”

Figure last night was the opportune time for the Giants to ease into their favorite sofas and kick back while considering all that’s gone right as they watched the Redskins and Cowboys go at it. Armstead said he did not care who won, even though it made sense to pull for the Cowboys, who appear to be going nowhere.

“Let ’em go out there and beat each other up,” Armstead said, “because it’s too early to be pulling for one team or the other team.”

Not so for Michael Strahan.

“I’m a Cowboys fan,” he said. “I’ll have to pull out my cowboy hat.”

Rather than study his matchup with tackle Jon Jansen or view other aspects of the game, Strahan said he’d be interested in getting a feel for the Redskins.

“You get a sense for them, a feeling for their team,” he said. “Everyone says how they don’t have the camaraderie and everything like that, but I don’t know that. For all of us watching, it will give us a better chance how they are playing together.”

While the 50 points might have been an aberration, the Redskins mastery of the Giants’ defense was repeated in the 10th game of last season, when Stephen Davis ran for 183 yards in a 23-13 Skins win at FedEx Field. That was the last time the Giants played in a game billed as a battle for first place, and they came away as a team divided.

The next high-stakes game comes Sunday night.

“The fans are going to be going crazy, I know that, and so are we,” safety Sam Garnes said. “But they’re just another team on our schedule. Just another game.”

With that, Garnes paused for effect, and then smiled before adding, “If you believe that …”