IT IS Friday afternoon, and Wellington Mara is walking out of the practice bubble toward Giants Stadium. Only 10 months ago, Mara was standing atop a platform inside a riotous Giants Stadium castigating cynics who had regarded his team as the worst team ever to win an NFC championship.

But now his team is 5-5 and a long way from another Super Bowl. The Pride of the Giants has been around long enough to know this: If his team is serious about defending its NFC championship, it is time for The Pride of the Giants to return, and with a vengeance.

“The time is now,” Mara said.

The season is not over. It only seems that way around East Rutherford. But this is the YBFL. The Yogi Berra Football League. It ain’t over ’til it’s over. There is time for the Giants to get off the deck. But the time is now. The season starts today. Against the Raiders.

“I think if we get a win against those guys,” Lomas Brown said, “it’ll propel us to the next level. We beat these guys, I don’t see why we can’t sweep the last five games. I think our confidence level would be so high, I think we can do it.”

If it means something to be a Giant, to play for Mara’s team, to play for New York, to defend Giants Stadium, the time is now to show it. The Pride of the Giants.

“You think of the glory days; LT, Phil Simms, Harry Carson,” Jessie Armstead said. “You think of guys like that. You know what they helped build this into, and you don’t want to be the one to start letting it slip away.”

So is now the time to show The Pride of the Giants?

“Oh, absolutely; there’s no better time,” Armstead said. “As a leader, a veteran, this is the time you look for your leaders to step up. You want ’em to step up every game, but when it comes down to nut-cutting time, have that leader step up and put a lot of things on his back.”

It’s nut-cutting time.

“Giant fans’ll see a team that’s hungry, that is wounded,” Armstead said. “And the worst thing is a wounded animal. You’ve got two ways to go with a wounded animal; either he’s gonna lay there and die, or he’ll come out fighting. And we’ll come out fighting. And we’ll need every fan up there to pull with us.”

Why is this team 5-5?

“Well, we didn’t capture the moment,” Armstead said. “You’ve got to capture the moment to play in this league.”

Armstead plans on capturing the moment. The time is now. “When this wheel’s gonna turn, 98’s gotta be pushing this wheel,” he said.

Is this wheel gonna turn?

“This wheel’s gonna turn.”

How do you know this wheel’s gonna turn?

” ‘Cause I know the character of this team. We’re in a situation right now that we have no choice but to make it turn. Sometimes you get to a situation where, does the lock work? Does the key work on that door? Well, if it doesn’t work, then you’ve gotta kick that door in. It’s time to kick it in.”

Jim Fassel tried to have them laugh that door in when he had Michael Strahan, Kerry Collins and Morten Andersen line up on special teams. “[Strength and conditioning coach] Mother Dunn ran down and covered a kick, put a helmet on,” Fassel said.

And this is what Fassel told the Giants Wednesday: “I don’t want to see one person walking around here feeling sorry for ourselves. We dug our hole, we’ll dig ourselves out.”

Each week, Fassel has a different Giant address the team after the Saturday walk-through. Fassel chose well-respected right guard Ron Stone yesterday.

“We’re a good team,” Stone told the Giants. “No team has really beat us. Keep believing, let’s stop making mistakes, let’s have fun and help each other out and not hand people the game.”

The time is now.

“We got our work cut out for us,” Armstead said. “But we’re gonna come out ready to play some football.”

The time is now.

“We’re in a situation where we have to win games; we have to win Sunday,” Greg Comella said. “There’s no other option.”