GLENDALE, Ariz. — This is no longer a caffeinated angle reserved for a slow news day, nor is it a figment of an overheated fan's imagination. The Giants and Jets are the best two teams in the National Football League, and they just spent Sunday booking themselves for an apocalyptic clash of contenders in Super Bowl XLIII.

Good luck finding an opponent in the NFC or AFC capable of breaking up this date in Tampa, an event that would approximate a Yanks-Mets Subway Series on a massive dose of steroids.

Right after the Jets beat the unbeaten Titans in Nashville, the Giants blitzed and battered the MVP candidacy of Kurt Warner on the same field where they crushed Tom Brady's record-setting offense and Bill Belichick's 19-0 cause.

The stage has been set. Even on a football-free day at Giants Stadium, the Giants and Jets never looked more comfortable in their division-leading skin.

A long way from East Rutherford, the Jets' old quarterback, Brett Favre, was a far better man than the Titans' old quarterback, Kerry Collins. A longer way from East Rutherford, inside a University of Phoenix Stadium where he was named Super Bowl MVP, Eli Manning again proved why the Giants knew exactly what they were doing when they ran Warner out of town.

So it's Manning and Favre, Favre and Manning. They met in conditions unfit for a polar bear last January, when Eli won the NFC title game at Lambeau because Favre was the one more affected by the cold.

The weather in Tampa would be kinder to Favre in the all-or-nothing rematch.

"I'm not going to sit here and say we've established ourselves as the best team in football," Favre said in Nashville.

No, he would have to beat the Giants to say that. He could get his chance Feb. 1 in a game that would be the biggest of any kind in the history of the world's biggest market.

"It would be a mega-event," Justin Tuck said after his Giants beat Arizona, 37-29, to move to 10-1.

The Giants began to put away the high-flying Cards on an 80-yard touchdown drive to start the fourth quarter, just as they started to tear down the Patriots with an 80-yard touchdown drive to start the fourth quarter 295 days ago.

Like he did in February, Manning found Kevin Boss and Steve Smith at critical times. But this time around, Eli didn't have Plaxico Burress and Brandon Jacobs contributing to the cause, never mind David Tyree's helmet.

Jacobs was scratched with his bum knee and Burress bailed out with his injured hamstring after giving it the old college try. And how did Manning feel when told the guy who caught his winning Super Bowl pass would be joining Jacobs on the sideline?

"We weren't worried about it," Eli said.

That answer captured the Giants' greatness better than Manning's three touchdown passes and 127.3 passer rating. Domenik Hixon took Burress' absence and ran with it, taking back kickoffs and catching passes and looking in living color the way Red Grange looks in grainy black and white.

"That's why they are the best team in the NFL," Warner said of the Giants. "You take away one thing, they have another."

The Giants' staggering depth is a testament to Jerry Reese and his predecessor, Ernie Accorsi. The development and deployment of that depth is a testament to Tom Coughlin, who's been coaching his rump off.

"What the (expletive) is wrong with you guys?" Coughlin screamed at his players after they were flagged for two 15-yard penalties.

Absolutely nothing, as it turned out. The Giants were successful in harassing Warner, in forcing him to fire before he wanted to, leaving him with a total of 351 passing yards that felt like half that sum.

No, it wasn't as dramatic as the Super Bowl assault on Brady, but the Giants were just as relentless as they were when last seen in this building.

"It's the same locker room," Coughlin said of the return trip. "When we rode in (Saturday) and we rode by the facility, certainly we were a little bit reflective there as we were going by. But I don't think (we were) today."

Sunday wasn't a day to revisit the past, but to relish the future. Coughlin would rather conduct three-hour news conferences eight days a week than talk about the Jets and the Super Bowl, but he can't control a conversation that is gaining credibility by the hour.

"Obviously we would love to play the Jets," Tuck said. "That means we made it to the Super Bowl. But we'll worry about that when the time comes. ... There's so much more football to play, we can't even allow our minds to go that route."

When informed the Jets had manhandled Tennessee in the trenches, Tuck said, "What you see from (the Titans) is they're a very physical team that runs the football well, and they've got a D-line that really gets after the quarterback and stops the run. If you talk about them getting out-physicaled, that's very impressive on the Jets' end."

With their soft schedule, the Jets could finish the season 13-3. Despite their rough schedule, the Giants could finish the season 15-1.

"It's great," Tuck said. "Earlier in my career it was always the Giants, the Giants, the Giants, so we always had all the cameras in our locker room. Now it's kind of evened out."

It can't stay that way forever. The Giants and Jets can be equal partners in the region's ultimate football fantasy until the game to end all games is played in Tampa.

"The Jets had a big win today vs. Tennessee," Manning said, "and they're playing well. But my focus is the Giants and us winning games and continuing to play well and seeing how far we can take this thing."

Everyone already knew the Giants were good enough to take this thing to Super Bowl XLIII. By blasting the Titans, the Jets made their own profound case.

So we're left with two local teams and one not-so-impossible dream. Anything can happen between now and Feb. 1, but this much is clear:

The Giants and Jets have never been this deserving and this close.