Eagles Hope to Stop Giants` Run

The Philadelphia Eagles don`t care about losing streaks. They want the New York Giants one more time.

The Eagles got their wish and earned a third meeting against the Giants by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21-3 in an NFC wild-card game Sunday.

New York (12-4) has won eight straight over the Eagles, including two victories by a combined margin of 32 points this season. None of that matters now.

"They look forward to the challenge," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "The obvious is, we didn`t play well the other two times. The nice thing about football is that each game is like its own identity and you go out and refocus yourself and regroup and to have another opportunity to play them, that`s something to look forward to."

Only twice this season were the Eagles not in the lead or within range in the final minutes - both losses to the Giants. New York beat Philadelphia 33-18 at Veterans Stadium in Week 2 and 24-7 at Giants Stadium in Week 9.

The Eagles (12-5) are 7-1 since the last defeat, losing only to the Tennessee Titans, 15-13 on a last-second 50-yard field goal by Al Del Greco. "They`re a much better team than we`ve seen," Giants quarterback Kerry Collins said.

Giants coach Jim Fassel is 8-0 against Philadelphia, but he`s not overconfident about this one. "All that stuff is out the window," Fassel said. "It`s the playoffs."

The Eagles don`t have homefield advantage, but they had a better record on the road this season at 6-2. Besides, they have the revenge factor.

"We made too many mistakes (the first two games against the Giants)," rookie defensive tackle Corey Simon said. "We`re going to watch more film this week and we`re going to go up there and finally realize where we`ve been making our mistakes and get better at that."

Reid said he knows what the Eagles did wrong the first two games, but he isn`t telling. "I`ll tell you that after we play them," Reid said.

New York opened as 5.5-point favorites, but the number is down to 4.5. The Eagles were 2.5-point underdogs at home to Tampa, even though the Bucs had never won when the temperature at kickoff was 40 degrees or below. They`re now 0-20 in those conditions.

"We love being the underdogs," quarterback Donovan McNabb said. "We love when people say we can`t go out and win. It`s more of a challenge. I think we opened some eyes again."

Reid likes his team`s approach. "I mentioned that when you`re attempting to climb the ladder, you`re going to be in that position," Reid said. "You`ve got to handle that a certain way and I think that our guys are doing that. I don`t think that will change throughout the playoffs. We`ll be the underdog this week and so on, that`s how that works."

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Author: AP