IN THE past four years there was no more intimidating phrase in the NFL then when players studied their schedule and saw staring back at them “at Philadelphia.” An afternoon or evening of punishment was sure to follow, with a loss for the ride home the usual going-away present.
The Giants have before them an “at Philadelphia” this week, but at the moment it’s more welcoming than warning. The Eagles quasi-dynasty as we know it (four straight NFC East titles, four consecutive NFC Championship games, one Super Bowl appearance) has expired, replaced by a shell of a team rife with turmoil and injury.
At this juncture of the season one year ago, the Eagles already had clinched the division title. A year later, it’s the Giants who invade Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday atop the NFC East and nearly a touchdown favorite to win in what normally is the league’s most inhospitable road venue.
This space was going to be reserved for a few hundred words warning about the pride of the Eagles and how the defending NFC champs will not go down easily as their four-year run comes to an end.
Forget it. These Birds have flown the coup. They won’t perform on Sunday against the Giants as woefully as they did last Monday night in a pathetic 42-0 rout by the Seahawks, in Philadelphia no less, but it sure looks as if there’s nothing left in the tank.
There are no answers at quarterback with Mike McMahon or Koy Detmer. And yesterday the Eagles learned the only offensive weapon they had left, running back Brian Westbrook, is lost for the rest of the season with a sprained foot. The offensive line is injury-riddled, the defense depleted by free-agent defections. The Giants will pooh-pooh this rhetoric, or at least try to, which is the appropriate approach. But if the Giants trip up at the Linc, it will be because they give the game away – the Eagles are no longer capable of taking anything.
Other Giant-sized issues:
* What should not be lost in the recent defensive surge is the improved play of cornerback Will Allen, who does almost everything well on the field except catch the ball when he gets his hands on it. Allen, the 2001 first-round pick, is in the final year of his contract and there did not appear to be any chance the Giants would re-sign him. Looking at the landscape in the secondary, though, it will be difficult to let him walk. William Peterson is a medical risk, coming off a season when he’s played in two games because of a stress fracture in his lower back, after missing 11 games two years ago with a similar ailment. Rookie Corey Webster will inherit one spot, but a steady dose of Curtis Deloatch as a starter, then finding a nickel back is not an exciting proposition. After a poor start, Allen’s stock has risen.
* How can anyone take an analytical look at the upcoming schedule and suggest that the Giants have a tougher final four games than the Cowboys? It just isn’t so. True, the Giants have three road games and the Cowboys two, but the quality of the opponent is what’s most important here. Both teams have home games against the Chiefs and a road game in Washington. The Cowboys play at Carolina, which is clearly the most difficult of the combined eight games the Giants and Cowboys have left to play. The Cowboys finish up at Texas Stadium against the Rams, which is a likely victory. The Giants play at the wounded Eagles and close out with a New Year’s Eve game in Oakland against a Raiders team that’s out of contention and saw fit to bench Kerry Collins, so there probably won’t even be the revenge factor at work.
If the Giants don’t hold on to their division lead they’ll have only themselves to blame.
paul.schwartz@nypost.com
GIANTS
at
EAGLES
Sunday
4:00
TV – Ch. 5
Radio – WFAN 660 AM
Weather – Sunny, 39
Line – Giants -7
