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This Sunday, the Meadowlands will provide the setting for one epic battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants.  The Birds are going in winning five of their last six games whereas the G-Men, including the bye, have won one game in the last five weeks. The Eagles have the momentum, and are playing loose, with house money, and with nothing to lose.  Of course there is a lot of speculation, even by me, as to how and why the Eagles are going to run the board, but let's look at some simple truths that will almost assuredly come to fruition on January 11^th.  You can call them fightin' words, but essentially, it's reality.

Why does anyone think that Brandon Jacobs is going to do anything more for the Giants running game?  The Eagles defense hasn't given up 100 yards to a rusher since November 9^th, against the Giants.  Since that day, they have faced the Giants again and stuffed Earth, Wind, and Fire and have faced other good runners like Clinton Portis and Adrian Peterson.  I completely expect the Giants to, not necessarily struggle running the ball, but need to rely on the pass more than they'd like.  Fact of the matter is that while the Giants running game is all right, the Eagles run defense has been stellar.  I fully expect Earth, Wind, and Fire to turn into Dirt, Air, and Ash as Stewart Bradley and the linebackers smack ‘em right at the line.

With no running game the illusion that the Giants don't need Plaxico Burress will come to light.  The Giants and their fans just wanted to reassure themselves that everything would be OK once the holey-legged wonder was suspended by making players like Domenik Hixon sound just as good.  Burress is what I would consider an Eagles-killer.  He always seemed to hurt Philly some way or another, but on NFL.com, he isn't even listed on the team's roster anymore.  I don't worry about anyone else on that squad.  The Eagles secondary has been playing great, and as long as the front four of the D-Line does their jobs, then the question will be not will Asante Samuel get a pick, but how many.

I am not going to say that Eli Manning got lucky and won a Super Bowl last year, he had done a good job going down the stretch and benefited greatly from a solid Offensive Line and a menacing Defensive Line.  Over the passed few weeks, however, he has been nothing short of mediocre.  In the Giants final five games, even the O-line has been suspect, allowing 14 sacks, including eight against Dallas. If the running game isn't working, then where will he turn?  Toomer is too old to be a game-breaker, Kevin Boss has done nothing special, and the combination of Rice, Moss, and Hixon strikes fear in no one.

There is no reason for anyone the believe that the Giants will win this game, so for all those Giants fans, you should just come to accept that there will be no repeat in East Rutherford.  New York's defense has exactly been shut down while the Eagles have been clicking on nearly all cylinders.  Feel no shame in having doubts about your teams chances, I am a Philly fan, so I know when a let down is coming, and one is on it's way to Big Blue.