Bob Ford: Eagles win ugly, but they win

MINNEAPOLIS - There were plenty of warts on this homely toad of a football game, but in January in the NFL there is no award for style points.

The Eagles left a lot undone on the carpet of the Metrodome yesterday. They did accomplish the only thing that matters in the postseason, though. They survived and moved on.

By beating the Minnesota Vikings, 26-14, in the wild-card round of the playoffs, the Eagles earned a third meeting with the New York Giants. That will arrive at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Meadowlands, and the Eagles will need to play a lot better if they want to make a habit of the surviving-and-moving-on thing.

Two more wins and the Eagles return to the Super Bowl. Three more and they get a parade that might rival the strut down Broad Street enjoyed by the Phillies. That's getting a little ahead of things, particularly for a team that suffered through egregious stretches of poor play this season, but the Eagles have looked like a different team in the last two weeks.

There was something about the way they played yesterday that bodes well for what lies ahead. The Eagles were poised and confident. They played with a calmness that isn't always present. For a change, it was the other team wasting time-outs, tossing up wild passes and showing poor game management.

The Eagles played hard, which was a basic requirement in a football game that became a very tough battle at the line of scrimmage. Say what you might about the maturity of the Vikings, or their overall ability, they hit hard and demand that their opponents do the same or be cowed. The Eagles met that challenge, held their ground and waited for the big play that would put away the win.

It took long enough to arrive. The Eagles still led by just two points with less than seven minutes to play when Brian Westbrook took a screen pass 71 yards for a touchdown. But it did arrive, just as a small handful of other plays proved the difference between the teams yesterday.

Asante Samuel picked off a Tarvaris Jackson pass and returned it for a touchdown, a turnover that had a lot more to do with Jackson than it did Samuel, but nevertheless. DeSean Jackson returned a punt 62 yards to set up one field goal and hauled in a 34-yard sideline pass to set up another. Then there was Westbrook's play, which decided things.

"That's how you win," cornerback Sheldon Brown said. "You don't give them big plays and you get some yourself. It's pretty simple."

What wasn't simple for the Eagles for much of the season is becoming easier, apparently. As important as those standout plays were a pair of Eagles drives in the second half that started at their own 5-yard line and their own 4-yard line, with the Eagles still holding that slight two-point lead. Go three-and-out either time and the Vikings would have probably at least taken the lead with a field goal.

Donovan McNabb worked them out of those holes, however. On the first drive, he converted a third-and-11 pass to Jason Avant for 12 yards. The bad, old Eagles would have thrown for 8 yards on that one. On the second drive, it was a second-and-9 pass to Avant to got them out from under the goalposts. Neither drive led to a score, but both made it to midfield or thereabouts before ending in a punt that left the Vikings with a long field in front of them.

In the past, such efficiency hasn't been the case, but the Eagles aren't looking back. If they continue to play as they have the last two games, then anything is possible. If they continue to limit mistakes and penalties and not beat themselves, it will be a pretty good football game Sunday at the Meadowlands. They might not win, but they seem unlikely to come apart as they did in earlier games this season.

"It was good to see the character of our football team in the fourth quarter," Andy Reid said. "I didn't see any panic or reservation about playing aggressive football."

If that seems like a small thing for a coach to take for granted - that his professional players won't get scared at the end of a close game - it really isn't. And there were times for Reid this season when he had no idea how his team would react to adversity.

That seems like then. This seems like now. It is as if the regular season was mostly rehearsal, with lines being flubbed and entrances being missed and a general sense that when the stage lights were lit this show was going to really stink.

They still aren't perfect, not by any means. Some of those field goals have to become touchdowns. Some of those missed tackles have to be made. Westbrook has to have more than 38 yards on 20 carries. McNabb can't turn the ball over twice. And so on.

But those are the ugly details at a time of year when beauty is optional. All of that can go wrong again Sunday and if the Eagles still win, it will be a good day. Because the stage lights are bright now and what counts is hitting that final scene and making sure when the curtain falls it doesn't land on your head.