Bummers Parade

Uncle!

Please, please, please let the playoffs begin.

Coach Andy Reid had made his all-important decision to rest his key starters a few hours after the Eagles clinched home-field advantage for the NFC playoffs and lost Terrell Owens in last month's home game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Yesterday, the Eagles and their fans had to live with it.

Most dental procedures are less painful.

With nothing to play for and mostly backups playing for it, the Eagles ended the regular season with the sort of beating that used to be commonplace for this franchise before Reid arrived and turned winning seasons and annual postseason trips into the norm.

Long before the ersatz Eagles completed this regular season with a feeble 38-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the crowd at Lincoln Financial Field had briefly boiled and then thinned. Ugly football is the recipe for that reaction in this town, and it doesn't matter who is on the field.

All, of course, will be forgiven and forgotten if the Eagles leap their NFC championship hurdle in three weeks and earn a berth in the Super Bowl. Reid, who led the Eagles to a franchise record of 13 regular-season wins and a fourth straight NFC East title, acknowledged that he was glad to have this portion of the season out of the way.

"Part of it is you're glad you're in that position," Reid said. "The other part is you want to win every game you can, but be smart with it at the same time. Do I want to do it again? Not necessarily. "

It's the manner in which the Eagles lost that bothered the coach a little and the crowd a lot.

"Obviously, it was not the result we wanted," Reid said. "It was a good opportunity for some of the players who don't have an opportunity to play to get in there. I'd have liked to have seen them play better. Those players who were in there will learn from it, and we'll get ourselves back here and ready for the playoffs. "

Even the Eagles who were on the field were given a scaled-down version of the offense and defense. Offensive coordinator Brad Childress said there's no need for the team to say it's sorry.

"We put ourselves in that situation," Childress said. "We're not going to apologize for winning games and having the option to do that. I think there are a lot of people who would like to be in that situation, and then you decide how you play it from there. The coach's decision was to give those guys a rest, and we want to go healthy into the playoffs. "

That mission was mostly accomplished.

Linebacker Mark Simoneau left the game with a strained ankle and tight end L.J. Smith departed with lower back pain that will require an MRI examination today. If neither one of those injuries is serious, Reid expects to have a healthy roster for the first playoff game in two weeks.

"I do," Reid said. "I expect to get everybody back, with the exception of T.O."

That means defensive end Derrick Burgess (separated sternum), defensive tackle Hollis Thomas (dislocated elbow), guard Jermane Mayberry (strained triceps), cornerback Lito Sheppard (bruised quadriceps) and tight end Chad Lewis (strained triceps) should be ready to go after the bye week.

The Eagles found out yesterday that they will play either the Minnesota Vikings, St. Louis Rams or Seattle Seahawks in their first playoff game. It will be the Vikings if they can win at Green Bay in this week's wild-card game. Otherwise, the Eagles will play the winner of a game between the Seahawks and Rams.

Talk of a possible playoff opponent is certainly a lot better than what transpired in the last two weeks.

The Bengals, who finished 8-8 for the second consecutive season, built a 38-3 lead behind three touchdown runs by Rudi Johnson and a touchdown pass by quarterback Jon Kitna. The Eagles' 28-point loss was their worst since they were beaten, 34-0, by the Dallas Cowboys in 1998. That year, the team lost a franchise-record 13 games, leading to the exit of coach Ray Rhodes and the arrival of Reid.

For the second straight week, the Eagles found out the importance of quarterback Donovan McNabb, running back Brian Westbrook, and the first-team offensive line.

They didn't score a touchdown until the fourth quarter, on Jeff Blake's 3-yard pass to Freddie Mitchell. At the end of the second quarter, David Akers had kicked a 46-yard field goal.

Koy Detmer, making his first start since Nov. 25, 2002, when he led the Eagles to a stunning rout of the 49ers in San Francisco, completed 17 of 31 passes for 202 yards. But he was intercepted twice and also lost a fumble after being sacked midway through the second quarter.

His second interception, midway through the third quarter, came on an end-zone pass intended for Greg Lewis. The underthrown ball was picked off by Deltha O'Neal, and what could have been a 17-10 game quickly became a rout.

The crowd at the Linc applauded when Blake replaced Detmer, but the first pass by the Eagles' third-string quarterback had an even more disastrous outcome than the last pass thrown by the second-string quarterback.

Blake overthrew running back Eric McCoo on a screen play, and the ball bounced off guard Steve Sciullo and into the arms of Cincinnati's Robert Geathers. The Bengals defensive end returned the interception 36 yards for a touchdown.

When Roderick Hood fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Cincinnati covered at the Eagles' 15-yard line, the aisles became crowded with departing fans.

"You wish there was something you could do," Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse said after spending a second straight week safely tucked away on the sideline. "Once the team falls behind, you want to put the cape on and go out there. But Coach Reid knows what he's doing. Now we just have to get ready and go out and do what we're supposed to do."