Clinch!

This article was originally published in the Daily News on November 29, 2004.

The focus for the Eagles' defenders, Jeremiah Trotter said, was pretty simple: "If we keep putting our offense on the field, sooner or later, they're going to put some points up."

That certainly was how it worked out yesterday at Giants Stadium, as the Eagles' offense plodded through an out-of-sync first half before kicking into gear; a couple of crucial Giants turnovers fueled a 27-6 Eagles victory. The Birds clinched their fourth successive NFC East title and are 10-1 for only the third time in franchise history, joining the 1949 NFL championship team and the 1980 Super Bowl team.

Donovan McNabb completed 12 of 16 passes in the second half for 160 yards, and Brian Westbrook evoked memories of his 2003 game-winning punt-return touchdown at Giants Stadium on a 34-yard TD scamper with a screen. But as Eagles coach Andy Reid said afterward, "big plays on defense, I think, were the key. "

For the second week in a row, the Eagles did not allow a touchdown. They intercepted overmatched rookie quarterback Eli Manning twice and sacked him five times. Manning completed just six passes in 21 attempts, and was 2-for-11 for 14 yards in the second half.

"That's not Eli, that's pressure on the quarterback," said Reid, who tied Greasy Neale as the all-time winningest Eagles coach, with 66 combined regular-season and postseason victories.

Reid and several players said there was little discussion of winning the division in the locker room, though some players pulled on T-shirts identifying them as division champions.

"We have bigger goals," said McNabb, whose team has won all eight encounters within the NFC this season, all of them by double digits. The Eagles are 4-0 within the NFC East, and have not won a divisional game by fewer than 14 points. Their average margin of victory within what sure seems to be an historically awful NFC East is 21.25 points. Yesterday represented the Eagles' largest margin of victory at the Giants since Oct. 23, 1966 (31-3).

The Eagles face a tougher challenge next week with Brett Favre and the Packers visiting, but they seem unlikely to lose focus, since they weren't really all that focused on winning the division, as an end unto itself.

"It's cool to win a game, get some T-shirts, but we have one goal in our minds," said Trotter, who led the team with eight solo tackles. "If we don't get to the Super Bowl, it doesn't mean anything. "

Early, the game looked like a struggle typical of the Birds' trips up the turnpike; before yesterday, Reid-coached teams were 2-4 here and hadn't won on the Giants' field by more than four points. The Eagles trailed 3-0 at the end of the first quarter and seemed fortunate to be up 7-6 at the half.

"I was just kind of rushing things," said McNabb, who explained that when the Giants got pressure, "I wasn't able to avoid [the rush] and be set before I let it go. There were a couple of balls that were low and some balls that weren't in the position I wanted them to be. As I kind of got into a little rhythm, the momentum changed a little bit, and we were able to move things downfield. "

Early, Manning seemed able to hang in with the Birds' sixth-year QB, but they were on different planets in the second half.

Manning showed his potential and his lack of experience on back-to-back plays in the second quarter. He hit Jamaar Taylor with a lovely, 52-yard strike down the middle, to the Birds' 3. Then he threw an interception on the next play, Quintin Mikell outleaping tight end Jeremy Shockey in the end zone for a ball that should have been thrown much higher. It was the first career interception for Mikell, a second-year safety who plays mainly on special teams.

Manning suffered another critical interception in the third quarter, when he threw up a prayer for Amani Toomer in the face of a blitz and Eagles free safety Brian Dawkins ran under it, setting up David Akers' second field goal of the quarter, which gave the Eagles a 13-6 lead.

"Sometimes film study kind of pays off for you," said Dawkins, who thought he recognized a deep pass coming for Toomer. "I kind of stayed in the middle of the field to bait him a little bit, then I went and got it. "

Then came the turnover that really put the Birds in charge. Eagles special teams coordinator John Harbaugh feared a fake punt and sent out defensive end Jevon Kearse, who only plays on punts when the Eagles are concerned with a fake. Harbaugh loaded up a blitz on Kearse's side, the left, and Kearse came in untouched on Giants punter Jeff Feagles.

Kearse hadn't blocked a punt since his freshman year at Florida, he said, but he sure blocked this one.

"I was able to come free," Kearse said. "When you come free, you've got to try to make something big happen. He's a directional punter, so he was coming toward me. So I was like, 'Hmm. Coach Harbaugh did tell me that when I block a punt, stay down low. Most guys get up high, but [the ball] is coming from down there. So let me stretch out and see if I can get it off his foot. ' "

Hugh Douglas recovered at the Giants' 28, and seven plays later, Westbrook crashed through the right side from a yard out, making it 20-6. Given Manning's struggles with Jim Johnson's blitz packages, the Giants weren't likely to come back from 20-6, and they didn't. Westbrook added the capper with a highlight-film ramble through the Giants with McNabb's screen.

One key offensively, with the Giants scheming to stop Terrell Owens (four catches, 61 yards), was an effective running game. As offensive coordinator Brad Childress pointed out afterward, the Birds' 38 rushes were a season high. They ground out 152 yards and ate up big chunks of the clock in the second half.

"Early on, I thought the offensive line was rolling off the football," said Childress, whose team faced an already injury-depleted Giants defensive line that lost end Chuck Wiley (knee) and tackle Norman Hand during the game. But the Eagles' offensive line was hardly in top shape, starting Steve Sciullo at left guard for sidelined Artis Hicks (knee), then losing Jermane Mayberry to a recurring calf injury early in the second half. Previously, Sciullo has subbed for Mayberry. With Sciullo already in, second-year center Alonzo Ephraim, usually active just in case something happens to Hank Fraley, slid over to Mayberry's right-guard spot.

"Those guys sit in those meetings, and they're dying to play. They can't wait to get tapped on the shoulder - not at anyone else's expense, of course," Childress said.

"We were able to push 'em around a little bit" up front, said Westbrook, who rushed 18 times for 74 yards and caught five passes for 53 more.

In case anybody doubted it, yesterday proved that keeping T.O. out of the end zone doesn't really stop the Eagles, given a healthy Westbrook.

"I think teams know we have other weapons, but they want to stop T.O.," Westbrook said.

Former Eagle Carlos Emmons, now the Giants' strong-side linebacker, might have put it more dramatically. "If you stop T.O. and don't stop anybody else, what difference does it make? " Emmons asked. "We don't get a gold star for stopping T.O."