Infredible!

It was FredEx who caught the first touchdown pass of the day, giving early reassurance to those who might have wondered if the Eagles' offense would wither from rust and lack of Terrell Owens.

Then, "The People's Champ'' was the wideout who alertly snapped L.J. Smith's fumble out of midair in the end zone for another touchdown, giving the Eagles a 21-7, second-quarter lead.

But then, that also was "First Down Freddie'' whose whirling, diving, stretching attempt to get into the end zone with a 31-yard Donovan McNabb pass in the third quarter ended with the ball fumbled out of the end zone for a Vikings touchback. The fumble, on the first play after a 35-yard Jeremiah Trotter interception return, kept the Birds from breaking open their NFC semifinal the way the Atlanta Falcons blew away the St. Louis Rams on Saturday night.

You know how people often said the Eagles had adopted T.O.'s personality during their 13-3 regular season? Well, yesterday, Mitchell took T.O.'s spot in the lineup and the Eagles were Team Freddie - flamboyant, brash, tough, more than good enough to win against a bumbling opponent, but also at least a little off-center here and there.

"I'm trying to take the humble approach. I definitely want to say 'Hi' to all my new friends out there,'' said Mitchell, who seemed to be alternately spoofing and chiding the assembled news media in a rare appearance on the postgame interview podium. He wore a bow tie (the Dhani Jones influence?) in a hue very close to Vikings purple, framed, of course, by a cowboy hat. "I'm a special player . . . I just want to thank my hands for being so great. ''

On this day, Mitchell actually looked like the 2001 first-round draft pick, catching five passes for 65 yards, not including the volleyball from Smith, which, again, went in the books as a fumble-recovery TD. Five catches might not seem like all that much, but they matched Mitchell's total for the eight games the Birds played from Oct. 31 to Dec. 19, the day Owens was injured.

Yesterday, Mitchell even established the early celebratory upper hand, pretending to pull up his pants before cinching his imaginary championship belt following the first TD.

"It just came up during the week,'' said Mitchell, who was among the Eagles pressed to react to Vikings receiver Randy Moss' mock mooning last week at Green Bay, for which the NFL fined Moss $10,000. "Something to make somebody smile. ''

Somewhere in a Lincoln Financial Field box, high above the fray, T.O. was smiling. The Eagles did pretty much what they expected to do against a Minnesota team that had no consistent answer for their blitzes or for Brian Westbrook (12 carries, 70 yards, along with five catches for 47 yards and a touchdown).

"I thought the defense did a heckuva job,'' said Eagles coach Andy Reid, now 9-0 after a bye week, 6-0 in the regular season and 3-0 in the playoffs. Reid noted that the Vikings have a "very, very explosive offense, probably the best offense in the National Football League right now. [The Eagles' defense] came out and really took it to them. ''

There were some huge penalties on the Vikings that could have gone either way, an Eagles fumble reversed by video review (only because Vikings linebacker Chris Claiborne, who recovered it, hadn't established both feet back in bounds after going out) and the Mitchell goal-line miscue. And there was a strange play at the end of the first half in which the Eagles blew a chance to try a chip-shot field goal when McNabb elected to throw the ball to a well-covered Dorsey Levens over the middle at the Minnesota 5, the clock ticking down from 10 seconds left and the Eagles without a timeout.

"We left some points out there on the field,'' after taking command with a 14-0 lead, 44 seconds into the second quarter, McNabb acknowledged. But overall, the T.O.-less offense certainly looked viable, and the sometimes-overlooked defense was formidable, save a few perplexing, long third-down conversions the Vikings managed.

"We weren't too rusty,'' said McNabb, who completed 21 of 33 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns (actually three, but remember, the Smith-to-Mitchell business was a fumble recovery). His 111.4 passer rating was 48.1 points higher than that of Daunte Culpepper. "I think, as a unit, we've answered a lot of questions, but there will be more questions thrown out there. ''

Well, yeah, seeing as how the Eagles have lost all three of those previous NFC Championship Game appearances, including the last two at home, there probably will be just a few more questions before Eagles Nation convenes in Jacksonville for Super Bowl XXXIX.

"It's good, but that's not what we really want,'' Birds wide receiver Greg Lewis said, when asked about going back to the title game. Lewis flashed his excellent deep speed, catching a 52-yard bomb that helped set up the Eagles' second touchdown, a 7-yard pass to Westbrook. "It's good to be there and a good opportunity for us, but we want to get further. With this game coming up, some guys have been here four times. I've been here twice. We want to get it done this time . . . We're not happy about winning this game. We want to win the next game and the next game. That's what we're looking forward to. ''

At least the Birds probably won't have to answer any more questions about Reid's decision to rest many of his starters for the final two regular-season games.

"I felt damn good,'' asserted defensive end Jevon Kearse, who was in Culpepper's face all day, and twice was credited with a half-sack, coming off his 3-week vacation, including the bye.

The Eagles will hear more than a few times this week that they can't expect to make yesterday's mistakes and beat the second-seeded Falcons next Sunday. The Vikings looked like what they were, an 8-8 dome team with a seriously flawed defense that put it all together for wild-card weekend. They didn't seem too surprised to see it all come apart again at the Linc, as a frigid breeze blew in off the Delaware.

The Vikings' day could be summed up by what happened when they tried a fake field goal in the second quarter, trailing 21-7. The idea was for Moss to saunter toward the sideline, as if he were lazily leaving the field (there's probably a joke in there somewhere about artifice imitating life). Then Moss was to split far left and catch a pass from holder-backup QB Gus Frerotte.

Except, the field goal team lineman who was supposed to leave the field so the Vikings would only have 11 players, including Moss, stayed in the game. Moss was forced to step off. Minnesota coach Mike Tice tried a late signal for a timeout but didn't get it.

Frerotte, holding for leftfooted Morten Andersen, had his back to where Moss was supposed to be and had no idea there was a problem, until he stood up with the ball and looked for a nonexistent receiver. Eventually Frerotte threw incomplete, out of the end zone, closing the books on one of five possessions in which the Vikings drove into Eagles' territory without scoring any points.

Culpepper didn't have a lot of time to go deep, and the Vikings weren't able to consistently work underneath, either.

"The front four did a great job of just keeping him in the pocket for the most part of the day,'' Trotter said when asked about defending Culpepper, who put together some of the best quarterbacking numbers in NFL history this season. Culpepper and the only QB who had a better year, Peyton Manning, will watch the rest of the playoffs from home now. "When they did that, it allowed us to stay in coverage. ''

The Vikings got very little pressure on McNabb, sacking him once for no yards, on a long scramble out of bounds. The Falcons probably will bring a bit more heat, but the Eagles have all week to figure out how to handle that.

"I'm looking forward to it," McNabb said. "I'm excited. I'm ready to play right now."