Eagles defense hoping to shake off Giant humiliation against Bengals

THE EAGLES could beat the Cincinnati Bengals 70-0 this week and many Birds fans wouldn't care.

Getting pushed around your own field by a key divisional rival will leave that kind of aftertaste, especially when you've made one complete circuit of the division without beating anyone, or even having really deserved to beat anyone.

Fans can afford to withdraw emotionally until the team shows it is capable of competing within the NFC East. But the players and coaches are actually going to have to take the field Sunday in Cincinnati. In particular, Jim Johnson's defense, crushed for 219 rushing yards in last week's 36-31 setback to the Giants, is going to have to convince itself that it is the same group that shut out Seattle for 58 minutes and 11 seconds the previous week, and not the team that got ground into the Lincoln Financial Field turf by New York.

"I think you appeal to their pride," Johnson said yesterday. "I think they're down, as far as pride. I think this defense has pride. I think they're down after a loss, but you move on. The challenge is coming up against a Cincinnati team who, all of a sudden, is playing pretty well. You challenge for the next week and forget about [what just happened]. I don't talk much about it in the meetings."

Defensive end Darren Howard said having to move on helps you to move on.

"We've got a whole new game plan, a whole 'nother 11 guys to look at this week," Howard said. "If you focus on something you have to prepare for so much, that's how you get over something that happens in the past. You fill your brain with what you have to do this week, instead of what happened last week. I don't think we'll have a problem handling that."

Defensive end Trent Cole said: "We lost, we didn't get it done, and that's it. It's plain and simple . . . we know what we need to do and how, and we're going to go into Cincinnati and win and start our seven-game winning streak."

It's hard to believe there isn't some sort of residual damage, though. The Eagles went into the Giants game with the league's fifth-ranked defense overall, eighth against the rush. They seemed to have made significant strides since letting the Redskins run for 203 yards back on Oct. 5. Brandon Jacobs and a brutally efficient Giants offensive line exploded that illusion. The Eagles' D dropped to ninth overall, 14th against the run.

"An offense gets on a roll like that, you just try to dig your heels in the ground, get some friction and slow 'em down," Howard said. "All you need is pretty much one good play. Our offense put up 31 points; any time your offense can do that, you're thinking you've got a good chance of winning the game . . . we had a couple of turnovers, but other than that, we weren't able to get a bead on what they were doing and slow things down. That's not going to happen this week."

Johnson, who gets another shot at the Giants Dec. 7 at the Meadowlands, said he probably worried too much about Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress (who caught one pass, albeit for a touchdown), and not enough about Jacobs and Derrick Ward.

"That's the best offensive line we've faced this year. I probably could have done a better job of the scheme," Johnson said. "The thing about it is that we've done a pretty good job against the run game [most weeks]. I probably spent too much time . . . [on] better coverage than run defense."

Asked if he thought the Eagles' interior linemen were too small - a view coach Andy Reid rejected on Wednesday - Johnson said: "We are what we are right now. We are what we are."

The Bengals probably won't run for 219 yards, seeing as how they rank 30th in NFL rushing (and 30th in passing), though former Bear Cedric Benson gained 104 yards on 24 carries in Cincinnati's most recent game, the 1-8 Bengals' lone win, Nov. 2 over the Jaguars. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick also has scrambled effectively, since taking over for injured Carson Palmer (elbow).

"You watch that game against a good Jacksonville team, a good defense," Johnson said. "Cedric Benson had over a hundred yards rushing, they threw the ball well, the quarterback scrambled, they took the first couple drives . . . down the field and it was 14-0. All our guys have to do is look at that tape and see they're playing pretty well right now. It'll be a tough place to play."

The Bengals use three wideouts a lot - Chris Henry, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Ocho Cinco, who have 105 receptions among them. That will be the focus for the Eagles and their sixth-ranked pass defense. Even though Asante Samuel left practice yesterday with a hip problem, the Eagles expect to have Samuel, Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard reasonably healthy.

"I would say that their objective, first of all, is to get the ball out to those receivers," Eagles free safety Brian Dawkins said.

And the Eagles' objective is to show their season wasn't mortally wounded last week, even if their chances of winning the division might have been.

"We do have a great defense," Cole said. "We're going to keep pushing. We've just got to find that swagger. We've got to get our swagger back, and I think we'll be all right." *

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.