NFL Capsules: Rivalry adds an edge to Giants-Eagles playoff game

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - The New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles aren't only playing for a trip to the NFC title game. This one is personal.

Play a team in your own division three times in a season, and things get that way.

That's only the start, though.

Add in the 95-mile trek up or down the New Jersey Turnpike and the fact that Sunday's game will be the eighth between the teams in the last three seasons, and this rivalry can get downright nasty.

"There's a strong dislike for one another," Giants guard Chris Snee said. "Anytime you get a chance to knock out a divisional opponent, one you don't like, you get geeked up for these challenges. I think both sides would agree that to knock the other out would make the other one happy."

There is another element that will add to the intensity. The NFC semifinal at Giants Stadium matches the defending Super Bowl champions against the team that many think will be the 2009 version of the New York Giants.

"I don't think anybody has to do anything to get up for this game," New York cornerback Corey Webster said. "I think it is already built up. Everybody knows what is at stake. I just think every team is going to be prepared and ready to go and they are going to be very excited and our guys are going to be up for the challenge this weekend."

Of the seven previous games during the last three seasons, only two have been decided by more than 10 points, with the largest margin being 14.

The two games this season were decided by a combined 11 points. New York (12-4) won 36-31 in Philadelphia and the Eagles (10-6-1) returned the favor at Giants Stadium 20-14 on Dec. 7.

"I think the guys all know each other and everybody knows each other's number, jersey number, and all that bit," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "But every game is different and if you come in saying you know the New York Giants, I think you make a huge mistake in the process of getting ready to play them."

While the scores were close, the statistics weren't. The Giants dominated time of possession (39:10) and total yards (410) in the first game, and the Eagles had the advantage in the second, holding the ball for almost 35 minutes, while outgaining New York 331-211.

Eagles safety Brian Dawkins said the Giants have always been a rival for him.

"I've always had respect for them," Dawkins said. "I'm not cushy with them, but I've always respected this team. It's always been a physical battle with this team. Every once in a game it's been a blowout, but, for the most part, it's usually some grind-out, close, defensive battle with this team. Since I've been here, this has been, to me, my biggest rivalry game."

The Giants come in as somewhat of a question mark. Tom Coughlin's team won 11 of its first 12 games, and then lost three of four in December. Their only win was an overtime decision against Carolina that wrapped up the conference's No. 1 seed in the next to last week of the regular season.

Adding to the team's woes was the season-ending suspension of Plaxico Burress in early December after the receiver accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a New York City nightclub.

Burress has been very successful against the Eagles since joining the Giants in 2005. A downfield threat, he forced Philadelphia to keep a safety deep.

Without him, the Eagles were able to play the safety closer to the line of scrimmage in the last game and they held New York's league-leading rushing game (157.4) yards to 88 yards.

Giants leading rusher Brandon Jacobs aggravated an injury to his left knee in the game and he did not return for the second half.

Reid said that the running game is only half of the Giants' package. He noted quarterback Eli Manning, the Super Bowl MVP, had his best season, Kevin Boss has developed into a good young tight end and that Amani Toomer, Domenik Hixon and Steve Smith can be formidable receivers.

Hixon, who has replaced Burress in the starting lineup, dropped a 50-yard pass in the second quarter of the last game with the Eagles ahead 3-0. If he catches it, who knows how that changes the contest?

"I know people look at the run game and say, ‘Hey, they are the best run team in the National Football League,"' Reid said. "Well, they sure are. They are a tremendous run team, but there is also another half of that you have to prepare for that makes it a difficult process to go through. It makes them a very good team."

Defensively, the Giants will have to find a way to slow down quarterback Donovan McNabb and halfback Brian Westbrook, who scored on a 40-yard pass and a 30-yard run in the last meeting. Westbrook also turned a screen pass into a game-deciding 71-yard touchdown in a 26-14 win over the Minnesota Vikings last weekend in the playoff opener.

The win was the fifth in six games for the Eagles, who are the conference's hottest team.

McNabb wanted no part in a comparison between the Eagles of this year and last year's Giants, who got hot late in the season en route to the title.

"It's easy to say that at this point," McNabb said. "They went on and won the Super Bowl. We are just in the second round. Maybe as we continue on, maybe. But we just want to kind of be the Eagles of 2009. I mean, it's easy to sit back from afar and say that, but I don't see it right now."

What both teams will agree upon is that Sunday ought to be a great game.

"There's excitement and a lot of anticipation, but mostly, really it's exciting," Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. "This is where you want to be. I mean, there's not a lot of teams left. Everybody started with the same mentality. We all have friends and former teammates around the league and they all say the same thing: ‘I'd much rather be in your shoes than out there on the greatest beach in the world."'

On-a-roll Chargers seek another Steelers surprise

PITTSBURGH - The San Diego Chargers' travels to Pittsburgh are filled with curiosities, a remarkable run of odd games, unexpected results and strange scores, comebacks that succeeded and game plans that failed.

There was the AFC championship game where the Chargers drew motivation from a dance video. The first and only NFL tournament. And the latest oddity, the only 11-10 score in NFL history earlier this season.

In a city where they've never won during the regular season or lost during the postseason, the Chargers are hoping the surprise element kicks in again during their AFC divisional playoff game Sunday.

They're not favored - they rarely are in Pittsburgh, where they're 2-13 - but that hardly discourages a team that couldn't have anticipated a return trip after being 4-8 not long after that one-of-a-kind, one-point loss Nov. 16.

Going back to the chilly East Coast, going against the NFL's top-ranked defense, probably doesn't seem as daunting now that the Chargers, against long odds, are averaging 34.4 points during a five-game winning streak. The latest surprise was their 23-17 overtime decision last weekend over Indianapolis, which had won nine in a row.

As the Steelers' Hines Ward said, "They've been in the playoffs for five weeks now."

"When I think back to the 14-2 season (in 2006) when we had the home playoff game and got beat, you wonder if it was a little too big for us," quarterback Philip Rivers said. "I think the fact that we've been in these types of games now ... going to Pittsburgh will be right up there, a similar type deal. I think from a hype standpoint, playoff-game standpoint, we'll be just fine."

How fine? A Steelers defense led by Defensive Player of the Year James Harrison that statistically ranks among the NFL's best in a quarter-century may determine that. Rivers was held to 159 yards passing, was sacked for a safety and the running game produced only 66 yards in Pittsburgh's regular-season win.

Still, the Steelers were set back by 13 penalties and needed Jeff Reed's 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds remaining to win a game remembered for its final play, Troy Polamalu's fumble return touchdown that was incorrectly overturned by referee Scott Green and his crew.

Talk about unusual.

Despite having a 300-yard passer (Ben Roethlisberger), a 100-yard rusher (Willie Parker) and a 100-yard receiver (Ward), and outgunning San Diego 410-213, the Steelers never got into the end zone, at least on a play that counted. Obviously, the score wasn't all that was strange.

"We just didn't finish," wide receiver Santonio Holmes said. "It was all field goals. But in the playoffs, you've got to score touchdowns."

Maybe the Steelers got their weird game against San Diego out of their system before the playoffs this time.

In the most disappointing loss of the Bill Cowher era, the Steelers lost 17-13 to San Diego after leading by 10 in the 1995 AFC championship game. So much for the Super Bowl dance video they rehearsed a few days before.

In January 1983, San Diego came from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to beat Terry Bradshaw's Steelers 31-28 in the NFL's one-and-only tournament-format playoffs, after a players strike shut down the regular season for two months.

Those remain the Chargers' only two victories in Pittsburgh in 15 attempts.

"All the records don't mean anything right now," Steelers right tackle Willie Colon said. "You've just go to be able to match their intensity. They've got a swagger about them, you can see it on the tape, they're bouncing around and yelling, so it's going to be an intense game."

Not letting Darren Sproles play as he did against Indianapolis, with 105 yards rushing and 328 total yards, is a necessity for Pittsburgh. Making sure wide receiver Vincent Jackson's head is into the game, following his arrest on a drunken driving-related charge, is one for San Diego.

Sproles had only one carry against Pittsburgh on Nov. 16 but - despite being only 5-foot-6 - is taking on an increasingly bigger role in the offense with 1,100-yard rusher LaDainian Tomlinson limping on a sore groin.

"It's really hard to hit him and hard to see where he's at," Parker said. "He makes moves, does everything a running back's supposed to do, and he's small."

The Steelers not only need to find Sproles, but their own game as well. This is their first meaningful contest since a 31-14 loss at Tennessee on Dec. 21 cost them home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. They finished 12-4, compared to San Diego's 8-8.

That's three weeks without worrying whether they won or lost, and - despite the Steelers' 10-1 record in divisional home games - it sometimes takes time to regain that, "Hey, this counts" attitude.

Ask the Colts, who lost to the Chargers last year and to the Steelers in January 2006 under similar circumstances.

Roethlisberger's concussion also is a Steelers worry.

He was injured in a game that meant nothing, a 31-0 rout of Cleveland on Dec. 28, and experienced headaches for nearly a week. Roethlisberger played possibly the worst game of his career, throwing four interceptions in Oakland in 2006, the last time he returned from a concussion.

"He's happy, he's walking around, Ben's fine. He's ready to play," Ward said. "We're going to ride him all the way we can."

Roethlisberger is likely to see considerably different looks from a Chargers defense he picked apart while going 31-of-41 for 308 yards in November. At the time, San Diego had just changed defensive coordinators, from Ted Cottrell to Ron Rivera.

"We are going to have to be ready for everything," Roethlisberger said.

Then there's this to consider for those who would dismiss the Chargers' chances: A year ago this weekend, they were seen as no more likely to win in Indianapolis than they are now in Pittsburgh.

"Both teams are going to be out-of-their-minds excited for this game," Chargers coach Norv Turner said.

-- Alan Robinson