Lost weekend is not on their minds

BRIAN WESTBROOK said this week that if the Eagles don't win tomorrow when they take on the visiting New York Giants in a first-round NFC playoff game, everything good they've done to this point is erased.

That's the reflexive response in sports; anything less than a championship is failure.

"If you ain't first, you're last," as Gary Cole taught Will Ferrell in "Talledega Nights." But in the movie, Ricky Bobby's father ended up declaring he'd been wrong about that.

The Eagles did not come into this season picked by virtually anybody to win the Super Bowl. They've survived losing their most high-profile offensive (Donovan McNabb) and defensive (Jevon Kearse) players. They've fallen apart, dropping five of six, and then put themselves back together, winning their last five games and mounting an unlikely charge to the postseason behind soon-to-be-37-year-old Jeff Garcia. Much of the fan base doesn't seem to consider losing even a remote possibility, but of course, it could happen. So if the Giants come out on top tomorrow, everything the Eagles have been through is moot?

Some players interviewed yesterday agreed it would be, more or less. On the eve of battle, nobody wants to appear anything other than resolute. But some players acknowledged that as bad as losing would be, if it happened, they would still take something out of this journey; they would not consider it a waste of their time.

A reporter began the day by asking coach Andy Reid his thoughts on the matter, knowing Reid would be about as likely to seriously ponder the question as he would be to march in a wench brigade this morning.

"I haven't thought about that. I really don't want to think about that," Reid said. "I'll answer that after the last game."

A positive answer came easier for running back Correll Buckhalter, who started and finished a season for the first time since 2003. Buckhalter has missed three of his six Eagles seasons with knee injuries.

"I think it would [be a success]," Buckhalter said. "Whenever a team makes the playoffs, the season's a success, because there's 20 teams at home. That's an accomplishment within itself, right there. After the Donovan injury, a lot of people counted us out, never thought we'd get to the point we're at right now... I've just been blessed and fortunate to be able to come back and make it through a full season."

Right guard Shawn Andrews more or less agreed.

"That's kind of a trick question. We've done some great things," said Andrews, who is going to his first Pro Bowl next month. "We've had an up-and-down season, but I think the good outweighs the bad."

Strong safety Sean Considine disagreed.

"No," he said. "Anytime you start the year, clearly, you talk about making the playoffs, but around here, the ultimate goal is to do something that hasn't been done in a while. If we lose this weekend, then obviously, that didn't get done, and it would be hard to call the season a success in my eyes."

Right guard Todd Herremans voted with Considine. Even though Herremans certainly accomplished something -- moving to guard, proving he's an NFL starter in his second season -- "it's not an individual sport," he said. "In the big picture, we're out here to accomplish our goals."

Wide receiver Hank Baskett began his NFL journey signing with the Vikings as an undrafted free agent last spring, then was quickly traded to the Eagles for Billy McMullen -- possibly the first time in NFL history an undrafted rookie has been traded before playing a game. Then he made the Eagles and caught 87- and 89-yard TD passes, the league's longest this season. But Baskett took the Reid view.

"I'm not even willing to comment on that one. We don't plan on that happening," Baskett said. "I'll be able to answer after this weekend."

Then Baskett reflected and relented.

"It's been a successful season for this team," he said.

Perhaps the most thoughtful and extensive response came from linebacker Shawn Barber, who has never won a championship but has played in a lot of situations -- in Washington, with the Eagles in 2002, then with Kansas City for 3 years before returning last spring.

"Not an option," Barber said, when asked what he'd think if the Birds lost. "Failure is not an option in this dojo.

"I gauge our success on how we perform each week. As long as we're performing better than we did the week before, it's hard to say you're not successful. I think that's what coaches look for, for a team to grow throughout a season, the team to be peaking at the end of the year, and I think that's what Andy Reid has done this year.

"We kept progressing toward what we thought would be a team to be reckoned with in the playoffs. I think we're at a position where we're just as good as, if not better than, anybody we're going to be facing throughout the playoffs and in the Super Bowl.

"I've always looked at things more in terms of, not success, but respect. Each season, the only team that really gets respect is the team that wins it all... players in this league, we play the game for respect. We want to think that the time we've sacrificed away from our families, away from our friends, we would like to think that sacrifice has a payoff. To me, the payoff is respect. And only one team gets that respect."

Barber then started to sound a lot like Ricky Bobby's father, the early version.

"I'm not shooting for second-best," he said. "I didn't say, 'Let's work hard enough to be second-best this year. Let's be divisional champs this year.' When I signed on here, all the time I put in in the offseason to get my body ready to play, all the film study every week, it was for one reason. To be champs. We expect to be champs."

Birdseed

Left offensive tackle William "Tra" Thomas sat out practice yesterday with knee inflammation, Andy Reid said. Reid said he expected Thomas would be OK for the game. He was listed as probable on the injury report... Reid is one of three coach-of-the-year candidates on NFL.com, to be voted on by fans. He joins the Jets' Eric Mangini and New Orleans' Sean Payton... The Lincoln Financial Field ticket office will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today if you need to pick up your tickets for tomorrow... Because it's a busy day tomorrow down at the sports complex, fans are urged to arrive early... New York still lists tight end Jeremy Shockey as questionable with an ankle injury, but he practiced again and seems likely to play. "I think Jeremy has made good progress," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "He brings that extra vitality and enthusiasm part of it. It will mean a lot to our players in the huddle to have him"... The Giants have lost their last three playoff games, and are 3-13 on the road in the postseason... The Eagles have never beaten the Giants in the playoffs (0-2) and they've lost their last five playoff games against divisional rivals... The Eagles have only played a divisional rival in the playoffs once when the Birds were divisional champions, though. That was the 1980 season, when they beat some team from Texas, the Eagles powered by a running back who was pretty good. Wilfred? Willard? Wilt? Something like that.