Justin Tuck chuckled when he was asked if the Philadelphia Eagles are this year's version of the New York Giants, a low-seeded wild-card team that can go all the way.

"The Giants from last year are in that locker room over there," New York's Pro Bowl defensive end said, nodding toward the large space 100 yards or so down the hall from the room at Giants Stadium where he was talking.

"The team in Philadelphia," Tuck said, "is the Eagles of this year."

The scene sets a compelling second-round NFL playoff matchup, the third meeting of the season between the defending champions and their NFC East rivals from 90 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike.

As Philadelphia is trying to do this year, New York had to win three road games before upsetting unbeaten New England 17-14 in Arizona in the Super Bowl.

The Eagles and Giants, who will play Sunday in the Meadowlands, split their two games this season with Philadelphia handing New York its only home loss, 20-14 Dec. 7. It was a game that some of the Eagles think was their best this season, and the Giants consider one of their worst. It came the week after Plaxico Burress, the Giants' main receiving threat, shot himself in the leg accidentally and was suspended by the team for the rest of the season.

What also makes it compelling is the nature of the NFC East, probably the consistently best division in the NFL for the last 25 years. It has had eight teams in the playoffs the last three seasons and, from 1990-1992, had three teams win Super Bowls: the Giants, Washington and Dallas.

Philadelphia is the only division team without a Super Bowl victory — Dallas has five and New York and Washington three each. But for most of this decade, with Donovan McNabb at quarterback, the Eagles have been consistently good — losing to New England by three points in the 2004 title game, reaching four conference championship games and missing the postseason just twice.

The Eagles (10-6-1) enter having won five of six, including last week's 26-14 first-round victory in Minnesota. New York, by contrast, finished 1-3 after an 11-1 start, although its only December victory — over second-seeded Carolina — clinched home-field advantage for the playoffs.

In any case, the familiarity makes this a chess match between Reid and Giants coach Tom Coughlin as well as the tacticians: offensive coordinators Kevin Gilbride of the Giants and Marty Mornhinweg of the Eagles and defensive coordinators Jim Johnson of Philadelphia and Steve Spagnuolo of New York, who honed his skills as the Eagles' linebackers coach for eight years.

The Cardinals are the only team that wasn't supposed to be here, 4-7 outside the weak NFC West and 0-5 in the Eastern time zone.But they upset Atlanta last week because Kurt Warner made fewer mistakes and more big plays than Offensive Rookie of the Year Matt Ryan, and their defense was unusually stout.The turning point was Darnell Dockett's disruption of a handoff early in the second half that popped the ball into the hands of Antrel Rolle, who returned it for a touchdown in a 30-24 win."Instead of having guys trying to individually make plays, we had a bunch of guys that were focused on playing team defense," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "That's what we've talked about."The Cardinals' offense will have to be at full throttle if Arizona hopes to beat Carolina. Warner, who threw for 381 yards in a 23-17 loss in Charlotte, has the best receiving trio in the NFL: Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston. Boldin, however, is nursing a hamstring he pulled on a 71-yard touchdown catch last week and will possibly have to play on a slippery field. There's a 40 percent chance of showers in Charlotte on Saturday.Carolina took advantage of its bye week to heal up. Starting defensive tackles Maake Kemoeatu and Damione Lewis should be back and so should rookie Jeff Otah, the starting right tackle on offense.