Manning took the snap.
Manning pushed into a pile of humanity.
The pile pushed back. Immediately.
"It was hard to see much," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "Because it looked like a mosh pit in there. But we got penetration."
"All I know," said Patterson, laughing, "is that we got what we needed."
Later, they stopped the Giants on a fourth-and-2 near midfield.
This time Jacobs got the ball and this time Bunkley definitely got to him first.
Fourth down, third down - unlike so many of the playoff games this weekend, there was nothing fluky about the latest edition of this smash-mouthed rivalry. There was nothing left in the hands of an official or an incredibly terrible quarterback. Manning wasn't very good and Donovan McNabb was just a little better, but this was the kind of game where it was easy to see what coaches like to talk about every week:
The line of scrimmage.
And during the Eagles' winter surge, said Reid, "It starts with those two . . . And it goes from there."
The Giants converted three of their 13 third downs, mirroring their futility the last time these teams played on Dec. 7. All week long when Giants coach Tom Coughlin was asked, he pointed to those downs as the reason the Giants played so flat in their 20-14 regular-season loss here, often with a wry smile that suggested their intensity would be different this time.
It was. And it didn't matter. Bunkley was credited with five tackles, Patterson three, but those numbers really make a mockery of their importance. There were no fumble recoveries, no tipped passes, nothing to notice except when the Giants' offensive line, the engine to the No. 1 rushing attack this season, stood still after key snaps, or went backwards even.
