Quintin Mikell

Quintin Mikell's voice caught in his throat, his eyes filled. A tear spilled out. Mikell, an eight-year veteran who rose from undrafted free agent to special-teams contributor to starting safety, defensive leader and mentor in the secondary, may have just played his last game with the team that gave him his first shot, the only one he has ever played for. He fought to contain his emotions when talking to reporters Monday. "It's tough because it's all I've known since I've been in the league.

LIKE HIS MENTOR, Brian Dawkins, Quintin Mikell loves this city. He loves the Eagles. Like his mentor, Mikell's emotions got the better of him when he considered he might have played his final game for both. A tear formed in Mikell's left eye, then in his right, when asked about his immediate future as a free agent in a league facing a lockout. "That's not something I really want to think about right now," he said. "It is what it is. Hopefully, it gets worked out. And we'll go from there.

Same story, different verse for the Eagles' defense yesterday. The same problems that have been plaguing Sean McDermott's young unit most of the season, plagued the Eagles again in their season-ending, 21-16, wild-card loss to the Packers at the Linc. More red-zone futility. More third-down woes. More trouble getting a consistent pass rush on the quarterback. "All year, it's been the same story," said safety Quintin Mikell. "When we play confident and when we attack and we're not thinking, we can play with anybody.

Right tackle Winston Justice found himself on the bench for the most critical stretch of the Eagles' wild-card playoff game Sunday, benched after drawing three penalties on two plays late in the third quarter. The flags pushed the Eagles back 15 yards after they started with good field position, first down on their own 46-yard line. "We had a couple penalties, and so I thought a little change might help," coach Andy Reid said after the game. Justice sat alone on the bench as King Dunlap went in at right tackle.

There was still time. Those were Quintin Mikell's words in early December about the problem that wouldn't go away, the continuing Eagles' failure to stop anybody in the red zone. "We've still got a lot of time left," Mikell said back then. Sunday night, Mikell had an update: "It came back to bite us. " It should be news to no one after Sunday's 21-16 loss to Green Bay in an NFC first-round playoff game at Lincoln Financial Field that the Eagles had the worst red-zone defense in the NFL this year - allowing opponents to score at a historically easy rate, on 97.7 percent of their possessions on either a touchdown or a field goal.

The game-day media packets are full of all sorts of random information. Included in Sunday's wild-card offering was a section called "behind the scenes with Big Red. " It listed, among other things, Andy Reid's favorite flick. After another disappointing playoff loss, after another season where the Eagles got our hopes up once more only to crush them yet again in abject fashion, it's all too fitting that Reid is a fan of The Sting . The title of the film pretty much sums up what Birds fans feel today - and following almost every season.

Quintin Mikell saw it coming. Before the cameras started rolling and the microphones started recording, before the first notes were jotted down, and well before any questions were asked, he told the reporters packed in tight around his NovaCare Complex locker to wait. Mikell turned his back on the media horde - something the cautious would advise against - and paused. Then he put on a hat. The multitoned cap he selected wasn't fancy or expensive, but it was unique. It was stamped with the Eagles' logo, along with "2010 NFC East Division Champions.

If this is the year the Eagles finally win a Super Bowl, the defense will have to make history. That's because no team has won the title after allowing as many points in the regular season as these Eagles, who gave up an average of 23.6 per game. In fact, only one team has even reached the Super Bowl while surrendering as many; the 2008 Cardinals yielded an average of 26.6 per game and made it to the show but lost when they couldn't stop a late Steelers drive. The 2006 Colts gave up an average of 22.5 points per game in the regular season and still took home the title.

Now that Eagles fans have witnessed DeSean Jackson's exclamation point at the end of Miracle at the Meadowlands II, Fourth and 26 - much like the two players who engineered it - has lost a little luster here. But Sunday, when the Eagles and Green Bay Packers meet in an NFL playoff game for the first time since that maddeningly memorable afternoon seven years ago, it will be difficult to overlook the improbable salvation wrought by 74 Double Go. "I just remember being on the sidelines," said safety Quintin Mikell, a rookie that day, Jan. 11, 2004.

Quintin Mikell isn't a hat guy. Yesterday, Mikell held court in front of his locker wearing the black and white cap that proclaimed the Eagles the 2010 NFC East champions. It was a statement: It seems every national talking head on the airwaves is picking the wild-card Packers to win in Philadelphia on Sunday. Sports Illustrated sent out a press release yesterday touting NFL writer Peter King's prediction. A straw poll of venerable Daily News prognosticators revealed a decided Green Bay bias.