Less than a month ago, Andy Reid thought his team was finished. Walking off the field after his team's dreadful 10-3 loss to the Washington Redskins in FedEx Field, the Eagle's head coach was seen lamenting another lost season. It was only a few minutes later, after being informed by Philadelphia media, did Reid realize that there was an improbably scenario which his team could slip into the playoffs.

After yesterday's bone-chilling game at the Meadowlands, Reid probably didn't need anyone to tell him the course of his team. The highest hurdle has been jumped, and the Eagles are within an arm's reach of retracing the parade route another improbable Philadelphia team took a few short months ago, the Phillies.

They came in and beat the Giants on their own field. Donovan McNabb looked every inch a superstar quarterback, and the defense stuffed and stimmied the Giants offensive attack all day. Eli Manning looked like Eli Manning again, instead of the imposter who led the Giants to the title last year. In a grudge match for the ages, the Eagles played their best football of the season. Late in the fourth quarter, when the Giants desperately needed a score, they stepped up and played their best ball. The defense rose to the occasion, stopping the vaunted Giants running game on 4th downs, two series in a row.

These are the sort of moments that define a team. When a team turns the corner as the Eagles did yesterday on those 4th down beat downs, something changes. They go from being fortunate to being a team of destiny.

And so, onto the desert they move. The conquerer, Brian Dawkins, has been waiting for this moment, this team, for a decade. The nomad, Donovan McNabb, needs this to prove his legacy as a big-game QB, to prove once and for all, to everyone, that he is a championship caliber player, worthy of Philadelphia. The leader, Andy Reid, seems to be invested most of all. Disappointment after disappointment mounded, etching away at his credibility.