After two weeks of hype, Bucs and Eagles are ready

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers know enough about each other. Now, it's time to play a game that really matters.

After spending two weeks preparing, and even playing a meaningless game last weekend, the Eagles and Bucs meet again in an NFC wild-card playoff game today.

"We know what type of game it's going to be," Bucs coach Tony Dungy said. "We had a taste of it up there last year. We know that it's difficult to win on the road. We know what we have to do."

This is a rematch of last year's playoff game that Philadelphia won 21-3. The Eagles' backups and third-stringers came back to beat the Bucs 17-13 in Tampa last week to finish 11-5 for the second straight season.

The memory of a 20-10 loss to the New York Giants in the second round last season still lingers for some of the Eagles.

"It's something this year we had in the back of our minds that maybe we were one or two plays away from moving on," Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said. "You want to go out to the game focused on your job and taking it one play at a time, and then turning it into something big. If you do that, you can turn things around for your team."

The most discussed topic this week was the weather because Tampa has never won a game when it's been 40 degrees or colder at kickoff. The Bucs are 0-20 in such conditions, including an overtime loss to Green Bay on the final day of the regular season last year, when it was 15 degrees.

The temperature is expected to be close to 40 degrees today.

"Once you let it enter your mind, in the back of your mind you are going to be thinking, 'Man, I'm going to be cold. I'm going to be freezing,'" Bucs defensive tackle Steve White said.