To a man, the Eagles players who took the field for their last game against the New England Patriots agree that Super Bowl 39 is the last thing they can afford to be thinking about this week.

For guys like Brian Dawkins and Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook, nothing could be less relevant than the events of 33 months ago in Jacksonville, Fla. Not that you'd ever get them to admit it, but right now they're probably just trying to figure out how they can recover from what will happen to them Sunday night in Gillette Stadium and still make a legitimate run at the playoffs.

Of course, in the cases of McNabb and Dawkins, they might also be wondering whether their Eagles careers are about to enter their final month. But that's another story for another time.

"It's been a couple of years and we've had a lot of things that have gone on since the time we played them last," Dawkins said after last Sunday's dogfight with the winless Dolphins. "This is just going to be a game for us to go out against a team you can't make a lot of mistakes against, and we know that."

"At this point," McNabb mused, "it doesn't really matter who you play. You just have to be ready to play."

Now those are words to live by.

But as necessary as it is for the players to stick to that just-another-game litany, certainly this game — or at least the context surrounding it — must keep the wheels turning overtime for guys like Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner and yes, Andy Reid. Unless they're really as obsessively profit-driven as their more cynical fans believe them to be.

When the Eagles finally made it back to the Super Bowl for the first time in 27 years, the big cigars took a lot of pride in not only their success but also their system. They presented it as The Grand Design that would keep them in championship contention year after year, with the perfect balance of caponomics and talent flow. But the obvious truth here is that since their 24-21 loss to New England in AllTel Stadium, these are two franchises moving in opposite directions.

Fact: New England's record since Supe 39 is 35-12 overall, including a four-point loss to the eventual champion Colts in last year's AFC final, and this season's 10-0 march that has people comparing them with the greatest teams in NFL history.

Fact: The Eagles are 22-22 during the same time span, with a division title last year that served as testimony to their character. But barring a small miracle, they will miss the playoffs this year for the second time in three seasons.

Add the backdrop of their respective conferences — New England continuing to thrive in the stronger AFC while the Eagles run adrift in the NFC — and the gap appears even wider than the numbers indicate.

Sure, there were breaks that went against the Eagles. The Terrell Owens gamble paid off quickly, then blew up in their faces. Look at Owens now, bringing what appears to be a more mature approach to his job, and it's easy to say the timing wasn't quite right for the Eagles. Look at what Randy Moss is doing in New England, after his misadventures with two other clubs, and it seems the timing was just about perfect for the Pats.

But just as the Eagles didn't play in four straight NFC title games by being lucky, New England isn't headed for its fourth Super Bowl in seven years on a run of good guesses.

(And if you feel the need to trot out Videogate here, go ahead and indulge yourself. Just remember to ask yourself how well the Eagles would have fared with the same advantage.)

No, it's really about talent. New England's receivers in the Super Bowl were guys named Deion Branch, David Givens and Troy Brown; today, they are Moss, Donté Stallworth and Wes Welker. Try to name one phase of their team in which the Eagles have come close to matching that upgrade.

So if this game is causing the Birds' management to take stock, maybe they should start by re-evaluating Reid as a general manager. For all the praise heaped on Bill Belichick as a coach, New England GM Scott Pioli is also regarded as one of the best in the business. And haven't the Seahawks taken a turn for the better since Mike Holmgren's duties were restricted to coaching?

Meanwhile, here's a guess: New England 43, Eagles 17.

E-mail: jyoung@lnpnews.com