Even though no one paid it much mind, Todd Herremans has been trying to tell people the same thing all season long.

Now that they have qualified for the playoffs, the Eagles and their starting guard have the NFC's undivided attention.

Philadelphia enters the postseason tournament as one of the scarier teams still alive, which comes as no surprise to Herremans and the Eagles.

"I think it just shows how versatile we are," Herremans said. "It's great to see other players besides (running back) Brian (Westbrook) and (quarterback) Donovan (McNabb) carrying the team. But it just shows how many weapons we have. I've been saying this all year, we're a solid team. We're a good team. If everything gets rolling the right way, we're a team to be reckoned with. One game at a time; here we go. We all got the same record."

Fellow offensive lineman Jon Runyan couldn't agree more, especially with the way the team has played over the past five weeks.

He was particularly stoked after the way the Eagles defeated Dallas on Sunday.

"I few keep playing like that, we're going to do a lot of damage," Runyan said. "That's going to be the biggest thing, preparing to keep playing like that. It's just a matter of not hurting ourselves, because that performance right out there, that was one of the top ones I've seen around here."

The Eagles won the time of possession battle, out-gained the Cowboys on the ground and converted half of their third-down chances. That's a pretty good formula for success in the postseason.

That's not considering the fact that the Eagles put up 44 points on a defense that was ranked eighth in the NFL entering the final game of the regular season.

"I think we can be pretty intimidating," offensive tackle Tra Thomas said. "I think our defense is just so air-tight right now. As long as we do our thing on the offensive side, continue to burn down the clock and put points on the board, I don't think our defense will let us lose."

The defense, which ended the regular season as the NFC's best, has been playing at an elite level for the past month.

Defensive end Chris Clemons, who had his best game as an Eagle last Sunday, said fate has something big in store for this team.

"We knew it was our destiny to be in the playoffs," Clemons said. "Watching those games early in the day, watching Oakland beat Tampa, watching Chicago lose to Houston, we knew we needed those two games to go down. Once that happened, we knew what we had to do.

"Hey, maybe this is our year. Maybe we're just fortunate. We knew we had to believe to have a chance to go out and play this game."

While many fans had lost faith, the Eagles themselves did not. It's one of the reasons the team is four wins away from accomplishing its ultimate goal.

"The reward is at the end," Runyan said. "There's not a lot of stuff that goes on before that. Just keep plugging away. You have to play well but you also need luck on your side. It seems to be on our side right now so let's keep it that way."

Perhaps the Eagles are peaking at the right time.

"That's a good thing," Clemons said. "That's what you want going into the playoffs, to be a team that's going up not coming down.

"Anything goes in the playoffs. Everybody's scary. Everybody's a good team that's in the playoffs. Everybody has their ups and downs during the season. But once you get in the playoffs, everybody's slate is wiped clean."

How scary are the Eagles entering the playoffs?

"As scary as we let ourselves be," Herremans said.