If you can take down mighty Brandon Jacobs and slow down the speedy Derrick Ward, then you've discovered the formula to beat the best team in Football.

"It starts up front," defensive end Trent Cole said Monday as the Eagles began preparing for Sunday's meeting with New York at Giants Stadium. "We want to stop that run."

The Eagles have good reason to think that way. When they played the Giants last month at Lincoln Financial Field, Jacobs and company ran over the Eagles' defense with the same speed, force and resistance of an 18-wheeler alone on an interstate highway at 3 a.m.

Jacobs carried 22 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Ward carried 17 times for 53 yards. Ahmad Bradshaw piled up 38 yards on just five carries. The Giants ran a season-high 45 times for 219 yards and won, 36-31.

Asked what impressed him most about the Giants, Quintin Mikell had a quick answer.

"Their running game," the Eagles' strong safety said. "They're patient with it."

Mikell said he saw that patience at work Sunday when the Giants kept running against the Washington Redskins even when they didn't have immediate success.

"You watch the first half, they were kind of getting stopped on the run a little bit," Mikell said. "But they kept pounding it and pounding it and, meanwhile, they're still throwing the ball for 300 yards. I was most impressed with how balanced they are."

Stop the run and you still might not be able to beat the Giants, because they have a lot more than a menacing backfield and a mauling offensive line.

Consider the Giants' Week 8 game in Pittsburgh. They ran the ball 35 times for just 83 yards against the NFL's No. 1 ranked defense, but still left Heinz Field with a 21-14 victory. That's because the Giants' defense is the best in the NFC, and it intercepted Ben Roethlisberger four times.

Great defense is how the Giants stunned the New England Patriots in last year's Super Bowl, and they still have it this season even though they lost defensive ends Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora to retirement and injury.

"They do different things week in and week out," Eagles tackle Jon Runyan said. "Even since we've played them, they've thrown a few new things in. They're going to do things to confuse you. That's the object of it. You just have to prepare to deal with it and not let people run through."

There's no doubt that the strength of the Giants' offense is its running game, but if you focus too much on stopping the run, you could find yourself being beaten by quarterback Eli Manning even without troubled star receiver Plaxico Burress.

Manning doesn't beat opponents with big numbers. He hadn't passed for 300 yards in a game before Sunday's win over the Redskins. It's the little numbers that have made Manning so good. He's thrown only eight interceptions this season, and three of those came in the Giants' Week 6 loss at Cleveland. No team besides the Browns has been able to force Manning into making multiple mistakes, which used to be the best way to beat the Giants.

It still might be the best way, but Manning is more likely to pick apart his opponent than give a game away. The quarterback learned during his team's miraculous postseason run last season that if he protects the Football, the Giants' running game and defense will get the job done. In his last 16 games dating to the Giants' playoff run, Manning has thrown 25 touchdowns and just nine interceptions.

"Any time you win a Super Bowl, you're going to have confidence," Mikell said. "They're 11-1. You can be confident all day long when you're 11-1 and you're Super Bowl champs."

Runyan said he's most impressed that the Giants have been able to play so well after winning the Super Bowl. He said that is even more amazing than their ability to overcome the distractions from Burress, who was arrested Monday in New York after shooting himself in the leg at a Manhattan nightclub Friday.

"Everybody is out there trying to knock them off," Runyan said. "I think that's really the impressive part. I think that's more important than the distraction part because they can't have a letdown. You're going to get everybody's best shot."

The Eagles get another shot at the Giants on Sunday, and they know they need to make the most of it.

"This is the most important game of the year," Mikell said. "It's our Super Bowl, so we have to come out and play. If we're serious about getting into the playoffs, we have to win from here on out. Every week our back is against the wall, so we have to come out fighting."

Westbrook honored. Brian Westbrook will be named the NFC offensive player of the week today for his performance Thursday night during the Eagles' 48-20 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Westbrook ran 22 times for 110 yards and caught three passes for 20 yards. He also scored four touchdowns, two each rushing and receiving. This is Westbrook's second award for offensive player of the week. He won the award for special-teams player of the week for his game-winning punt return against the Giants in 2003.

Twins for McNabb. Donovan McNabb's wife Roxie gave birth to a girl and a boy yesterday, NBC10 reported. The McNabbs also have a 4-year-old daughter, Alexis.

Read Bob Brookover's daily Eagles blog, Birds' Eye View, at http://go.philly.

com/Eagles.

Eagles

at Giants

Sunday at 1 p.m.

TV: Fox29

Radio:

WIP-AM (610), WYSP-FM (94.1)

Line: Giants by 7

Inside Six suspended for anti-doping violations. D6.

Contact staff writer Bob Brookover at 215-854-2577 or bbrookover@phillynews.com.