With the Eagles miraculously in the postseason and favored to advance beyond today's wild-card game against the Minnesota Vikings, Buckhalter was asked New Year's Day what could possibly go wrong for his team inside the Metrodome.

"A lot of people didn't think we could lose to the Redskins," Buckhalter said. "If you don't take the right approach preparing through the week, anything can happen to you on Sunday. We can't have the mind-set that the Vikings are a pushover. That's not true."

Indeed, the Vikingsare comparable to the Redskins, who twice beat the Eagles this season and forced them to rely on the unlikely sequence of events that unfolded a week ago today. Minnesota also beat the NFC's top two seeds ? the New York Giants and Carolina ? inside the Metrodome this season and finished 6-2 on its home field.

Like the Redskins, the Vikings have a strong defense and an offense that relies heavily on the run. The Redskins finished the season as the NFL's 19th-ranked offense, but eighth in rushing. The Vikings finished 17th, but fifth in rushing, thanks to Adrian Peterson, the league's leading rusher.

Washington was eighth in the NFL in yards allowed on defense; Minnesota finished sixth, thanks in large part to the large men ? Kevin Williams and Pat Williams -- who play defensive tackle for them. No team in the league is tougher to run against than the Vikings.

The Eagles obviously don't want a repeat of what happened at FedEx Field, so what's the best way to prevent that infamous afternoon from repeating itself?

"I don't think there was a letdown when we played the Redskins," Buckhalter said. "People on the outside just automatically thought we were going to win that game, but it doesn't work that way in the NFL. We just didn't play good. It's as simple as that. You can't look for excuses."

If you examine the Eagles' 9-6-1 season, the formula for victory was often the same.

Offensively, it's imperative for the Eagles to get off to a quick start. That doesn't necessarily mean they have to score a touchdown or even kick a field goal on their first possession. It's a matter of showing that they can move the Football in the first half.

In their hideous tie at Cincinnati and their losses at Baltimore and Washington, the Eagles' offense ran three plays or fewer 62 percent of the time in the first half. The Eagles' failure to move the Football in the first half of those games was followed by one of two things in the second half of those games. The Eagles either threw a lot more in the second half or quarterback Donovan McNabb was benched. In each of those games, the offense continued to struggle in the second half.

By contrast, the Eagles got off to good starts in wins over Arizona, the Giants, Cleveland and Dallas while winning four of their last five games. This has been a good front-running team all season and, with the exception of a game in San Francisco, the Eagles have not been good at staging rallies.

The Eagles were 8-1 in games decided by more than seven points this season and they led at halftime in all nine of their victories. They were 1-5-1 in games decided by fewer than seven points and 0-4-1 when they trailed at the half.

"I don't think it's necessarily about getting Brian [Westbrook] going early," McNabb said. "I think it's more about the offense getting going early. It's important that we start out fast whether it's passing or running. I think any time you get into the mode of just trying to run, run, run just because everybody wants you to run, it takes away from what you're doing."

McNabb is right. If the Eagles struggle to run against the best run defense in the NFL, then it's going to be up to the quarterback and receivers to make plays. It was the inability of the quarterback and his receivers to make plays that ultimately cost the Eagles the game against Washington.

Defensively, the Eagles' plan is simple. If they can become the seventh team this season to hold running back Adrian Peterson to fewer than 100 yards rushing, they have an outstanding chance of winning. The Vikings were just a .500 team ? 3-3 ? when Peterson failed to run for 100 yards.

The Eagles allowed five opponents to run for more than 100 yards and they lost four of those games, including both to the Redskins.

Though it's an obvious thing, McNabb mentioned how important turnovers and ball control will also be if the Eagles are to make a playoff run beginning today in Minneapolis. A year ago, the Giants had just two turnovers in their four playoff wins and were a plus-five in the turnover differential department. New York also won the time of possession battle in three of their four playoff games.

"We've been in playoff mode for a long time now," Eagles safety Brian Dawkins said. "In our minds, we could not afford to lose one game. Yes, we lost one game against Washington, which almost cost us, but in our mind it was playoff game after playoff game each week."

As it turned out, the Eagles got a mulligan for that loss against the Redskins. They know they're out of them now.

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

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Complete coverage, E2-7.

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